I received an e-mail (excerpted below) over the weekend from a former local elected official commenting on candidates running in local elections this week.
I'm not going to identify the area or who wrote this e-mail and the names the author mentions have been deleted. Let's just say it's formerly rural, rapidly-turning-suburban Republican county.
But I think the message and the sense of digust from someone considered a "reasonable" Republican speaks volumes about the state of our politics today.
More after the jump ...
I've had some dealings with the e-mail author in the past. In his role as elected local official he was always conscientious, fair-minded, willing to listen and then make judgements based on evidence.
He writes:
This election, more than any in the thirty-five years that I have lived in the School District, is being dominated by very negative and destructive rhetoric. This School Board election together with the Village Board and Park District Board elections run the risk of electing an array of what I regrettably, as a conservative Republican, must refer to as right wing nutjobs.
Specifically, in the School Board election, (names deleted) are simply very bad candidates. They are anti-everything. They are very deceptive and intentionally dishonest in their depictions of spending and curriculum in the District.
They distort financial numbers and test scores implying that they are bad when, in actuality, they are quite good. Somehow they contend that they have miracle solutions that will increase revenue, cut spending and increase test scores.
Quite simply their contentions are nonsense. There are no miracle solutions. The District is currently doing a very good job, both fiscally and academically, within the unchangeable structural limitations of state and local financing and demographic …
Almost all of those who are challenging the incumbents are running because they are mad about something. They are against this or against that. They have vendettas to pursue. They want to rewrite history instead of moving forward with an open mind. The election of these anti-everything candidates would lead to a non-functional School Board and a diminished School District and community.