Six fall candidates all Democrats
Republicans have become an endangered species on the Columbus Board of Education: There will be no GOP candidates in the fall general election after two failed to make it through Tuesday’s primary.
Instead, it will be Democrats against Democrats in the race for three open seats on a board made up solely of Democrats that governs Ohio’s largest school district. Three members of the “Yes We Can” wing of local Democrats hung close to the three incumbents, who are officially endorsed by the Franklin County Democratic Party. The incumbents took the top three spots.
With the votes at most precincts counted, board Vice President Michael Cole was leading with 17.4 percent, Ramona Reyes was in second with 17.1 percent, and Dominic Paretti was in third with 14.6 percent.
“We need to get out and ensure that people know who we are and look at how far the district has come,” Reyes said.
“Columbus is ready for something new,” said Erin Upchurch, who along with Amy Harkins and Abby Vaile formed the Yes We Can slate of Democrats. Upchurch took fourth with 12.2 percent of the vote.
Two years ago, one Republican, Jim Hunter, made it through the primary, only to lose big in the general election.
Paretti said the election results show that voters like the direction the district is going.
As for the Democratic sweep of slots in the November race: “It’s good to see,” he said. “Columbus is a progressive city. This is just a reflection.”
This year, two Republicans, Zach Amos and Seth Golding, were the only candidates in the field of eight knocked out in the primary. The six Democrats will advance to the general election. In past years, Republicans such as Bob Teater, Jeff Cabot, Mike Wiles and Terry Boyd sat on the board, and Teater and Boyd rose to become its president.
But such GOP success looks to be a thing of the past, as the city of Columbus has turned increasingly blue, and the school district, representing many of the older, poorer and more heavily minority parts of the city, has turned a solid navy blue.
“Wow, that’s awful,” said Republican candidate Golding. “We have really drifted blue.”
“It’s just a sad state for Columbus that apparently all the Republicans are in the suburbs. I really looked forward to guarding people’s property taxes and see what I could do to try to make sure that the school board spent their money wisely.”
Amos said the results were a holdover from the presidential race in November.
“Last year showed a big uprising of this antiestablishment (movement) spreading across the nation,” Amos said Tuesday evening as he was going down to defeat in unofficial results. “The Yes We Can folks are part of this Bernie (Sanders) movement. It’s not a secret that in Columbus City Schools, the voters are even more Democratic than Columbus as a whole.”