Remember. Any candidate who tells you what he or she will do after losing an election can’t be trusted. There was Nixon with his sour plaint to the press after Kennedy beat him then Pat Brown for California Governor.”You won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around any more.” And there was me yesterday saying I’d never run again or sounding a lot like it. Well, as part of my after election clean up of my garage and a ton of Oswald and Welty lawnsigns (my workroom and office remain to be tidied) I kept my lawnsigns for potential future use. Sorry Pete.
I have been remarkably cheerful at the prospect of leaving the fate of the Duluth School District to others since the moment the first 25% of my vote returns made it painfully obvious that I was going to remain a civilian. Although I’m not yet done with the District. Like so many other things I set aside completing my training to be a substitute teacher as the last weeks of the campaign ground down. I’ll be giving that a try soon. Even if I neglect my blog I’m likely to return to that subject after I have a few subbing gigs under my belt.
And just as I deal tit for tat to the Trib’s editors they deal tat for tit to me. Their summation of my defeat was succinct if not fully dismissive, “”.
Another message Tuesday came from school district voters: We’re ready to put behind us, where it belongs, all the angst and pain and controversy stemming from the long-range facilities plan that resulted in new and improved Duluth school buildings. Two of the faces of the past were defeated Tuesday “Former School Board member Harry Welty lost by about a two-to-one margin to incumbent David Kirby, and longtime district critic Loren Martell received just 46.09% of the vote to retired public school teacher Paul Sandholm’s 53.91%”
As I myself indicated in the previous post the voters probably were ready to see the back of me but the Red Plan’s hit on teachers will last another decade until the District finally recovers the general fund money they dedicated to those “new and improved Duluth school buildings.” Getting rid of me will not get the teachers back.
And a growing school district just got the approval from their voters for building bonds that eclipse the $319 million in bonding of the Red Plan. White Bear Lake with just as many students as Duluth OK-eyed a 326 million school bond. I doubt that theirs will dive out 20% of White Bear’s Public school students.
A sympathizer sent me a message to tell my I’m not such a bonehead. They are wrong of course. Almost all humans are boneheads. I chalked up one more boneheaded more move this morning when I read in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Janet Kennedy was Duluth’s first elected black City Councilor. So I emailed the new Strib education reporter and corrected the story explaining that when I came to town there was a black city councilor. Then after sending that message I decided to do some checking that google seemed unable to help me with. I called the Duluth Libraries Reference desk for the first time in years. I asked them to tell me that councilors name. The call back set me straight. In 1975, the year after I moved to Duluth, Lurlene Baker was elected to the Duluth School Board. She was the black “city councilor” I had in mind. I’m surprised I’d forgotten that after making a big deal out of helping Mary Cameron get elected to the same school board. Mary was the second not first black school board member. I’m sure I’ve written that she was our first black board member before.
