[Boots] You, too, can run for BOE!
Here is the first installment in the Boots Whitmer BOE campaign diary series:
It was my first campaign appearance: District 3 Democrats, at a North Beach community center, where the only other living creature in attendance was a pigeon. I had been invited, but the pigeon had not. The center's caretaker and I had shooed it out once, but the minute the caretaker left the "feathered rat" returned. I debated whether to practice my platform on the pigeon, but in the end I spent quite a bit of time racing around after it and succeeded in running it out. Now I was really alone….no audience and no one from the hosting entity.
Was THIS what the campaign trail was like?
I owe this report to you, my friends and supporters on SFSchools who voted me into the top three candidate slots of its straw poll during the last BOE election cycle. Have you ever wondered what REALLY goes on when you are a BOE candidate? Why the weird "occupations" in the voter handbook? Why the disjointed "candidates statement"? What does it cost, in time, money and energy? What can be done to improve the process, from this candidate's standpoint? And last but not least, why did I do it if I couldn't guarantee winning?
This is part instruction, part diary. I have had to change the names of the innocent and guilty, for reasons which will probably be obvious. I want to give credit to those who helped me and I want to answer the questions I saw raised after the campaign. I want to make suggestions on how to improve the BOE campaign (and all campaigns, for that matter). I am sick of people who use this position--- which has a direct effect on our children's well-being---- primarily as a stepping stone for higher office. I really hope that more parents and concerned individuals WHO DO NOT COVET HIGHER OFFICE will decide to run for the Board of Education. If this helps those individuals do it, then I will have accomplished a goal.
It's important to start at the beginning.
At the beginning of 2006 I was leading a happy, peaceful life, except for the Prop H fiasco, which was consuming my spare time over and above what I was spending on the George Washington High School Site Council. As my younger child would be graduating and going somewhere for college that fall, I was already lining up empty nest projects. First, with my best friend, Barbara Stewart, a very gifted photographer, I had decided to document architecturally significant SFUSD schools. Barbara and I had already had one meeting with the San Francisco Historical Society about the parameters and we had settled on a pilot project focusing on Presidio Middle School. The Historical Society was happy to have some volunteers to take on a project which had long been on their "to do" list. My husband and I had booked and paid for a trip to Italy for the fall, where we would be spending time in obscure central villages looking at obscure masterworks.
As the year progressed, the history project was shelved because of the ups and downs of Barbara's husband's pancreatic cancer; the Prop H issue heated up, consuming more of my time. Two spots on the Board of Education had opened up due to resignations. We parents began to worry about who might run for those openings. In my circle, there was one parent in particular we hoped would run. We begged that parent to consider a run. I even went down to the Board of Elections and picked up whatever the Board of Elections would allow me to take and delivered it to our hoped-for-candidate's home. All to no avail.
The deadline to file to run for office was a Friday, in mid-August. On the Monday before the deadline, I called the prospective candidate, leaving a voicemail saying, "If you won't run, I might have to!" It was meant as a joke. I didn't get a return call. There are a lot of competent, qualified parents in the SFUSD. I was disappointed that none of them would step up. In the end, I had to ask myself why I was expecting others to step up and run, if I myself was not willing to do so. And although I didn't think my chances of winning were good, I felt that running would allow me to highlight the misuse of Prop H funds in the hope that they would be properly applied. [By the way…WHERE IS THAT LONG–PROMISED PROP H AUDIT????]
Monday night we had a family pow-wow. My husband and children thought I should run, but there were questions. First, how much money were we willing to commit to this dubious project? It turned out I did not have my information quite right, but I said that the candidate was limited to spending $20,000 of his or her own funds. We did not have that much discretionary money, so we set a budget of $6,000, which I picked because it was also the amount a BOE Commissioner earns in a year. [In fact, $20,000 was the limit of a candidate's personal loans to a campaign; a candidate can actually spend as much of her personal money as she can tolerate.] I did not plan to raise or spend more than I could finance from my own pocket because I did not wish to be accused of having been funded by special interests of any ilk. I wasn't sure for what I would need money. Personally, I have never voted for anyone on the basis of a sign or a brochure. Nor have I voted for someone just because I shook the candidate's hand. I usually try to read what they have to say about themselves if it is something of depth and sometimes I vote on the basis of a candidate's presentation at a forum. When I cannot get adequate information on given candidates, I rely on knowledgeable friends and in exchange I am often asked for recommendations for judge or BOE. Rather than brochures or signs, I wanted to set up a website and expected to spend some money doing that.
The next question, which was posed by my husband, was whether I was willing to change my voter registration. I was not. This precipitated the only argument he and I had over my campaign. He wanted me to win! He demanded that I change my voter registration or he would not agree to spending money on the campaign. I tried to point out to him that the BOE run was a non-partisan election, so my voter registration was, or should be, irrelevant. I said that I felt changing my registration was like asking me to change my principles. My husband suggested that I re-register as a decline-to-state voter. I thought this was wimping out. I believe in lower taxes, limited government, free markets and many other issues which make me what I am. I stuck to my guns and my husband threw up his hands and that was the end of the issue.
--Boots Whitmer
Next Installment: Banging my head at the Elections Department
It was my first campaign appearance: District 3 Democrats, at a North Beach community center, where the only other living creature in attendance was a pigeon. I had been invited, but the pigeon had not. The center's caretaker and I had shooed it out once, but the minute the caretaker left the "feathered rat" returned. I debated whether to practice my platform on the pigeon, but in the end I spent quite a bit of time racing around after it and succeeded in running it out. Now I was really alone….no audience and no one from the hosting entity.
Was THIS what the campaign trail was like?
I owe this report to you, my friends and supporters on SFSchools who voted me into the top three candidate slots of its straw poll during the last BOE election cycle. Have you ever wondered what REALLY goes on when you are a BOE candidate? Why the weird "occupations" in the voter handbook? Why the disjointed "candidates statement"? What does it cost, in time, money and energy? What can be done to improve the process, from this candidate's standpoint? And last but not least, why did I do it if I couldn't guarantee winning?
This is part instruction, part diary. I have had to change the names of the innocent and guilty, for reasons which will probably be obvious. I want to give credit to those who helped me and I want to answer the questions I saw raised after the campaign. I want to make suggestions on how to improve the BOE campaign (and all campaigns, for that matter). I am sick of people who use this position--- which has a direct effect on our children's well-being---- primarily as a stepping stone for higher office. I really hope that more parents and concerned individuals WHO DO NOT COVET HIGHER OFFICE will decide to run for the Board of Education. If this helps those individuals do it, then I will have accomplished a goal.
It's important to start at the beginning.
At the beginning of 2006 I was leading a happy, peaceful life, except for the Prop H fiasco, which was consuming my spare time over and above what I was spending on the George Washington High School Site Council. As my younger child would be graduating and going somewhere for college that fall, I was already lining up empty nest projects. First, with my best friend, Barbara Stewart, a very gifted photographer, I had decided to document architecturally significant SFUSD schools. Barbara and I had already had one meeting with the San Francisco Historical Society about the parameters and we had settled on a pilot project focusing on Presidio Middle School. The Historical Society was happy to have some volunteers to take on a project which had long been on their "to do" list. My husband and I had booked and paid for a trip to Italy for the fall, where we would be spending time in obscure central villages looking at obscure masterworks.
As the year progressed, the history project was shelved because of the ups and downs of Barbara's husband's pancreatic cancer; the Prop H issue heated up, consuming more of my time. Two spots on the Board of Education had opened up due to resignations. We parents began to worry about who might run for those openings. In my circle, there was one parent in particular we hoped would run. We begged that parent to consider a run. I even went down to the Board of Elections and picked up whatever the Board of Elections would allow me to take and delivered it to our hoped-for-candidate's home. All to no avail.
The deadline to file to run for office was a Friday, in mid-August. On the Monday before the deadline, I called the prospective candidate, leaving a voicemail saying, "If you won't run, I might have to!" It was meant as a joke. I didn't get a return call. There are a lot of competent, qualified parents in the SFUSD. I was disappointed that none of them would step up. In the end, I had to ask myself why I was expecting others to step up and run, if I myself was not willing to do so. And although I didn't think my chances of winning were good, I felt that running would allow me to highlight the misuse of Prop H funds in the hope that they would be properly applied. [By the way…WHERE IS THAT LONG–PROMISED PROP H AUDIT????]
Monday night we had a family pow-wow. My husband and children thought I should run, but there were questions. First, how much money were we willing to commit to this dubious project? It turned out I did not have my information quite right, but I said that the candidate was limited to spending $20,000 of his or her own funds. We did not have that much discretionary money, so we set a budget of $6,000, which I picked because it was also the amount a BOE Commissioner earns in a year. [In fact, $20,000 was the limit of a candidate's personal loans to a campaign; a candidate can actually spend as much of her personal money as she can tolerate.] I did not plan to raise or spend more than I could finance from my own pocket because I did not wish to be accused of having been funded by special interests of any ilk. I wasn't sure for what I would need money. Personally, I have never voted for anyone on the basis of a sign or a brochure. Nor have I voted for someone just because I shook the candidate's hand. I usually try to read what they have to say about themselves if it is something of depth and sometimes I vote on the basis of a candidate's presentation at a forum. When I cannot get adequate information on given candidates, I rely on knowledgeable friends and in exchange I am often asked for recommendations for judge or BOE. Rather than brochures or signs, I wanted to set up a website and expected to spend some money doing that.
The next question, which was posed by my husband, was whether I was willing to change my voter registration. I was not. This precipitated the only argument he and I had over my campaign. He wanted me to win! He demanded that I change my voter registration or he would not agree to spending money on the campaign. I tried to point out to him that the BOE run was a non-partisan election, so my voter registration was, or should be, irrelevant. I said that I felt changing my registration was like asking me to change my principles. My husband suggested that I re-register as a decline-to-state voter. I thought this was wimping out. I believe in lower taxes, limited government, free markets and many other issues which make me what I am. I stuck to my guns and my husband threw up his hands and that was the end of the issue.
--Boots Whitmer
Next Installment: Banging my head at the Elections Department
Labels: SFUSD Politics
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