Politics infiltrate non-partisan races

Despite voters choosing to make the School Board election non-partisan, political loyalties and donations play a role.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 17, 2000

INVERNESS -- For the first time, Citrus voters this year will elect non-partisan School Board members. But what does that mean?

Obviously, it means the candidates are not identifying themselves by party affiliation. All candidates are the same: non-partisan.

It also means that all voters, no matter what their party affiliation, are eligible to vote in the three School Board primaries Sept. 5. In partisan primaries, Republicans will decide Republican races and Democrats can decide Democrat races. When it comes to School Board, everybody gets to vote.

What non-partisan doesn't mean, apparently, is that the political parties won't be involved.

Last week, the Citrus County Republican Executive Committee agreed to donate $1,500 to the Republican candidates in each School Board race. A registered Republican is running in each contest.

But money isn't the whole story.

"We have a situation here in Citrus County that has me very concerned," wrote Weston Stow, chairman of the Citrus County Republican Executive Committee, in an e-mail to the state party's chairman, Al Cardenas.

Stow explained that he believed that the Democrats were trying to control the school system by electing party members as school superintendent and School Board members.

"Democrats really resent the success we Republicans have had here in Citrus County. The Democrats see this as a means to once again dominate the political scene here and are making the school system their target to regain their former dominance of the county," Stow wrote.

Superintendent Pete Kelly is a Republican. Likewise, the three contested School Board seats are held by Republicans. Two of those members, Patience Nave and Carl Hansen, are seeking re-election; each has an opponent who is a registered Democrat.

Mark Stone, the third incumbent Republican, has resigned midterm to run for tax collector. Three candidates are vying for his seat: one Republican, one Democrat and one who has no party affiliation.

The strong message from the Republicans has spilled onto the campaign trail. Several School Board candidates who are not Republicans have encountered the cold shoulder at Republican Party functions.

During one recent Republican club meeting in Crystal River, where candidates for office were addressing members, candidate Jane Fricano said that Stow said to club members, "Get that damned Democrat out of here. She's not to be allowed to speak at all, not allowed to speak and not allowed to be introduced."

Fricano said she didn't expect to speak but wanted to be recognized as a non-partisan candidate.

"A little civility would have been nice," she said. "Hopefully, we're all in the same boat, where we want a fantastic school system; and that should be the main focus."

Candidate Cindy Cino, who is running against Nave, said she also has received shabby treatment at Republican meetings.

"It is a little bit frustrating," Mrs. Cino said. "Sometimes political parties divide people, and children have no political party."

Mrs. Cino is in a difficult position. Her husband, Joe, is chairman of the county's Democratic Executive Committee. But he also said he believes the School Board races should be non-partisan.

Stow, the local Republican chairman, sees things differently.

"What business do they have at a Republican function when they're not Republicans?" he asked. "The fact that they're running for a non-partisan seat doesn't make them some special quantity. . . .

"They're still Democrats and this is still partisan to us."

The Republican position -- as articulated by Stow, anyway -- has prompted questions.

Some observers say this attitude will shift over time, once people become accustomed to viewing School Board candidates as non-partisan. Others say that would be impossible.

"You and I both know, there's no non-partisan," Stow said. "There is no way to get politics out of these things."

Voters' intent

Anita Taylor, president of the Citrus County League of Women Voters, said the political behavior in Citrus runs counter to what voters intended.

"I think it has been manipulated by the powers that be, whoever they are," Taylor said. "The Republicans and Democrats do not understand what non-partisan means. Non-partisan means no party affiliation."

But others disagree.

Hansen, who is seeking his second term on the School Board, said the reform means that the races are "non-partisan, but not that they are non-political."

"The non-partisan part is that anybody can vote for anybody in the School Board race," he said. "That's pretty much the extent of it. And what the parties do, whether it is the Republican Executive Committee or the Democratic Executive Committee, that's up to them."

If the rule change was meant to exclude party activities, then staff officials who are responsible for interpreting rules would determine that was the case. They have not done so.

"There's not a whole lot we can do other than to go by the rules and the interpretations of the rules," Hansen said.

Some candidates said party donations and involvement in non-partisan races might be a moral issue rather than a legal one.

"That sounds like sour grapes to me," Hansen said. Hansen said he had no problem accepting money from the Republican Party. "I am a Republican," he said.

But Hansen said he would take money from the Democrats if they wanted to support him and it wouldn't get him in hot water with Republican officials.

Hansen said he thinks the board has operated in a non-partisan manner. "We haven't stressed party things," he said. "We've stressed children things."

Nave said she feels the same way. Also in line for some Republican money, she said that, despite the occasional joke with board Chairwoman Sandra "Sam" Himmel, who is the board's lone Democrat, the board avoids party politics.

"Our focus is on the needs of children and that is apolitical, or it should be," Nave said.

Nave chairs the Ways and Means Committee for the Republican Executive Committee, but said she sees no problem with her fellow Republicans working for her, donating to her and supporting her in the election.

"These are people who I have worked with for eight years. They know me and they know what I've done," she said. "I really don't see anything wrong with any part of that."

Stow has been more aggressive, helping get Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan to visit Citrus and participate in opening the party headquarters in August. Brogan was brought in not only because he holds a high office, but also because he is a former education commissioner and is strongly associated with education issues.

Stow said he is just trying to do his job as chairman of the party in Citrus County.

"Naturally, as chairman, I'm concerned about preserving the gains that the party has made in this county. We've made all these gains as the minority party, and we perceive a strong threat from the competition," Stow said. "I'm certain if Joe Cino were in the same position, he'd be feeling the same way I do."

Taylor, from the League of Women Voters, said she wants to believe that in later years, after the non-partisan system has been around a while, there will be less emphasis on parties. But she still thinks voters knew exactly what they wanted in the School Board campaigns when they voted for the reform.

"They (candidates) need to run on their credentials and what they have to offer," she said. "The whole thing in a nutshell is that I think the people understand what non-partisan is, but the parties don't."

Political arena

Both she and her husband said the Democrats are trying to follow the idea of non-partisanship in the School Board races.

"The School Board should be out of the political arena," said Mrs. Cino, who had previously been registered as a Republican. "We're all Americans, maybe with different mind-sets about how to solve problems . . . but people should be out there caring about issues that are important to children."

Instead, Mrs. Cino said, she was made to feel like an enemy when she attended a Republican club function recently.

Fricano said she has attended such meetings because she thinks that candidates for non-partisan seats should get out and meet all kinds of voters, regardless of party. That is what voters across the state intended, she said.

She also said she doesn't plan to accept money from political parties or political action committees because of what that might mean.

"I think that non-partisan candidates have to really think hard about seeking funds that may appear to obligate them to something besides what is best for students," she said.

Fricano said she understood why the statewide vote didn't have the impact it should have. "It's hard to give up power," she said, and the political parties have held the power in elections for a long time.

Thomas Corkery, another candidate in the race to fill Stone's seat, is president of the newly formed Central Ridge Republican Club.

As a former auto worker, Corkery said he thinks that, in time, the School Board elections will lose the strong party identification they seem to have this year.

Ginger Bryant, who is running against Hansen, agrees.

"I really believe it's going to take a while, but I'd really like to not see politics in the school system," she said. "Regardless of whether you have a donkey or an elephant as your symbol, we're talking about itty-bitty children. They need guidance and they need leadership."

Bryant said she was confident that the Florida voters knew exactly what they were doing by voting for non-partisan elections. "Why did the citizens of Florida vote for this? Because they think that's what's best for children," she said.

"When I went into this race as a non-politician and politically naive, I registered with no party affiliation," said Rich Hoffmann, who is also running for Stone's seat. "I thought it ought to be non-partisan because I just didn't think that politics should be involved in picking the School Board."

Instead, Hoffmann said, he hoped the candidates would talk about their education, their background and their experience and how it would help the school district to elect them to the important job of School Board member.

But as he has traveled the county, on a ratio he guessed to be 20-to-1, many more people wanted to know his party affiliation than his qualifications. "It's a non-partisan race and the parties really shouldn't be involved," he said. "It's really been frustrating to me. . . .

"They're not really interested in quality. They're interested in party, and that has been very disheartening," he said. "It's really evident to me that it's not a non-partisan race at all," Hoffmann said.

By taking the non-partisan aspect seriously and registering without a party affiliation, he said he thinks he has made himself an underdog.

"I thought that I could be everybody's friend, but it turns out, I can't be anybody's friend," Hoffmann said.

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