DISQUS

rwitter · 1 month ago

Parents have repeatedly tried to be part of he process yet, DPS has been marginalizing and disenfranchising parents. I think Nate Easly and Andrea Merida were able to get to their constituents (smaller areas to walk) and convince them that they would include parents in whatever "reforms" are made. Chris Scott had the same message but was unable to cover the entire city, so marketing dollars won out. Also the Post, clearly aligned with the adminstration and willing to use scare tactics for the cause, came out very heavily against Scott in several columns.

pdth · 1 month ago

In Douglas County, the only thing that was "wrong" was that the flow of viable GOP candidates for partisan offices was drying up, largely because the School Board, like many local governments, was not controlled by the GOP and not producing a flow of fresh wackos to run for higher offices. Also, the district is the highest-performing in the state, which is prima facie evidence that the teachers — and by extension their union — must be too powerful.

Talking with activists in other counties, Douglas is not the only suburban county where the GOP has become active in non-partisan races. It seems to be a statewide phenomenon. The Democratic Party will need to decide whether it wants to respond in kind, or by some other strategy. Ignoring it does not appear to be a viable strategy.

The reason the GOP candidates won in Douglas County is the same reason this happened in other counties: the GOP turned out its right-wing voters, while the Democrats and parents stayed home.