[Boots] Chapter 2: Headbanging at the Elections Department
The second installment of the Boots Whitmer BOE campaign diary:
On Wednesday before the Friday deadline, I walked into the Elections Department and asked for the paperwork. I had to fill out an intention-to-run form and then I was given about 3 inches of paperwork to read and fill out. The nice lady at the Elections Department pointed out some of the highlights of things I needed to fill out. One of these was a page which required the signatures of 25 registered voters. One was a demand for ALL my personal financial information. This last form was a deal-breaker for me. It was outrageous that my personal financial information was required for a position I considered volunteer and which would have virtually no bearing on the position! And I told the nice lady so.
She responded that the Elections Department didn't make up the rules and that if I didn't like it, I should take it up with the California Fair Political Practices Commission. (FPPC) She gave me the number and I said I would.
I drove home and plunked the pile on the kitchen table. I started to skim it. It was as depressing a mound of gobbledygook as you will ever see. I decided to call the FPPC to see if I really had to divulge such personal information. It was a shock to have a real human being answer the phone in a state governmental agency. I explained my concerns to the knowledgeable lady who answered the phone and she said, "The financial disclosure stuff doesn't apply to Boards of Education! San Francisco always gets this messed up. I will call them and straighten them out." She did. I decided it paid to question authority.
That hurdle cleared, and with less than 48 hours before the filing deadline, I outlined what needed to be accomplished and it was beginning to look quite formidable. Besides the numerous forms, the 25 signatures, there was the 100 word essay which would appear in the voter handbook, not to mention all the general information I needed to absorb from the huge stack. No one in my immediate circle of friends or family had ever run for political office. I was feeling a little overwhelmed. The phone rang. It was Deep Ballot. I knew Deep Ballot casually. He was a political activist of sorts, very knowledgeable and connected. He said, "So you're running for Board of Education!" Only an hour and a half had passed since I had left the Board of Elections! "Geez, word travels fast."
Deep Ballot was POLITICS, POLITICS, POLITICS and I was POLICY, POLICY, POLICY. He wasn't interested in hearing my ideas on education at all, although I forced him to listen briefly. "The good news", I said to him, cheerfully, "Is that the SFUSD is the highest performing urban district in California!" Then I said, "But the bad news is, urban school districts are the worst performing in the state." "I get it" said Deep Ballot dismissively, "We're the cream of the crap."
I burst out laughing. For a fleeting second I thought about making that a campaign slogan: "Vote for Boots...she'll move the SFUSD from the cream of the cr*p to the cr*p of the cream." Not only was Deep Ballot not interested in education policy, he had other irritating and irrational ideas. "After you win the Board of Education, you can run for Supervisor!" In his mind, I was already governor. I said, "Look, DB, I'm not interested. I'm furious about this Prop H mess and I'm only interested in public education. No one on the Board of Education has been watching the money issues. It's a mess." DB got pretty sarcastic, "I know...it's for ....the CHILDREN." I didn't appreciate the sarcasm, because doggone it, YES. I'm tired of our kids getting ripped off. It IS for the children! And I told DB so in no uncertain terms.
DB was very generous in his offers of advice, but I wasn't really sure from whom I needed help. I wanted to talk with former candidates, but my immediate project was filling out paperwork and getting those signatures in time to meet Friday's deadline. That evening and the next I ran around to relatives, friends and neighbors. It was tricky because most of them work by day and the evening hours are short and everyone was surprised to learn I was considering running for BOE and wanted to chat. I didn't have chatting time! I confided to one of these friends that I was concerned about the paperwork getting done and she said, "Aren't your handlers doing that?" Handlers?!? What Handlers? I didn't have no stinkin' handlers! It was strictly a do-it-yourself project in my case.
DB called me the next morning, Thursday. He said he was going to collect signatures for me and that he wanted me to run my candidate's statement by him. I thought it was nice that he wanted to help me, so I accepted his two offers. Although DB would eventually prove helpful, in these two aspects, I didn't need his help. His edit of my candidate's statement removed my passion and made the statement bland. I plowed through the paperwork and presented myself and the paperwork to the Elections Department on Friday, where DB insisted on meeting me. I had learned that the deadline had been extended to the following week, but I just wanted to get this stuff out of the way asap. DB happily presented signatures he had had collected on my behalf. His were all rejected: a new rule, of which he was unaware, disqualified them. All signatures had to be collected by the candidate herself. Of the 27 I collected, only two were disqualified (friends who forgot to change their address.) But I had just enough.
--Boots Whitmer
Next Installment: Head banging continues....
On Wednesday before the Friday deadline, I walked into the Elections Department and asked for the paperwork. I had to fill out an intention-to-run form and then I was given about 3 inches of paperwork to read and fill out. The nice lady at the Elections Department pointed out some of the highlights of things I needed to fill out. One of these was a page which required the signatures of 25 registered voters. One was a demand for ALL my personal financial information. This last form was a deal-breaker for me. It was outrageous that my personal financial information was required for a position I considered volunteer and which would have virtually no bearing on the position! And I told the nice lady so.
She responded that the Elections Department didn't make up the rules and that if I didn't like it, I should take it up with the California Fair Political Practices Commission. (FPPC) She gave me the number and I said I would.
I drove home and plunked the pile on the kitchen table. I started to skim it. It was as depressing a mound of gobbledygook as you will ever see. I decided to call the FPPC to see if I really had to divulge such personal information. It was a shock to have a real human being answer the phone in a state governmental agency. I explained my concerns to the knowledgeable lady who answered the phone and she said, "The financial disclosure stuff doesn't apply to Boards of Education! San Francisco always gets this messed up. I will call them and straighten them out." She did. I decided it paid to question authority.
That hurdle cleared, and with less than 48 hours before the filing deadline, I outlined what needed to be accomplished and it was beginning to look quite formidable. Besides the numerous forms, the 25 signatures, there was the 100 word essay which would appear in the voter handbook, not to mention all the general information I needed to absorb from the huge stack. No one in my immediate circle of friends or family had ever run for political office. I was feeling a little overwhelmed. The phone rang. It was Deep Ballot. I knew Deep Ballot casually. He was a political activist of sorts, very knowledgeable and connected. He said, "So you're running for Board of Education!" Only an hour and a half had passed since I had left the Board of Elections! "Geez, word travels fast."
Deep Ballot was POLITICS, POLITICS, POLITICS and I was POLICY, POLICY, POLICY. He wasn't interested in hearing my ideas on education at all, although I forced him to listen briefly. "The good news", I said to him, cheerfully, "Is that the SFUSD is the highest performing urban district in California!" Then I said, "But the bad news is, urban school districts are the worst performing in the state." "I get it" said Deep Ballot dismissively, "We're the cream of the crap."
I burst out laughing. For a fleeting second I thought about making that a campaign slogan: "Vote for Boots...she'll move the SFUSD from the cream of the cr*p to the cr*p of the cream." Not only was Deep Ballot not interested in education policy, he had other irritating and irrational ideas. "After you win the Board of Education, you can run for Supervisor!" In his mind, I was already governor. I said, "Look, DB, I'm not interested. I'm furious about this Prop H mess and I'm only interested in public education. No one on the Board of Education has been watching the money issues. It's a mess." DB got pretty sarcastic, "I know...it's for ....the CHILDREN." I didn't appreciate the sarcasm, because doggone it, YES. I'm tired of our kids getting ripped off. It IS for the children! And I told DB so in no uncertain terms.
DB was very generous in his offers of advice, but I wasn't really sure from whom I needed help. I wanted to talk with former candidates, but my immediate project was filling out paperwork and getting those signatures in time to meet Friday's deadline. That evening and the next I ran around to relatives, friends and neighbors. It was tricky because most of them work by day and the evening hours are short and everyone was surprised to learn I was considering running for BOE and wanted to chat. I didn't have chatting time! I confided to one of these friends that I was concerned about the paperwork getting done and she said, "Aren't your handlers doing that?" Handlers?!? What Handlers? I didn't have no stinkin' handlers! It was strictly a do-it-yourself project in my case.
DB called me the next morning, Thursday. He said he was going to collect signatures for me and that he wanted me to run my candidate's statement by him. I thought it was nice that he wanted to help me, so I accepted his two offers. Although DB would eventually prove helpful, in these two aspects, I didn't need his help. His edit of my candidate's statement removed my passion and made the statement bland. I plowed through the paperwork and presented myself and the paperwork to the Elections Department on Friday, where DB insisted on meeting me. I had learned that the deadline had been extended to the following week, but I just wanted to get this stuff out of the way asap. DB happily presented signatures he had had collected on my behalf. His were all rejected: a new rule, of which he was unaware, disqualified them. All signatures had to be collected by the candidate herself. Of the 27 I collected, only two were disqualified (friends who forgot to change their address.) But I had just enough.
--Boots Whitmer
Next Installment: Head banging continues....
Labels: SFUSD Politics
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home