Local Elections: School Board, District 5

So from now on I'm going to attempt to post my research on local elections. Most people don't pay much attention to local issues so I figure this can add some value to the blog. To start off, we'll be looking at races in the Democratic primary for Brevard County, FL taking place August 26, 2008.

First off: the Non-Partisan office, School Board Member, District 5.

Margie Kinder

Wow, this one is a doozy. DO NOT vote for this lady... please, I'm begging you. Why? Well for starters, check out her myspace page. This is impossible to read! And what's with the babies? That's just creepy. But seriously, bad myspace formatting aside, if you keep scrolling you'll eventually see pictures of Charlie Christ (UPDATE: and Mitt Romney!) at a Young Republicans meeting and someone called the "Fair Tax Babe." Ok... yeah, this is scary. But it's the school board right... a nonpartisian position... I mean, her campaign page probably isn't that bad.

NOPE! Check out some of these "issues":

• I support charter and Magnet schools as a way to promote public school choice (Pretty good so far...) and the school voucher program (No! ahh, fail) as a way to promte competition between public and private schools.
• I oppose the adoptions of text books that include historical revisions or political correctness. (What does this mean? "Politically correct" is usually a republican code word)
• I oppose the concept of "social promotion"
• I oppose the involuntary use of teachers' union dues to support or fund candidate for politcial oice (Yes, this is copied straight from her web site) or their campaigns.
• I support the "Be there Program" for the increase of parent involvement. I DO NOT believe it takes a village to raies a child as my opponent Andy Zeigler states on his brochures and website. (Really, Zeigler says that? Wow, I might vote for him now)
  
• I oppose state income taxes. (What does this have to do with the School Board?)
  
• I support less government and bureaucracy. (Yes, clearly we spend too much on education...)

So yeah, please, don't vote for her.

Stuart Rowan

Ok, first off, I'm not sure I can vote for a guy who wears this tie:

But seriously, about all I can find on this guy is that he's an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene which is an evangelical denomination. While I find all evangelicals scary, I think this is especially scary when you're talking about a position like the school board. His campaign page is rather boring and his "issues" page are things that I think most people would agree with. He's clearly playing it safe - which is more of what I expect from someone running for a local nonpartisan office. So I'm not sure what to say about this guy - could be really bad, but he might be the best of our options because this next guy...

Andy Ziegler

is even more openly religious than the Nazarene guy because he believes "we need to share our resources, training, and opportunities with all schools including Charter schools, Religious, Pre-K and Early Intervention Programs." Yeah, sounds a little unconstitutional to me - but hey - Bush has gotten away with his faith-based thing - maybe Ziegler can do it too.

On the other hand, the rest of his campaign web site is pretty uncontroversial and guess what - he's a Software Engineer (degree from FIT). He never worked for Harris but his page does say he was awarded the coveted "Harris Preferred Supplier Award." That puts him in the same category as Jabil! Wait... is that a good thing?

Conclusion

So none of these people seem like particularly good options. I'm not sure what to recommend. Hannah thinks that Rowan is the least bad. Not sure what I think... Ziegler earns points for being a SW Engineer and the whole "it takes a village" thing that Kinder attacks him for - but his religious thing is scary and Rowan's a fucking minister. We have learned one thing though: don't vote for Kinder. Really, please.