Last fall, when the Tennessee legislature in a special session changed the law to allow school board campaigns to be conducted on a partisan basis, the cry went up from most Democrats and a few Republican that it would - gasp! - bring politics into elections where the education of our children is at stake.
Republicans in Hamilton County immediately accepted the challenge and said they would hold a primary for candidates. Local Democrats, grumbling that Republicans gave them no choice, reluctantly agreed. So it is that in the May primary we will have partisan races for candidates to represent their parties in the August general election.
But anyone who believes these races haven't been free of politics simply hasn't been paying attention.
We'll take the three competitive races for the Hamilton County Board of Education in 2020 as examples.
In the most expensive school board race ever run in the county, winning District 2 candidate Marco Perez received pre-election contributions of $29,453. That amount included donations from then-Chattanooga mayoral candidate Tim Kelly, soon-to-be Chattanooga City Council candidate Ken Hays and former Chattanooga City Councilman Peter Murphy, all left-of-center candidates.
Losing candidate Tom Decosimo took in $39,575, including amounts from future state Rep. Greg Vital, then-Chattanooga City Councilman Jerry Mitchell and former Chattanooga Mayor Jon Kinsey, all center or right-of-center candidates.
In other words, it cost Perez $5.58 per vote and Decosimo $10.28 in the race for the seat for constituents of Signal Mountain and part of Red Bank.
In District 1, north Hixson, Soddy-Daisy and Sale Creek, Rhonda Thurman won her fifth term on the board with contributions of $12,365, including amounts from Vital, state Sen. Bo Watson, then-Hamilton County Commissioner Chester Bankston, and former Hamilton County Commissioner Joe Graham - all Republicans. The Good Government PAC, which shares an address with the aforementioned Decosimo, added $5,000.
Nevertheless, she was outspent by opponent Stephen Vickers, who pulled in $13,799.
In the end, Thurman spent $3.48 per vote and Vickers $4.40.
On the other side of the county, in District 7's East Brainerd and Apison, in what this year would likely be a primary race since both candidates are Republicans, Joe Wingate won a second term despite pulling in less than half the contributions of his opponent. He raised $5,800, including a contribution from Hamilton County Commissioner Randy Fairbanks.
But his opponent, Debbi Meyers, took in $12,51o, including amounts from Hamilton County Commissioner Tim Boyd's campaign committee and current Hamilton County Commission candidate Lee Helton. Plus, the Good Government PAC kicked in a whopping $8,100 to try to knock off the incumbent.
It cost Wingate a modest $1.56 per vote and Meyers $3.96 per tally.
And that bring us to today.
Late last year, local Democrats were soliciting on their website for candidates to run in 2022 county races. Now they've got some, if they qualify.
Jenn Piroth, who was all over local media last fall expressing concerns about her four children attending public schools in person when the delta variant of the coronavirus was raging, will challenge incumbent Joe Smith in District 3.
Ironically, it was Piroth who following passage of the bill to allow partisan school board races told WDEF: "Our communities are already so divided, and I feel like our children deserve better than to be caught up in partisan politics."
In District 5, incumbent Karitsa Jones will run for her third term, now under the Democratic banner. To date, she has no Republican opposition.
In District 6, incumbent Jenny Hill said she would not seek re-election when she ran for and won a seat on the Chattanooga City Council in 2021.
So far, Ben Connor, a public school parent and Northside Learning Center board chairman, has picked up papers to run as a Democrat, and Cindy Fain, who ran Republican Lemon Williams' 2018 campaign for state representative, and Hamilton County Republican activist Delores Gross Vinson has picked up petitions to run as Republicans.
In District 8, Tucker McClendon is giving up his seat after one term to run for county commission. So far, only two Democrats have picked up papers for the seat, Katie Perkins and former teacher and District 30 state representative candidate Sandy Norris Smith.
James Walker, who was appointed to the District 9 school board seat when Dr. Steve Highlander became a Hamilton County commissioner following the resignation of Bankston, will run for a full term as a Republican. Gary Kuehn, a retired principal, has picked up papers to oppose him in the Republican primary, and Dr. Steve Caudle, a local minister, has picked up papers to run as a Democrat (as well as papers to run for county commission).
In the two new districts created during redistricting last fall, former Chattanooga Autism Center vice president Roddey Coe and Faye Robinson have picked up papers to run as Republicans in District 10, and Virginia Anne Manson, a director at Baylor School, and Steve McKinney to run as Republicans and Jill Black as a Democrat in District 11.
Candidates have until noon on Feb. 17 to qualify, and then the politicking for this already political board will pick up in earnest.