I’ve spent many an election night refreshing pages on lavote.net and/or ss.ca.gov. As it concerns Santa Clarita, I’ve learned this much: you learn almost everything minutes after the polls close at 8 (when the results from absentee ballots sent early enough to be counted are announced) and then you won’t get any news for several hours into the night.
You see, the ballots from the SCV aren’t counted until they are picked up and transported to Norwalk. It’s quite a wait. It isn’t unusual for an SCV election night party to turn the lights off before a second update is posted. Usually, after the first results are posted, the story is over. Not this year.
In the COC races, incumbents Fortine and Wilk are each leading their challengers by about four points. The Hart board is almost a three-way tie. In Saugus, challenger Steven Winkler is in second place in a two-seat race. The Sulphur Springs race is favoring the incumbents, but challenger Priscilla Lofton still has a chance.
About 3/4ths of the voters in these elections vote by absentee, but not all absentee ballots are received in time to be included in the first count. The results posted thus far account for about half the vote total as 2009. I’m guessing that we’ll see a smaller turnout than 2009, but I could be wrong. I’m surprised in more ways than one tonight.
At some point tonight, we’ll start seeing the votes come in. Here are some direct, refresh-friendly links for the local races.
COC: Fortine/Shaw
COC: Wilk/Hill
Hart
Saugus
Sulphur Springs
Newhall Measure E
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I seriously can’t believe that Heather Davis (WsH) is in the running. Obviously people voted for……that one lady who isn’t an incumbent……
I had the pleasure of meeting Davis at a candidate forum my kids school hosted. She was very nice. Seemed like she’d make a nice friend. Board member…..I think not. She’s really (sadly, terribly, ridiculously) uninformed on all things educational administration, policy, funding. I wanted so badly to love her. I wanted her to be the Michelle Rhee of the SCV. A teacher by trade, a passionate and educated educational advocate by choice. The reality, she seems like a sweet lady…………
Heather Davis struggled to name the six existing high schools in the Hart District when I interviewed her, plumbing her memory as to what school Canyon played in football when her daughter was a cheerleader. Really?
Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me at all. Really, she seemed like a nice lady and I imagine she’s a good teacher, but that’s about it. She was really, sorely, sadly uninformed. I was just a fellow citizen/parent in the crowd and felt vastly more capable of being a board member / answering the posed questions than I feel she is/was.
We all know that cheer leaders don’t even know when their team is on offense or defense
Congratulation to Stephen Winkler who ran a one man campaign and knocked incumbent Rose Diaz off the Saugus Unified School Board. Winkler asked me for my vote at the SCV Patriot meeting and Petz discarded his VBM ballot to vote for Winkler at the poll. He should be a colorful addition if he ontinues to wear the Nixon and Goldwater buttons. He may support the movement to place the words In God We Trust in every classroom. What do you think about this one Timmy?
Patrick Hill-my nemisis ran very close to Wilk – a head scratcher but may evidence the power of the establishment GOP in this valley as they sharpen up their knives for 2012.
Time to gear up for the fight to come next year. December 19 is just around the corner.
You might as well focus on local since your man Cain is sinking like the Titanic. Who is Romney going to pick as his VP candidate?
Jon Huntsman. bahahahah!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/11/09/jon-hunstman-for-president-could-he-be-tea-party-s-anti-romney-candidate.html
Why not Johnson?
You know, I ask myself that every day. He should be President.
The Tea Party cannot cope with his progressive and popular stances on social issues. Which is a shame- as he has proven himself to be the most fiscally conservative one of the bunch.
Congats to Stephen Winkler-nice to have a member with Germanic heritage in a position of authority.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1575107407
You sir are a comedians dream come true!
Too bad The Signal wasn’t prepared for this upset. Terrible reporting on the SUSD race.
I am really impressed at the comments here for the challenger’s runs here. I was hoping there would be more changes in the board, given all of the controversy, the money spent to investigate improper behavior, the full on struggle to build another Belmont in Castaic, just because the money is there, the consistent inability to account for monies spent, and if you have ever attended a board meeting, the constant infighting between the board members.
I attended the same meeting that “Walker” attended, and it seems to me that there was a lot of controversy regarding Davis’ answers to charter schools, and that most of the attendees/parents were quite upset that she would not commit to a response regarding how charter schools in the district would be funded. Her response was quite honest, in the fact that, if elected as a board member, it would be part of her responsibility to determine if it was the right choice to fund additional charter schools from the Hart budget, as it does take away from what the rest of the district gets. She also spoke about state and federal grants that could be obtained in order to help out Santa Clarita Valley International Charter School. In addition, she also explained that there is no reason that the Hart district could take the same approach to “normal” schools that the charter schools do, for example, enabling the teachers to put different curriculum together in order to better the students, and not be restricted by standardization.
That appeared to be her 1st public forum, and there some questions that she was not immediately familiar with, but if you had bothered to follow her on subsequent interviews within the Signal, KHTS, and SCVTV, then you might have gathered, in addition to getting up to speed on all of the concerns, that she has already had extensive experience, rising through the ranks, as it were, from “yard lady” to teachers assistant, to going back to school to getting several credentials, her bachelors, masters, and is working on a 2nd masters in administration. She also stated that she had served on several administrative school boards including being president of the teachers union in Acton, book site committee approval, PTA treasurer..etc.
For you to claim that she has no experience in that functionality just shows how well you listen or follow what is really happening.
Walker, if you thought you could do a better job, as a non educational based citizen/parent then why the heck did you not get involved and run? Biatching and complaining about something and doing nothing about it seems quite futile.
Timothy,
This is also quite revealing, in that you were so adamant about endorsing and voting for her, yet every step of the way you have put her down in any way possible (flaky,misinformed,struggling) in print, and pretty much discouraged any challenger to step forward.
She missed by 1% of the votes, with no campaign whatsoever. It seems to me that she could have done better without your “vote” and less of your vitriol, which is out and about for all the world to see.
According to Tammy @ the the Signal, this won’t be the last time you hear from her.
I find your take on the townhall kind of entertaining. If anything Davis was extremely supportive of Charters, though I’m not convinced she has a good understanding of the actual workings/approval process of a start-up charter (her personal experiences are at an LAUSD conversion). Your assertion that there was controversy over her answer regarding approval of additional charter schools is comical. She *didnt understand the question* which is why the room got heated LOL. The question was in regards to whether or not the members would again be WILLING TO CONSIDER (not approve, consider) a chart that included grades K-6. They *do* have a charter w/grades K-6 included and have since had other on their table. During one charter ap process (Einstein), it was said that the HSD didn’t feel they (a 7-12 district) had the resources to charter grades K-6. So….HSD currently has a K+ school under their umbrella, the question posed was whether or not the candidates would entertain a (hypothetical) future ap that included grades below 7. It went round and round and round and she NEVER caught on to what was being said and in the end her answer was that she would deny it if it might compromise the financing of the district (which isn’t legal and had little to do with the question). While this was the most animated situation of the night, the above could pretty much describe *almost every* question posed that had anything to do with the workings outside of the classroom.
I’m not really invested enough in the situation at this point to get in to it, seeing as how the election is decided, but I’ll point out that the facilities funding she knew NOTHING about the requirements of the facilities funding she suggested. A question was posed re: facilities and she answered that the school should look in to grants since that is what her (extremely low income) school used for facilities and wasn’t at all familiar with the requirements of that funding. Gloria, as well as members in the audience, were able to help her understand what funding program she was referring to and why that wasn’t a viable option/solution to the posed question.
FTR, while I only met David that one evening (and since I’m guess you’re her husband, *hi*, I gave you guys a school tour prior to the meeting), I did keep tabs of her thoughts in the press. Actually, I thought they (including the article about the above mentioned townhall) were VERY flattering. I admit, I might have voted for her had I been less informed. I *am* familiar with her scaffolding from yard duty to educator. I’m impressed. I’m sure it was a difficult process and I commend her for that.
Why wasn’t I running myself? Um, I’m sorely under qualified. Just because I felt/believe myself to be far more qualified than Davis goes a long way from my suggesting I’m even borderline qualified/capable……says a lot LOL. Further, lack of candidacy does not equal lack of involvement or advocacy. I dedicate myself *daily*, obscene hours per day, to the educational institutions and reform that *I* am passionate about, where *I* feel my talents and knowledge are best served. So far as the HSD board is concerned, I take myself to the polls and place a well informed vote. *That* is how I can best serve the HSD board. Do I think the incumbents are great, no. Do I wish we had a passionate education reformer amongst us, ready to enter the HSB kicked and screaming, heck yeah! But sadly that wasn’t this election. Maybe next time.
Again. She seemed super nice. I bet she is great and I think it’s awesome that she had the gumption to run at all, I just think she’s sorely under qualified. No biggy. Nothing personal.
P.S. – Heated is probably an inaccurate way to describe the scene (in regards to the charter approval question). Boisterous better describes the scene. No one was upset, though I imagine quite a number of people went home with fewer hairs on their head from all the pulling their hair out when she never seemed to ‘get’ it, despite how elementarily it was explained LOL.