D-49 shapes up as nastiest of area school board races

Nine of this year’s 10 Pikes Peak area school board races have been low key and fairly polite, with one candidate forum so amiable it was referred to as a “love fest.”

But there is no love fest going on in Falcon School District 49,where seven candidates are vying for three slots that will give an embattled board an entirely new face.

In online stories and blogs about the D-49 race, comments are voluminous, impassioned and often mired in political mud, moreso than in any other race.

“I was surprised that people are being so negative and mean,” said Tammy Harold, who is running for the board for the first time. “I don’t have conflicts with them and didn’t realize they have them with me personally.”

Some candidates see the knock-down, drag-out online discussions as a rehashing of old grudges in a district that has been rocked by a year of discord, including an unsuccessful campaign to recall two school board members.

Candidate Jackie Vialpando, who was involved in the recall effort and ran unsuccessfully for a board seat in 2005, said this year’s race is more vitriolic than the last.

“I never suffered the personal attacks that I am this time,” said Vialpando. “I’m dismayed.”

Some people in the district believe the nastiness is part of a power play to stack the board with conservative Republicans in a race that is supposed to be nonpartisan, since school board candidates don’t run by party.

Or maybe it’s the nature of the beast.

Danielle Lindorf, a first-time board candidate, said her sister in Virginia warned her that school board races “are the worst of all politics.” Lindorf has seen that play out.

“If you want to argue issues, that is great, but there are personal attacks and slinging mud,” she said.

She was recently accused in an online discussion of being hand-picked by outgoing board member Mark Shook because they are both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“I guarantee I am not his puppet,” Lindorf said.

Internet fans the flames

While public debates have been civil, a key player helping stir the pot in D-49 is not a person, but a thing: the Internet.

Several candidates say the tone of the discussion for the school board race was set on forums such as district49.blogspot.com, which is run by Shook but is not tied to the district, and comments -- most of them anonymous -- made on gazette.com.

Vialpando and others contend that Shook has inserted partisan politics into a traditionally nonpartisan race, which has fanned some of the flames of the online postings. She said her answers to a candidates’ questionnaire on another site were placed on district49.blogspot and the word “Democrat” placed in front of her name, even though she had not put it there, and has not made party affiliation an issue. She maintains that her comments also were edited so it looked like she was apologizing for being a Democrat.

“I thought, ‘Wow, what is all that about?’”

Shook said his Web site notes that the people who post there are “solely responsible for their own words.” And he blames the injection of partisan politics on Tammy Harold and her husband, Tom, whom he said “had a push to ‘out’ me as a member of a Republican club.”

But it’s no secret that Shook belongs to the Republican Club of Falcon; he’s clearly listed as a member on the group’s Web site. Both Shook and the RCF have come out in support of Lindorf, Donahue Quashie and Christopher Wright, and, according to campaign finance reports, Shook has given Lindorf and Quashie $500 each.

Former board member Kent Clawson, meanwhile, criticized Vialpando on the district49.blogspot for getting support in her 2005 campaign from the Falcon Teachers Education Association. “It is one of the most dangerous things that I see with the Vialpando candidacy … in the end you are the tool for an organization that would support mediocrity and apathy solely because kids don’t pay dues,“ he wrote.

Vialpando said there was  nothing wrong with the endorsement, “considering we entrust our kids to teachers.”

“He is mad and bitter,” she said. “Gosh, let’s move on. He’s not even on the board any more.”

No chances to respond

Anonymous posters to Shook’s site and gazette.com, meanwhile, have put candidate Jon Rowley on the defensive by pointing readers to an April 2008 TV news story saying that Rowley was being investigated by the sheriff’s department because of an “improper touching” complaint. Rowley resigned, but the postings fail to note that authorities declined to press charges after an investigation.

What bothers Rowley is that no one asked him about it. “I would have been happy to respond. That makes me think that some people are playing political parlor games,” he said.

Harold was taken aback when Clawson — one of the two recall targets —posted on district49.blogspot, questioning the morals and values of herself and Villapando. The post referred to a 4-year-old old issue of whether to call the district’s December vacation period winter or Christmas break. Clawson quoted from a 2005 letter to the editor that Vialpando had written, noting that religious neutrality means not favoring any specific religious belief. She added in her letter that the controversy had been a learning opportunity for children, and thanked the board for giving children a chance to learn about the issue.

Clawson’s post concludes that if Vialpando is elected, “there will be no Christmas Break in her D-49.”

“These are the values you are electing when you vote for Tammy Harold and Jackie Vialpando,” Clawson concludes.

Harold was floored.

“For one thing, that issue is done and over with.  But they never asked me what my opinion of the issue was,” Harold said.

The candidates say they are trying to stay above the fray, but Tammy Harold says that her own supporters, like those of the other candidates, sometime step over the line when commenting online.

“It would be nice if everyone would quit and just let us all get our thoughts on the issues and how to help kids get out there.”

Lindorf agrees. “It’s good when we have disagreeing opinions. But when people’s attacks are personal, I feel it doesn’t belong in the race.”