Recently, an Arizona Republic columnist wrote that if Diane Douglas had won the Superintendent of Public Instruction race that Arizona Democrats would go the way of the Dodo. Though I disagree with her conservation status of Arizona Democrats, I believe we are at least an endangered species.
For non-Arizonans let me give you a bit of background, Diane Douglas was not the incumbent. Rather, she defeated the incumbent, John Huppenthal, in the Republican primary. She ran on the sole platform of ending Common Core as Superintendent. She went into the SPI race with literally the easiest campaign; Arizona Republicans overwhelmingly oppose Obama and therefore Common Core. But, even more than that John Huppenthal was caught prior to the primary election referring to welfare recipients as “welfare pigs” (free school lunches = welfare pigs). Some people on the right believe that Douglas was chosen because she didn’t go into the campaign with the major controversy Huppenthal did. Regardless of the reason why she won the primary, in spite of running no campaign other than her stalwart opposition to Common Core she got to carry the Republican banner into the general election. Like before, she ran a virtually non-existent campaign touting her background as a political outsider (which she isn’t) and fervent opposition to Common Core (which she doesn’t understand). Her opponent David Garcia, a DFA endorsed candidate with a long background in education was endorsed by Republicans like Mesa Mayor Scott Smith and Republican organizations who hadn’t endorsed a Democrat in years, such as the Arizona Chamber of Commerce. He ran on fixing education and pulling Arizona out of the bottom of the education barrel. But Arizona didn’t want that. Arizona wanted Diane Douglas. Arizona decided the chief of education should be a woman with no educational experience, no platform, and no business leading our schools. David Garcia, a DFA candidate, a proven advocate for education, an Army veteran, and a man who received endorsements from all sides of the aisle couldn’t win. What does that say about Arizona? Should we work harder for progressive candidates? I believe we should. If we will inevitably lose in Arizona because of our party we should lose on principal, not because we run with (DEM) after our names. Unfortunately in this election, if a Republican had to win, I would’ve preferred Huppenthal to Douglas, a man who cries when he is caught is far preferable to a woman who laughs at the thought of funding our schools.