Stand Gets Knocked By Publicola

In what might be considered a learning experience to other candidates, Publicola takes gives the "loser" tag to Stand for Children over their one-note support to legislative candidates. 

I'll let them tell you about it (bold mine):

"In this year’s primary, the hard-line education reform group Stand for Children supported Democrat Guy Palumbo as the insurgent Democrat against incumbent 1st District Democratic state Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe (D-1, Bothell). Stand believed that McAuliffe, as chair of the senate education committee, had blocked their reformist agenda. PTA dad Palumbo was a strong backer of their agenda.

However, Palumbo, who lost in the primary, de-prioritized Stand’s agenda (including charter schools) today by endorsing McAuliffe.

In a statement, Palumbo said:
The primary campaign was defined, by outside groups and the press, as a fight over education and charter schools. It was probably inevitable in a race that pitted the head of the Early Learning & K-12 Committee against a Northshore School Board member. Especially in a year that the charter school bill is on the ballot. However, there is a problem with the theme that developed in the primary.
After knocking on over 4,000 doors in this district, I can count on two hands the number of times charter schools came up in conversation. It was not the most important issue for the voters I spoke with.
The issues that I heard about over and over again at the doorstep were: jobs, health care costs and accessibility, partisanship getting the way of progress and tolling/gas taxes – in that order.
He went on to say McAuliffe was better on those issues.

Now, Stand is getting behind the Republican, Dawn McCravey, another ed reformer. In fact, Stand put $50,000 into an anti-McAuliffe independent expenditure campaign yesterday."

Good luck with that. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
$50K to unseat a state legislator? WOW. That is some serious dough. Does that come from local sources? (Hard to believe.) Or does it come from Stand's national headquarters in DC?

In any case it looks to me that Stand has given up all pretense of being a thought leader on education and has gone full-on political anti-union PAC.

It will be interesting to see if future Democratic political campaigns give Stand the time of day in asking for endorsements or in legislature should Stand's Republican, anti-McAuliffe pick Dawn McCravey, lose. I am guessing not.

Stand has shot itself in the foot on its public image, and undermined its Olympia powerbrokering, with this one.

EdVoter
Anonymous said…
So Palumbo took Stand for Children's endorsement and money and press and then upon losing turned around, said Stand's Education Reform agenda didn't matter to voters, and backed Stand's arch-enemy McAuliffe?

That's the funniest political story of the year.

DistrictWatcher
Both great comments (and yes, Stand has large out-of-state funding).
Anonymous said…
Stand CAN be beaten. Witness Joe Fitzgibbon's win over Stand's heavily-hyped Mike Heavey last year. Joe's pro-teacher, anti-Ed Reform. The 34th has some great elected officials in Olympia.

Demo
Anonymous said…
I came back to the blog today to see if there was any more talk about the downtown school, which I oppose until cohorts like SNAPP have a home. But this post reminded me to ask: Why is Stand for Children here?

Not what does Stand stand for -- I see their various initiatives on their website. I mean, why here, in Seattle, Washington and not some other state? I also don't understand why parents would spend their time on a group like this that doesn't actually resolve a district's issues. But maybe I am too wrapped up in Seattle Schools craziness. Explanations anyone?

Tired in the North End
Anonymous said…
Everett Herald coverage

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20121002/BLOG13/121009954#McAuliffe-backed-by-Palumbo-blasted-by-school-reform-group

Public School Parent
Charlie Mas said…
Here is a link to the Publicola article.
Anonymous said…
It's not complicated. It's the Right Wing at work. Not necessarily Republicans, but big money conservatives spreading their wealth around to ultimately privatize and commoditize "Human Capital" as much as possible. How creepy is that phrase, by the way? Almost like "Human Ingredients" or Soylent Green even. Ick.

"Won't Back Down" is being heralded by all the Right-Wing/Anti-Union groups but here's NPR's take:

For all its strenuous feints at fair play, though, Won't Back Down is something less honorable — a propaganda piece with blame on its mind. Directed with reasonable competence by Daniel Barnz from a speechifying screenplay he co-wrote with Brin Hill, the movie is funded by Walden Media, a company owned by conservative mogul Philip Anschutz, who advocates creationist curricula in schools. Walden also co-produced the controversial pro-charter school documentary Waiting for Superman, so the outfit is not without axes to grind.

As always, ladies and gentlemen, just follow the money. WSDWG
Eric B said…
"As always, ladies and gentlemen, just follow the money."

I was just telling one of my kids my two rules for initiatives:

1. If I read the initiative and can't tell what it does, vote no.

2. If I read the initiative and can't figure out where it would shift money, vote no.

Then we go on to figure out if it seems like good policy.
Anonymous said…
Seattle education 2010 article today links to :

http://current.com/shows/the-young-turks/videos/conservative-message-of-movie-wont-back-down-matches-backer-phil-anschutzs-stake-in-trashing-unions

Public School Parent
Anonymous said…
@Eric B: I'm almost to the point of telling my children "Trust No One" and "Believe Nothing."

We are living in a dark, deceptive, incredibly dishonest time.

The most successful snake oil salesman in history has nothing on the likes of Stand & the various mutations and pods of the Gates/Walton/Broad cartel.

WSDWG
Anonymous said…
Sometimes we need humor !

http://edushyster.com/?p=606#more-606

Public Sbhool Parent

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