Next Tuesday is Election Day. It's your opportunity to act in your state government, or merely react to it. At this point, you have heard a lot of reasons why you should get out and vote. You should believe them, they're true. (How else do you suppose the Greeks control ASASU?)
Don't tell me your vote doesn't count — don't even go there. Not when 300 Florida votes, plus or minus, put Witless in Washington. Voting is your duty. Voting wisely is your responsibility.
Having said all that, why should you get off your overstuffed duff and go to the polls? What makes this election important for university students? Five words: governor and superintendent of public instruction. Those two offices are important to you because each is an ex officio voting member of the Arizona Board of Regents.
That's right. The people you elect to these two offices are absolutely vital cogs in the state's university system. Don't forget, the governor also appoints each regent.
You're no doubt reeling under the onslaught of messages from Matt Salmon and Janet Napolitano. If you haven't yet figured out how bad a Salmon governorship would be for Arizona's universities, there's not much I could say to enlighten you.
However, you may not have followed the superintendent race quite as closely. There are three men in this race: Democrat Jay Blanchard, Republican Tom Horne, and Libertarian John Zajac. Realistically, Zajac has two chances to be elected, slim and none (and slim left town). Leaving you with two potentially viable candidates.
Blanchard is an ASU professor of educational psychology and a sitting state senator. He is also a former Marine pilot. Blanchard has worked in classrooms all over the state (he holds a state teaching certificate) and is regularly consulted by educators from other states, as well as by companies developing educational software.
He is the man who had the guts to enter the state senate race against alternate-fuel fiasco architect Jeff Groscost, even before that scandal broke. During his term, Blanchard has worked diligently to prevent further erosion of the state's university system.
Horne is a lawyer and president of the Paradise Valley School Board. At the same time Blanchard was enlisting in the Marines to fight in Vietnam, Horne was being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud and other violations of SEC regulations. The SEC did, in fact, bar Horne from being an investment broker, or ever associating with investment brokers, finding that he had acted fraudulently toward his clients.
Horne probably escaped further SEC action when he filed for bankruptcy and moved to Arizona to practice law (at the same time Blanchard enlisted in the Marines and moved to Arizona for pilot training). Horne registered as a Democrat and worked hard for Raul Castro's gubernatorial campaign. However, 23 years later when Horne himself wanted to run for the Legislature, he suddenly switched to the Republican Party — the majority party in his district.
At the same time Blanchard was running against Groscost, Horne was joining him as co-sponsor of the alternate-fuels bill. Horne spent the better part of half-a-million dollars in his campaign to unseat Jaime Molera in the Republican primary race. Much of that money was spent on ads that his own party members say were over the top and blatantly racist.
When asked about the SEC charges, Horne screamed "mudslinging," and said he had "blocked out" that episode of his life. He blamed the whole thing on a "computer error." You have to wonder if the people who lost money by trusting Horne have "blocked out" that episode in their lives. You have to wonder what kind of character it shows that, in 30 years, Horne has made no effort to compensate his victims. It would be a safe bet that he would have won more respect spending those half-a-million dollars compensating those folks than he did bad-mouthing Molera.
Blanchard advocates giving local school boards more control over their own destinies — Horne threatens them with state takeover if their performance ratings fall below an arbitrary standard. I presume he's talking about the same state that has allowed its schools to fall to the bottom of every nationwide performance ranking.
While Blanchard says that parental involvement is a key factor in improving student performance, Horne is less enthusiastic about the parents' roles.
There, now that you know the facts, you won't have such a hard decision next Tuesday. But, however you decide—read my lips—VOTE!
Terry Moore is a graduate English student. Reach him at: limerick@ash.edu.
