June 17, 2013 02:36 PM UTC

This is HUGE - Rosemary Rodriguez Running In District 2 Race for Denver School Board

• 3 Comments
• by: catpuzzle

Really big news in the Southwest Denver School Board race – Rosemary Rodriguez will be running for the District 2 seat currently occupied by that disgrace of a board member, Andrea Merida. She's formerly president of the Denver City Council, and is Senator Bennet's State Director.

This is according to this Ed News Colorado story.

Rodriguez will definitely enter the race as a clear frontrunner, and – based on the support it looks like she's already assembled – it seems like she might already have the race wrapped up. She's got a who's who of grassroots leaders, electeds, progressives, etc in her corner.

According to her website she's got the support of Wellington Webb, Dan Pabon, and Rudy Gonzales, all of whom backed Arturo Jimenez in 2011. She's got the support of Tim Sandos, who's been a longtime powerhouse in the Southwest Denver community. She's also got Polly Baca and many many others. A lot of these folks have been on the other side of some of the debates in Denver, so props to Rodriguez for assembling such a strong, diverse coalition of people. Exactly what the seat needs after Merida, who has been so divisive (among many other things).

From the looks of it, Rodriguez has a ton of great experience for the job and has represented the community before. DCTA hasn't endorsed in the race, and took a pass on Merida (who they've been allied with). Another union-linked candidate (Rosario C. de Baca, a former union organizer) has also entered the race, and Rodriguez herself has really strong progressive credentials, which should make it a very tough choice. Certainly, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to endorse against Rodriguez, given how strong she'll be. De Baca is a community activist, but as far as I can tell, she probably doesn’t have much of a shot at winning the seat – she just makes things hard, and probably now, impossible, for Merida. My guess would be that DCTA sees the writing on the wall and sits this one out. At least, that's probably the most sensible thing for them to do.

Either way, Rodriguez is a serious favorite to win this seat, so this may (finally) mark the end of our mis-adventure with Andrea Merida.