Slats Murphy, Senior SCW columnist

A blurb in Sunday's Orlando Sentinel mentioned the mounting attack on the Seminole County School Board by members of the local Democratic Party. 

It was interesting and of note for two reasons.  First is that the Sentinel is finally catching up to coverage and information already presented here on Seminole County Watch.  Second is that the local Democratic Party obviously is reading our news and comment and is picking up on some of the themes that have been expressed here.

The big question for the Sentinel is whether they will now improve their coverage of issues involving the School Board.  To date, the Sentinel's coverage has been pedestrian and pedantic, failing to explore all the nuances involved in parents' dissatisfaction with the School Board.

From high school rezoning to the naming of Hagerty High, the Sentinel has limited its coverage to portraying disparate groups of unhappy parents as being such simply because their respective personal oxes have been gored.

The Sentinel has failed to fully understand and explain the underlying themes and currents beneath the parents' dissatisfaction.  As has been explained by Seminole County Watch, the parents feel the School Board has shut them out of the process, issuing decrees by fiat rather than working towards solutions that would be more satisfactory to all involved parties.

The parents' feelings are valid and with merit.

Local Democrats seem to recognize and understand the feelings of the parents, but the question for them becomes what they do and where they go from here.

Part of the seemingly insurmountable obstacle they face in trying to unseat members of the School Board is navigating the great divide between their party and the majority of voters in Seminole County.

Republican voters still dominant Democrats in terms of registered voters in Seminole County.  The latest numbers on the Supervisor of Elections website show 108,346 registered Republicans and 78,842 registered Democrats. 

As important, however, are the 56,792 voters registered as neither Democrat nor Republican.  Theoretically, these are independent or minor-party voters who can swing either way in an election.  But to do so, they have to have choices, and this is where the Democrats have traditionally failed.

For the most part, Seminole County elections have been decided in the Republican primaries, when there have been any, because in many races the Democrats have failed to even present a candidate.

It is one thing for Democrats to declare war on the five sitting Republican members of the School Board.  It is another to actually be able to wage that war.  To do so, the Democrats must present credible candidates that will not only draw the support of Republicans who feel they are not being represented by Republicans presently sitting on the board, but that a better alternative is being offered.

The Democrats must also present candidates who can draw large support from voters who consider themselves devoid of steadfast allegiance to either party.

The irony here is that School Board membership is legally a non-partisan position, and political affiliations are not supposed to come into play.  Theory, however, is not practice, and the current School Board makes no secret of its partisan bent.

Sandy Robinson's official biography on the School Board website notes she is a "Republican Party executive committee member and precinct committeewoman."   

Diane Bauer frequently drops the names of leading Republican Party officials into her comments and reports during School Board meetings.

In her 2004 run for reelection, Dede Schaffner listed under community service her membership in the county Republican Executive Committee.

Bauer, Schaffner and Gainer came to the Board through the tradtional Republican Party power structure that has coalesced and consolidated power on the Board. 

Bauer and Schaffner were recruited as candidates to forestall an intraparty squabble that was instigated by former School Board member Bob Goff, whose dissatisfaction with his fellow Republicans emanated from personal dissatisfactions Goff held.

In 2004, Sandy Robinson and Jeanne Morris took the unusual step of openly endorsing Gainer when he ran for an open seat.  In explaining their unusual action in endorsing a candidate as sitting Board members, Robinson and Morris said it was the responsibility of board members to ensure the board stayed "on course."

Robinson and Morris have been on the Seminole County School Board since 1990, and in the last several elections, have done a good job in replicating themselves through the successful recruitment and candidacies of Bauer, Schaffner and Gainer.

They are seeking to continue their success in controlling the Board through the development of future potential candidates from within the Republican Party. 

Robinson has indicated she will leave the School Board next year to run for County Commissiion, leaving her seat open to whom the Republicans presume will be their designated successor.

Two of the most prominent names thus far surfacing are Sharon Rousey and Nancy Acevedo, both Republican Party activists who may emerge from the GOP power structure in which they are being groomed as favored candidates.

This presents an interesting scenario for the 2006 elections.  Dissatisfied parents who feel betrayed and battered by the current School Board have vowed to continue their fight until the 2006 elections, when they say they will defeat the incumbents at the polls.

The parents make such a vow because they feel they have no choice.  They feel they had no choice in the say of the decisions imposed upon them by the School Board.  That leads them to now feel they have no choice but to try to defeat the School Board members when they are up for reelection in 2006.

But they may face an interesting choice when the 2006 election arrives.  Dissatisfaction with the School Board is centered geographically in several areas within Seminole County.  Demographics indicate those areas to be mostly Republican, so it is a safe assumption that many of the parents vowing revenge at the polls are registered Republicans.

In 2006, their choice of candidates will be interesting.  There will be the incumbents who have emerged from the Republican power structure described above, and perhaps a newcomer emerging from that structure. 

Assuming the Democrats can carry through on their pronounced promise, there will also be some Democrats promising to provide alternatives to the traditional choices that have led to the current situation.

The wild card is how the disaffected Republican voters will respond.  One choice will be to remain loyal to their party.  The other will be to remain loyal to recent personal pledges of retribution for their party not having been loyal to them, at least through the actions of the current board comprised entirely of Republicans.

Of course, the other question is whether Democrats will be able to carry out their pledge of providing credible opposition to the sitting Board members.  Ironically, if they can, it would cast a largely partisan tint on what are supposed to be non-partisan races.  It could also position the party for a comeback from the irrelevance it has recently represented.

Their ability to field credible candidates in the 2006 School Board races would definitely make for one of the most interesting local campaign seasons ever in Seminole County.  That alone is reason enough to hope they really can make a race of it.

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