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October 12, 2011 09:56 PM UTC

New GOP School Board Strategy: Vote for the Dads?

  • 6 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

A few readers have e-mailed us this image of the yard sign for Jeffco School Board Candidates Preston Branaugh and Jim Powers.

We’ve been keeping a running catalogue of the best and worst yard signs over at Colorado Pols, but we think the sign for the GOP’s dynamic duo in the school board race warrants special comment.

We wouldn’t say it’s a bad sign. It doesn’t look great, but it tells you who’s running and for what. Jeffco School Board is noted big enough there at the bottom, and there isn’t a ton of wasted space. Both names are on the sign as much as you can fit “Preston Branaugh” anywhere, and while we think they could’ve made this sign look a lot better by not including first names, it kind of works for the whole XY chromosomes thing going on here.

That brings us to the “Vote for the Dads” part of the sign. Those who have e-mailed us have mentioned that they thought it both sexist and a clear indicator that both candidates are backed by the same group of people. We’re not sure if that matters. The GOP has made it no secret that they’re running Branaugh and Powers as a slate of sorts. They have no reason to hide that fact; the whole strategy behind pushing these candidates as Republicans is the hope that Republicans across JeffCo will realize that, even though it’s a “nonpartisan” race, there are still two good ol’ boys you can vote for.

The slogan-of-sorts at the top there actually strikes us as kind of clever. It’s hard to communicate to voters that they can vote for two separate candidates in this race. Sue Windels, in her 2008 run for commissioner, was always fond of saying “you can vote for one boy and one girl” during her campaign against Faye Griffin and Jason Bane’s campaign against Kevin McCasky. Saying “Vote for the Dads” is a quick and easy way to remind people who only glimpse at the sign to vote for both male names on the ballot. If we were Branaugh or Powers, we’d be using that talking point in every speech and in every elevator, so to speak. It’s pithy. It’s memorable.  

Still, we think it’s disingenuous for Jim Powers to be calling himself a “dad” in the context of Jefferson County Schools. Sure, he’s a dad by way of his skills as a progenitor, but his kids aren’t even in Jefferson County Public Schools. Powers has “made the personal decision to home school his children,” according to campaign literature, so he’s certainly not a dad in the PTA sense.

Contrary to the image “PTA meeting” conjures, there are quite a few dads who are heavily involved with their schools and the education of their children in Jefferson County. Jim Powers isn’t one of them; he’s running to make education decisions that wouldn’t even affect his own children. We get that being a “dad” may earn Powers some votes, but the only PTA meeting that he’s ever had to attend and the only bake sale he’s had to supervise have been in the comfort of his own home.

We don’t have anything against homeschooling: that’s a personal decision incumbent upon a child’s parents. We do, however, take issue with Powers calling himself a “dad” in the public education sense. That’s a title you can only earn after getting leg cramps from trying to fit in those tiny desks at parent night. He’s a father of children, but he’s not a father of children in Jefferson County Public Schools.  

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6 thoughts on “New GOP School Board Strategy: Vote for the Dads?”

  1. Yes, it conveys that you can vote for two–but Lesley and Jill are both moms. Saying “vote for the Dads” means “over the Moms.” If their qualification is that they’re both parents, then what about being Dads makes that better than their opponents, who are Moms?

    Choosing to put that on the sign reeks of condescension toward mothers. Traditional gender roles place fathers as disciplinarians and voices of reason; it seems to me that this slogan is intentionally designed to evoke that sexist trope.

    1. “That brings us to the “Vote for the Dads” part of the sign. Those who have e-mailed us have mentioned that they thought it both sexist and a clear indicator that both candidates are backed by the same group of people.  Posted by Jeffco Pols”

      Oh pleeze!  Doesn’t the “Tough Moms” piece mailed by Lesley Dahlkemper and Jill Fellman reek of sexism?  Or does the charge only apply to males?

      The Columbine Courier ran a story with the headline that began “Democrat-Endorsed School Board Candidates Lead in Fundraising.”  It’s pretty clear that both candidates are backed by the same group of people… very partisan people.

      Potentially having an all-female board in the state’s largest school district, along with a female superintendent and a female JCEA president, is disturbingly sexist.  Apparently, diversity doesn’t count when it involves women and/or Democrats.  I guess the male perspective is irrelevant when it comes to the Jeffco Public Schools.  How sad for our children.

      1. The “tough Moms” came out AFTER and IN RESPONSE TO the troubling, if not overtly sexist, “Vote for the Dads” slogan. Because “vote for the Dads” subtly implies that the opponents aren’t parents, Jill and Lesley clarified that they are, indeed.

        Pardon me if I have very little sympathy for the generic “what about the menz?!?!” argument in your last paragraph. There is no legitimate argument that the composition of the Jefferson County School Board disadvantages men, because the school board is designed to oversee schools. It is not a legislative body tasked with matters such as gender discrimination; being K-12, it’s not even relevant to gender in college admissions.

        This comment just illustrates the fundamental difference between the two campaigns: The underfunded Tea Party candidates are fundamentally opposed to public education, so they’re willing to play any card possible, including a bizarre gender card, to get attention. The experienced and well-funded candidates, who happen to be women, are in favor of public education and are campaigning on specific proposals and philosophies to preserve and improve it in Jefferson County.  

        1. Democrats beat the diversity drum every time they can… except in this current circumstance.  How convenient!

          The “experienced and well-funded candidates?”  Now there’s a troubling phrase.  Since when does any school board race require an “experienced” candidate?  The school board would be better served if the actual public — not folks with a connection to the school district — were its members.  It is uncomfortable to see just how enthusiastic the JCEA is about Dahlkemper and Fellman.  It may just prove to be one, or both, of these candidates’ undoing.

          Most of the “well-funded” monies Dahlkemper and Fellman have came from fundraisers put on by Democratic officeholders, the union, or the current board members.

          It’s nice to see that you stated, as a K-12 organization, the board had no role to gender in college admissions.  Funny how the current board felt they needed to get involved in college admissions and vote 3-1 for Colorado’s “Dream Act,” so teenagers, who aren’t here legally, could get in-state tuition to state universities, while U.S. citizens from other states cannot.

           

  2. Just filled out my ballot this morning. I’m voting for the dads, because the “moms” are clearly hypocritical by campaigning together. If campaigning as “the dads” is sexist, what is campaigning as “the moms”? Could this website be any more biased? Please just give us information, not biased opinion.

    My vote is for “the dads” for school board, Bob Murphy for mayor and Adam Paul for city council.  

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