Several legislators have introduced bills to make school board elections partisan in nature. Currently, school board candidates run for office without being nominated by a party or declaring a party affiliation. Rep. Cash has introduced HB 1036 which would require candidates for school board elections to be nominated by political parties like with other local elections.
Rep. Morrison has introduced HB 1074 which would require school board candidate’s party affiliation to be stated on the ballot and certificate of nomination. In other words, a candidate wouldn’t have to be nominated by the party but they would have to declare a party affiliation. Under this legislation, a candidate can state whatever they want as their party affiliation (or “independent” if they don’t identify with a party). However, a declared affiliation as a Republican or Democrat can be challenged. If the challenger shows that the candidate did not either vote in the Republican or Democratic primaries (as the case may be) in the most recent two elections or get a certification from the county party chair, the candidate can’t claim affiliation with that party. If I’m reading the legislation correctly, a declaration that the person is independent or Libertarian or Green Party or anything else isn’t subject to challenge. (Which, if we’re going to do this, seems suspect. The person who lives in a far left school board district but has voted Republican every election since the 80s can run for school board under a socialist label if he or she wants.)
Sen. Sandlin has introduced SB 188 which reads pretty much the same as Rep. Morrison’s HB 1074.
Whatever issues school boards have, I don’t see these proposals making them any better.
I read these bills a couple of days ago and almost posted them here. Both bills are nuts! There should be no party affiliation when it comes to school boards. When someone clicks on the Democrat only button will the school board members be included in the voters count?
Voting for a school board member is the only races in Indianapolis that your vote truly counts. The young lady I help put up signs for won by 22 votes. She is a registered Democrat and her challenger was given the Republican mailing list and put up a few signs. Instead he did targeted mailings. If she ran as a Democrat she would have lost.
Counterpoint: Making candidates’ affiliation more clear might be a benefit.
The idea of nonpartisan school board elections is probably naïve in practice. School boards, whether we like it or not, have become a partisan issue. Would Chuck Hockema have been elected to the LSC board if he had an “R” next to his name? Maybe, but given the broader election results in Lafayette, I’d guess not.
Counter-counter point. Tippecanoe County had a couple of horrible township trustees elected in 2019 solely due to the party affiliation next to their names. Ultimately that party affiliation wasn’t a very good indication of their political beliefs.
I totally get your position on the LSC election. And I suspect (without knowing) that outcomes in the West Side election would be different if party affiliations were required. But ultimately I kind of think the cure is worse than the disease.
Counter-counter-counter point:
Actually, nah. Coles and Teising are a pretty good argument. I’m not sure if the cure is worse than the disease or just a different kind of bad. The real cure is a more informed and engaged electorate, but I have no idea how to go about that. I like to think of myself as on the right side of the bell curve when it comes to political awareness, but could I have named my township trustee before she hit the news? Nope. Who are my city council reps? Couldn’t tell ya!
If the cure is a more informed and engaged electorate, remove ALL party affiliations and go to ranked choice voting for all races.
Then you have to research the candidates.