TheAZGOP is actively working against us in school board races.
Let’s start with the backstory. For the past few decades in Arizona, the Republicans have held the majority in the legislature and the governor’s office. Look at the issues in our schools. Who’s responsible?
I understand that many of The People only recently became aware, but our legislators don’t have the luxury of that excuse. They were educated about these issues as they were asked to support proposed legislation to combat it. We couldn’t get the bills passed with a Republican majority. In many cases, we couldn’t even get the bills heard or given a vote.
Republican legislators were not upholding the party principles, so naturally, we sought help from the state party. The AZGOP claimed to be powerless to do anything more than offer the advice for us to pass a resolution at the annual state meeting. Done….and, nothing.
I was told by Kelli Ward, herself, that the state party simply “could not get involved.”
Fast forward to today. President Trump brought the issue of Critical Race Theory to national attention. The “pandemic” woke even more parents up. Education became the hottest issue in politics. And the clowns in the AZGOP are pretending to care now and are acting like they’re leading.
Before, they howled about school board races being non-partisan, so there was simply no way they could possibly help. I’m not too proud to say that there was begging involved, to which the answer was a resounding, “NO.”
But now that everything we told them, everything we warned them about, has proved true, including the fact that voters support our efforts, so they want to position themselves as leaders. Now that they think it’ll help them win elections. Now they’ll trip their own grandmother and step on her to launch themselves into her spot on the bandwagon.
Great! It’s a big issue with a lot of problems and we need all the help we can get. All help is welcome. The keyword, though, is help.
Let’s look at the help that the AZGOP is giving.
Hoping to capitalize on the popularity of education as a political issue, the AZGOP started offering training for school board candidates. (Notice that I did not say, for the children and parents — that was intentional.) It seems that it no longer matters that school board races are non-partisan. (Mental note)
School board candidates that get elected would be in a position to have the districts that they serve join school board associations at taxpayer expense. So it’s interesting that the First Vice Chair of the AZGOP, wait, now that the state party formed as an LLC, she’s the Executive Director of the Republican Party of Arizona, Pam Kirby, founded a school board member association.
Is there a better way to solidify the relationship between the state party and this new school board member union than to have the Executive Director as the Board President and Founder? Yes. Yes there is. — Hire the daughter of the state party chairwoman as the Executive Director, despite her total lack of experience in AZ K12 education. Enter Katie Ward…
Good business plan.
Add to it a completely unethical conflict of interest for the Executive Director of the Republican Party of Arizona to influence the selection of school board candidates for the “golden tickets” of LDs. And now you have the reprehensible action that your Republican state party is currently undertaking.
The state party, led by communication directly from Pam Kirby, is directly opposing the will, and straw polls, of the Precinct Committeemen. Knowing full well the inherent risk of splitting votes between conservatives, they are demanding the inclusion of ALL candidates that claim to be republicans on the golden ticket of each LD.
The Paradise Valley Unified School District has 3 seats up in this election. There are 5 Rs running. LD3 held a forum and a straw poll in which the PCs voted to select the 3 candidates that they support. The idea being to include those 3 candidate’s names on the golden ticket so that the R vote is not split to allow a leftist to win. The winners were Eddy Jackson, Sandra Christensen, and Lisa Farr. The non-winners were RedForEd teacher, Sheryl Evenson and censured Susan Matura.
Word on the street is that Ms Evenson is a member of the Arizona Coalition of School Board Members. Is her potential fealty worth the risk of losing a conservative majority on the PVUSD school board? Apparently it is to some people.
PVUSD is in both LD3 and LD4. Both LD Executive Boards are caving to the pressure from the authoritarian, top-down, corrupt state party leadership. Stifling the voices of Precinct Committeemen is par for the course from the state party. And leaving our children to suffer in schools run by radicals is acceptable collateral damage.
The corruption is obvious when you consider that the same rules are not being applied evenly across the board in every LD, with every candidate, in every school district.
You’d think that one thing that all conservatives could agree on would be that our kids come first. Political and personal gain should be set aside. The actions of the state party establishment and the bad actors from the Chair down to the LD boards are disgusting and intolerable. Any discussion of bylaws is merely cover for cowardice. I have yet to see the bylaw that prohibits supporting the PC choices on the LD’s golden ticket. And an argument can be made that if it is truly the object to, “support and elect Republican candidates who promote Republican ideals,” than it is the duty of the LD to vet each candidate and support, promote and help to elect those chosen by the PCs that best reflect the principles of the party.
Yet, here is LD4 actively working against The People for purely political purposes.
Notice that not every Republican candidate in the Scottsdale school board race is listed. Your corruption is showing. Shame on the AZGOP! Please stop helping.