In 2008, no Democrats ran for State Board of Education in district 10. This year, we were poised to watch two qualified candidates go head to head in the primary. Today, Lorenzo Sadun, the write in candidate against Mike McCaul in Congressional District 10 and long time Travis County Democrat, announced he was not running for the office and throwing his support immediately behind Dr. Judy Jennings.
The e-mail he sent out was forwarded to me in full:
Dear friends,
I have decided not to file as a candidate for State Board of Education. The only office that I will be seeking this year is Democratic Precinct Chair in Travis County Precinct 214.
In part, this decision is for personal reasons, recognizing the strain that the campaign is placing on my work and on my family. A bigger factor, however, is my primary opponent, Dr. Judy Jennings. As I have come to know Judy better and better on the campaign trail, I have come to respect and admire her commitment to quality public education, her understanding of educational issues, and her discipline and determination. I have also watched her grow as a candidate. There is a learning curve to being a candidate, and Judy picks things up very quickly. Much as I would like to serve on the SBOE, I cannot allow my own ambition to stand in the way of Judy's bringing necessary change to a dysfunctional board. Going forward, she has my full support.
I owe a debt of gratitude to all of you for your support and encouragement over the last six months. I also owe a debt of money to those of you who contributed financially to the campaign, since we have a lot of unspent funds! In a few weeks, after all the bills are paid, I will partially return contributions in proportion to how much was given. Please consider redirecting this refund to Judy Jenning's campaign.
Democratically yours,
Lorenzo Sadun
This is a classy decision by Sadun. Nobody can argue Sadun has the interests of the party at heart and his early decision will allow Democrats to get behind Jennings who is running against Republican Cynthia Dunbar. For more information about how bad Dunbar is, visit Jennings page about SBOE here.
With only 15 State Board of Education districts in all of Texas, running for office can be daunting for those who wish to serve. Twice the size of congressional districts, SBOE seats are gerrymandered to ensure the state board is Republican controlled, although it is split 8-7 on some of the most contentious issues from textbooks, religion, and sex education.
So while important, it's a tall order to challenge or switch these seats and in the past even serious Democratic challengers have not piled up huge sums of cash. In fact, the most any Democrat has raised is $100,000 by Laura Ewing in the District 7 race in 2008. Donna Howard raised $70,000 in the District 10 race back in 2000 where she held Republican incumbent Cynthia Thornton to a 50-45 margin.
Candidates running for the SBOE-10 seat held by Cynthia Dunbar include Democrat Judy Jennings, who has just reported having raised slightly over $10,000 in her first reporting period, with 85% of that still on hand. Former TX-10 write-in candidate Lorenzo Sadun has reported raising just over $3,500 (most of which is a personal loan by Sadun) and has retained an equivalent amount on hand.
Former Lee Leffingwell for Austin Mayor campaign staff member Susan Shelton, while considering her options, is not an announced candidate at this time.
Via the Austin Chronicle, news that not one, but at least two well known (to BOR) Austinites are looking to run against crazy-ass Cynthia Dunbar for the State Board of Education District 10 seat, which is the northern half of Travis County, Williamson, and a dozen other counties stretching out to Fort Bend County.
In the past two days, party activist Susan Shelton confirmed to me that she definitely plans to challenge Dunbar, and University of Texas math professor Lorenzo Sadun said he's "very likely." Sadun also told me he's heard "as many as a dozen people are thinking of running" as Democrats.
"Yes, I'm running," Shelton told me at the Central Texas Democratic Forum on Thursday. "I've been reading Dunbar's book, and we need somebody less extreme in there.
"I had to run," Shelton continued. "It's a cliche, but I'll need somebody to take care of me in my dotage, and I need them to be educated. There was no way I could not do this."
...
Sadun said that if he finally makes it official, he'll also wait until after the muni contests. He said he also wants to wait to see he results of several SBOE-related bills before the 81st Texas Legislation, which will wrap up June 1. "None of them are likely to go anywhere," Sadun opined, but if a bill by Austin Rep. Donna Howard to make SBOE elections nonpartisan is successful, "that will change everything. ... Then the election would be in November with no runoff. In that case, we must not have the anti-Dunbar candidates splitting the vote.
Both Democrats said they respect one another, but the prospect of a primary opponent would not change their plans. "Shelton is a really good person," Sadun said, "but her expertise is in other areas, and I think I'd be the stronger candidate. But any of us would be better than Dunbar."
Both have said they won't be really doing anything campaign relate until after the municipal elections in May. We here at BOR of course, look forward to working with both of them as they are regular users around these parts.
