Now the electoral math will get complicated: we have five candidates running for two open seats on the Madison Central School Board:
Nash got his petitions in just under the wire, submitting Friday at 4:45 p.m. (petition deadline was 5 p.m.) The one-term incumbents, Jay Niedert and Tammy Jo Zingmark, announced in Thursday's paper that they were not running. Niedert says (quoting from Chuck Clement's print article) that he wants to "step aside and let other persons in the school district serve on the board." Zingmark says she's out because she has to travel a lot for her latest job as HR manager for Hy-Vee in Sioux Falls. (Hey! Tammy! You're our in! Tell corporate to bring a store to Madison!)
We can take the outgoing incumbents (ah, there's a phrase that sounds nice, doesn't it?) at their word, but I suspect that helping their decision was a sense that the community is not terribly happy with the performance of the board. I also can't blame board members for wanting to get out of the way of Senator Russell Olson's favored budget cuts. The Legislature and our Governor are going to make running a school district even more difficult, and it's hard to fault incumbents for wanting to let some other citizens suffer on the board.
With a five-person race for two seats, all it takes to win is to be two out of five people's second choice. That seems a pretty low bar, but the lucky winners have to beat at least three other people to it. In this crowded field, candidates can't really keep their heads down and coast. Try to play Mike Rounds and be the nice guy who stays out of a fight between two leading candidates, and you still have to make yourself stand out from two other people. Even clinching second place is going to require relatively good press, name recognition, and maybe a little more door-knocking and flesh-pressing than usual in the school board race.
Along those lines, Thompson and Miller hold a slight advantage at the moment. They sent out press releases announcing their candidacies (with photos!). They also included the local online media (i.e., me!), demonstrating they recognize the value of the Web in modern local government. I made sure to hit the press with my high school renovation plan while I was circulating petitions, which give my signers something to talk about. I've not seen pressers from Gunderson or Nash yet.
The election isn't until April 12, and there is the county referendum March 15 on our updated zoning ordinance. One could argue that we could wait until after that vote to get the electorate's undivided attention (well, less divided: we have a Madison City Commission race, with Roger Husman challenging incumbents Dick Ericsson and Scott Delzer). But the size of the field probably trumps that option. Hit the press, put up the websites, lodge your name and face (and ideas!) in people's minds now!
Id vote for cory if i could.