Four out of five CVESD board members got their positions without running for election

Marissa Bejarano, who filled, without facing the electorate, the position that her father (former San Diego police chief and current Chula Vista police chief David Bejarano) obtained through appointment

See also: Pat Judd, David Bejarano, Pamela Smith, Larry Cunningham and Bertha Lopez spent tax dollars to prevent "trustee areas"

The following March 2012 article resonates even more strongly now that Marissa Bejarano (photo above) has replaced her father on the Chula Vista Elementary School District board without having to face the voters of Chula Vista.

Are Too Many Chula Vista Elementary School Board Members Handpicked?
By Susan Luzzaro
San Diego Reader
March 28, 2012

Jill Galvez, a Chula Vista resident and former city council candidate, believes if you want to be a trustee for the elementary school district "you should have to get out there and knock on doors, shake hands, and make your promises to voters face to face." That's why she is disappointed to learn that yet another trustee is going to be appointed.

On March 19 the Chula Vista Elementary school board announced trustee Russell Coronado's resignation, effective March 30. They voted to fill the position rather than hold a costly special election.

The Union Tribune reported on March 20 that three out of the five members initially got on the board through appointment: "Trustee David Bejarano was chosen out of a pool of 39 candidates in 2007 after Cheryl Cox stepped down following her election as mayor of Chula Vista. Luffborough was selected out of 23 applicants in 2009 after Bertha Lopez resigned to serve on the Sweetwater Union High School Board."


Trustee Larry Cunningham was appointed in 1998.

After the board fills Coronado's position, four out of the five trustees will have been appointed.

It is common knowledge that incumbents, appointed or not, have advantages. They receive name recognition and are more likely to receive campaign donations. Galvez, among others, believes that in order to avoid having a school board that picks its own members, appointees should agree to serve only as interim trustees and not seek re-election.


Board president, Pamela Smith, was not available for comment.

Mitt Romney: Teachers Unions' Contributions To Political Campaigns Should Be Limited

Mitt Romney: Teachers Unions' Contributions To Political Campaigns Should Be Limited
The Huffington Post
By Mollie Reilly
09/26/2012

Mitt Romney embraced campaign finance reform on Tuesday. But rather than targeting unlimited corporate contributions or lending his support to existing campaign finance legislation, Romney instead suggested limiting teachers unions' donations to politicians.

The Republican presidential candidate came down on teachers unions for supporting political candidates during an NBC-sponsored forum on education in New York City. During the "Education Nation" event, moderator Brian Williams asked Romney about his thoughts on the teachers' strike in Chicago.

"I don’t know that I would prevent teachers from being able to strike,” Romney said, acknowledging that "allowing to teachers to strike on matters such as comensation" is within their rights.

Instead, Romney said the focus should be on removing the teachers unions' money from the political equation.

“We simply can’t have a setup where the teachers unions can contribute tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of politicians and then those politicians, when elected, stand across from them at the bargaining table, supposedly to represent the interests of the kids," Romney said. "I think it’s a mistake. I think we’ve got to get the money out of the teachers unions going into campaigns. It’s the wrong way for us to go. We’ve got to separate that.”

Romney also noted that the unions tend to be particularly friendly to Democratic candidates.

The former governor's comments fall in line with arguments made against the Supreme Court's controversial Citizens United decision, in which the court ruled that corporations and unions can spend unlimited amounts on campaigns under the First Amendment. Romney has previously declined to criticize the ruling, telling the Portsmouth Herald's editorial board that he believed "their decision was a correct decision."

Romney has advocated for overturning legislation like the 2002 McCain-Feingold Act, instead supporting unlimited individual contributions to campaigns as long as there is full disclosure...




Is it possible that Romney is upset with teachers because they didn't give him a good science education?

Mitt Romney Wonders Why Ann Romney's Airplane Windows Don't Roll Down Huffington Post
09/24/2012

...After his wife's plane was forced to make an emergency landing this weekend, Romney told the Los Angeles Times, he was worried for her safety. The candidate then continued on a bizarre tangent that showed just how little the Republican nominee understands about flight.

“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney told the paper. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly."

Romney said the biggest problem in a distressed aircraft is that "the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous."...

It's Called Labor Day, Not SuperPac Day

It's Called Labor Day, Not SuperPac Day (includes video)
Sept. 3, 2012

Prop 32 was intentionally written to advantage corporate special interests and disadvantage working people. The SuperPAC Billionaires are enthusiastic about Prop 32, because it will only make their independent expenditures more powerful.

SuperPac Billionaire, who can also be found on twitter, made a video about his plans once Prop 32 passes. But voters across California are fighting to make sure that never happens.

As a teacher I've dedicated my life to bettering others, and I deserve a voice! I'm saying "no" to this greed by voting "no" on 32!
- Kimberly Laws, San Diego

Join Kimberly by pledging today to vote No on 32

W. enters my wife’s schoolboard race

(Credit: AP/Courtesy of the author)

W. enters my wife’s schoolboard race
Our family gets a close-up look of how big money has taken over politics -- even at the local level
By David Sirota
Oct 21, 2011

Before it happens, it’s hard to know how you’ll feel when you see a slickly produced, oil-CEO-financed flier implicitly attacking your 11-month-old baby for not being old enough to attend school and explicitly criticizing your family for not being able to afford a home...

Six months ago, when my wife, Emily, decided to run for a school board seat here in Southeast Denver, I was (perhaps naively) expecting what we used to get from the most local of local races for such part-time, unpaid positions: lots of door knocking, a few yard signs, maybe a barbecue or two...

Emily knew it would be a tough race against her opponent, a deep-pocketed investment banker, but she felt confident she could run a solid campaign. She thought her experience as a social worker and community organizer in Denver gave her the tools to mount a good ground game, and she felt that her longtime policy work at the federal, state and local level was a good match for the school-board job. She also has deep roots in the community; her campaign has been endorsed by the district’s state representative and city councilors, by the city auditor, and by the key legislators who serve in the state’s senior education policymaking positions.

...Emily had thought a “big” contribution meant a few friends joining up to scrape together $500. But, in the last few weeks, news broke that oil CEOs and financial executives were cutting $10,000 and $25,000 checks to her opponent. We found out that notorious front groups like Stand for Children were funneling in tens of thousands of dollars of out-of-state financial industry cash, and we started hearing about serious threats of retribution from big-time professional politicians.

...In the process, this little grass-roots school-board race has become so inundated by big money and national political forces that none other than former President George W. Bush just made an education-themed appearance – one clearly designed to influence the education debate dominating the upcoming school board election.

At the local level, there are often no campaign contribution limits at all, so the rich are free to dump enormous sums of money into elections.

(Here in Denver, for instance, EdNewsColorado reports that “one quartet of donors gave a combined $92,000 each to the same three candidates, all of whom have been endorsed by the Colorado chapter of Democrats for Education Reform and by Stand for Children” — two front groups funded by the financial industry.)

[Maura Larkins comment: Regarding Democrats for Education Reform, I would like to say that it's nice that some Democrats are willing to stand up to the teachers union. Stand for Children, however, sounds like they are just knee-jerk corporate types.]

As NBC’s local affiliate 9 News noted in reporting on a coordinated Republican Party attempt to buy school board races all over the state, “Once thought to be ‘mom and pop,’ [school board] elections have now turned into coordinated, professional campaigns.”

...In one row, it contrasts my wife and her opponent based on the “number of children [each has] in Denver Public schools.” (My wife’s opponent: “3 daughters, 15 years and counting”; my wife: “0.”) And I can tell her that voters will realize that this particular comparison is grossly unfair, because it suggests that our son not being old enough to attend school is somehow a personal failing.

...I know that whether she wins or loses, the real damage has already been done.

When the same elites who fund federal elections start pouring unfathomable sums of money into our community’s school board races, it robs us of the last promise of democracy: the hope that while wealth and power dictate federal and state policy, every person can still have a small impact on his or her own local community.

...It’s easy to delude yourself into thinking that the only elections that matter are celebritized presidential and Senate contests, and that local elections for your school board or town council or county commission don’t count. Clearly, that’s not the case. The most powerful people of all sure think those local races do matter...

Candidate Lutz announces hunger strike until Hunter agrees to debate

Candidate Lutz announces hunger strike until Hunter agrees to debate
NEWS RELEASE
August 11, 2010
San Diego County, Calif.

"Representative Hunter either has no respect for the voters of his district, or else is so terrified of engaging in an honest debate on the issues that he refuses to face his challengers," said Ray Lutz, the Democratic candidate challenging Rep. Duncan D. Hunter for California's 52nd congressional seat.

In two separate, hand-delivered letters, the Lutz campaign requested a series of eight debates, taking place in each community throughout the 52nd district. Delivery of the second letter was recorded on video, and was greeted with malice, verbal abuse and expulsion of the camera from the Hunter's office. Libertarian candidate Michael Benoit agreed to the series of debates without condition.
For the time being, all debates have been canceled.

"Until Hunter steps up to the plate, I'll be stepping away from the dinner plate," Lutz said. "Starting at sundown this Thursday, August 12, I will refuse to eat until he agrees to debate. I hope my sacrifice will make him realize the community expects him to take their issues seriously.

"Hunter obviously has no respect for the democratic process," Lutz said. "But, to be fair, his votes prove he has no respect for seniors, the unemployed, small business owners, tribal rape victims or anyone who has been stomped on by our healthcare system."...

Campaign reform

Every time you see a politician on TV, wouldn't it be great if you could see a his top three campaign contributors listed right under his name?

Or what if whenever registered lobbyists go the capitol or meet with legislators, require them to wear safety-orange vests that say "LOBBYIST" in big letters on them.

How about we heavily tax corporate campaign contributions? That way at least we won't have to tax working people to give the corporations what they want.

Instead of trying to limit political donations, force all candidates for public office to list all donors and dollar amounts on a publicly accessible web site. Corporations won a big victory recently, allowing them to contribute unlimited amounts to political groups, on the basis of their right to free speech. So, fine, let them have free speech. But not secret backroom deals. Speak up, corporations. Let us all hear what you have to say.

Let the public know who members of Congress are meeting and talking with.

Make it illegal for members of congress to receive gifts or money from lobbyist or special interest groups - personally or for campaigns while in office and 10 years after. I am tired of congress members voting in favor of who ever pays them the most.