Educating children is too imperative a mission to be subjected to political manipulation.
But that is the scenario in Pasco County after a neophyte write-in candidate for school superintendent emerged last week, raising the likelihood that the next person to head Pasco's public school district will be chosen in an election open to less than half the registered voters in the county.
The ploy in putting James Griffin, the 33-year-old son of a Republican Executive Committee member, on the November ballot as a write-in candidate is intended to disenfranchise 150,000 Democratic and nonpartisan voters and to enhance the election chances of state Rep. Heather Fiorentino.
Fiorentino and fellow Republican Chuck Rushe, the school district's financial officer, are the only announced candidates. No Democrat is expected to run. Griffin's write-in candidacy limits the Aug. 31 primary election exclusively to registered Republican voters.
Voters have until Aug. 2 to pick their party affiliation.
Rushe has never run for public office and has limited name recognition among Republicans compared to Fiorentino, a three-term legislator and former New Port Richey Council member. Rushe has been endorsed by retiring Democratic superintendent John Long, his leadership team, and the Pasco school employees' union. Fiorentino is the favorite of Pasco's Republican Party leaders.
The maneuver to cut Democratic voters out of the superintendent selection process is a consequence of the 1998 voter-approved revisions to the Florida Constitution, which said party primaries will be universal primaries if there is no general election opponent. The exploitation of the loophole created by write-in candidates has been done elsewhere, notably the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections race in 2000, but this is the first time it has been used in Pasco County.
Fiorentino said last month she was unaware of some Republicans' plans to recruit a write-in candidate. But she also said she wouldn't discourage such a candidacy.
Make no mistake, this is not happenstance. Long said state Sen. Mike Fasano told him in February that Fiorentino's supporters would use the tactic and Elections Supervisor Kurt Browning said Republican Party Chairman Bill Bunting quizzed him recently on the details of a write-in candidate for superintendent.
During the recent sales tax referendum, Fiorentino, Fasano and Bunting all complained about the ballot issue being placed on the March presidential primary, arguing it should have been held in November to guarantee a larger turnout. Unfortunately, they don't show the same disdain for a bogus candidacy intended to manipulate the turnout for the superintendent's race. It is hypocrisy.
It also raises the issue of yet another referendum question. Three times Pasco voters have rejected the idea of the School Board, instead of the public, selecting the superintendent. The last effort, in 1994, followed a divisive superintendent's race two years earlier.
If more than half of Pasco voters are going to be denied the opportunity to weigh in on the school chief's race, then it is time to again consider the appointed superintendent referendum.
Allowing the School Board to choose the school superintendent will guarantee a national search for applicants. Under that scenario, the candidate judged the most qualified and the most competent, not the person with the most recognizable name, will lead the public school system.
