Ed Dept. email urged vote for boss
An Arizona Department of Education internal email, sent to all the department’s employees Thursday, included a plea to cast a vote in Tuesday’s state schools superintendent race for their current boss, Diane Douglas.
The email raises questions of whether Douglas’ re-election campaign for state superintendent of public instruction violated state laws that prohibit the use of public resources to influence the outcome of an election.
The email blast, sent shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday by the department’s communications office in the form of a newsletter, reminds staffers that “Arizona’s primary election day is already upon us!”
The brief email lists all of the elected offices that will be decided this election cycle, leaving out one key position: state superintendent of public instruction, the office that oversees the Department of Education.
“Also remember,” the emails continues, “our own Superintendent Diane Douglas is up for re-election and
she’s running a clean election.”
The final part of the email includes a posed photo of Douglas and her assistant superintendent for communications, Dan Godzich, wearing capes and superhero attire.
“VOTE DIANE DOUGLAS,” the email reads.
“THE WONDER WOMAN OF EDUCATION.”
Douglas responded late Thursday to a request for comment.
“The newsletter was sent out by an overzealous employee,” she said in a statement to “I was made aware of it shortly after 5pm and ordered it to be removed; which occurred within approximately one hour of its release.”
Her statement concluded, “The person responsible will be terminated.”
Douglas also attached her email to Department of Education staff, which said in part, “Neither I nor any of my leadership team directed staff to work on this article or its content, nor was it approved before it was sent. Please know that I take election laws very seriously and view this as completely unacceptable and wholly inappropriate.”
The email blast was sent at 4:50 p.m. Douglas’ letter to staff was sent at 6:35 p.m.
Douglas, a former Peoria Unified School District board member, narrowly won office in 2014 and has fielded four other Republican challengers in what’s turning out to be the most crowded statewide ballot in the Aug. 28 primary.
Republicans Frank Riggs, Tracy Livingston, Jonathan Gelbart and Bob Branch also are seeking their party’s nomination for state schools superintendent. Kathy Hoffman and David Schapira are running for the Democratic Party nomination.
Each of the five Republican candidates share similar perspectives on most of the key education issues driving conversations leading up to the Nov. 6 general election.
But Douglas’ opponents have criticized her tenure at the state education department, characterizing her as an ineffective leader.
Douglas re-election campaign has focused on characterizing the incumbent as someone who has advocated for parents and students.
The superintendent has touted several achievements during her tenure, such as getting rid of Common Core
“The newsletter was sent out by an overzealous employee . ... The person responsible will be terminated.”
learning standards — her main platform in the 2014 race — and playing a role in getting more education funding for teachers and students.
Her opponents, both the Republicans and Democrats, have accused Douglas of embellishing her victories or exaggerating her influence in state education policy discussions such as school funding.
Douglas’ Twitter account had been active for months after being mostly dormant since her 2014 win.
The superintendent had recently tweeted a video message about the department’s efforts to secure broadband for schools in the state’s far-flung rural areas.
Thursday evening — after the email newsletter was sent to department staffers — Douglas touted her school safety plan in another video.
It remained unclear late Thursday who, exactly, sent out the Department of Education email plugging Douglas’ re-election campaign.