Another stealth school board election in the works

School board elections normally see a voter turnout of less than 4 percent of registered voters.  The Alb Tribune once described the 2007 school board election as a "stealth election" - nobody knew it was even taking place. 

The editors saw a stealth election as a bad thing, though inexplicably, they did as little as they possibly could to illuminate the process.

APS photo

Those were Tribune editors, including
Marty Esquivel besty and now $109K
a year APS  Foundation head Phill Casaus.

Casaus is currently part of a concerted slander and libel effort, link, of the sort that the leadership of the APS employs against complainants in order to avoid any real accountability for their own conduct and competence.

School board elections have always been kept on the down-low.  Search results for Journal coverage of APS school board elections speak for themselves.  Current Journal editors are indistinguishable from the old Trib editors. 

And here we go again.  The filing process for school board candidates closes in less than a week; Tuesday next and not one word in the Journal.

Had they any real interest in informing the democracy, they would be writing editorials about the importance of the election and soliciting qualified candidates, instead of writing their usual post election, day late and dollar short chastisement of Journal readers who didn't vote.

There is no reason to suspect Journal
Editor and Chief Kent Walz, another
Esquivel besty, will not do his best to
keep the election and salient issues
out of the Journal again.

One could argue, he already has;
less than a week before a crucial
election deadline, and Journal
readers are soaking in ignorance over the election.

Walz and other media heavy hitters will never explain, defend, deny or even acknowledge what looks like a deliberate effort to keep voter interest and scrutiny down.

• That School Board Member and candidate Marty Esquivel has spent a dozen teacher salaries or more in the defense of his ego in a federal lawsuit, and 
• that he plans to spend more, are legitimate issues in the upcoming election.

They speak to Esquivel's character and to the lack of oversight over school board spending on self serving litigation against the public interests.

• That felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators is being covered up and, that operational funds are being squandered in an effort to keep ethically redacted public records of investigations into that criminal misconduct hidden from public knowledge, are legitimate issues in the election.

• That the entire leadership of the APS has abandoned their responsibilities as role models, is a legitimate issue in the election.

• That the leadership of the APS will not commission, nor will they allow, an independent examination and review of ethics, standards and accountability in the APS, is a legitimate issue in the next election.

That none of those issues will ever come to light in the Journal or any other establishment media outlet, speaks to the undue influence that APS and their media cronies have over elections - school board elections in particular.

An uprising is clearly in order, but unlikely for as long as Walz, the Journal and their ilk remain dead set against one.




photos Mark Bralley