And the District 2 school board winner is ...
... of course, it's about eight months too early to say.
But, if history is a guide, Debbie Maines has her work cut out for her.
District 2 is the only contested race this year for the Guilford County Board of Education. It drew two candidates: Maines and Garth Hebert.
Both ran two years ago for an at-large seat and finished a distant third (Hebert) and fourth (Maines) in the primary behind Dot Kearns and Jim Kirkpatrick. Neither qualified for the general election.
Hebert received about 900 more votes than Maines countywide.
Breaking the results down, however, I find that Hebert's advantage over Maines was more pronounced within District 2 itself. I figured it at 1,125 to 603, but that may be off a couple of votes here or there. I'm no math whiz. At any rate, it's a significant margin.
That's not to say Hebert is a lock to beat Maines. Both were running for the first time in 2004, and both could have learned very different lessons from the experience that will inspire different strategies and a different result this year. The issues may be different, the electorate may be different.
It's also hard to transfer the outcome because, last time, the two were running in a field of six candidates. This time it's head-to-head. By far, most of the votes in 2004 went to Kearns and Kirkpatrick. Whom will most of those voters support this time, Hebert or Maines?
Anything can happen. But one simple measure, the 2004 voting, suggests that Maines is starting behind.
Comments (10)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
Doesn't Maines work at Central High School? That would effect my vote (and I think her future votes) immensely.
Posted on March 1, 2006 4:58 PM
Thank you for clarify her REAL affiliation, Yellow dog.
Posted on March 1, 2006 5:53 PM
For what it is worth, I believe that Debbie Maines is the President of the Central PTA, so her loyalties would be clear. This district has been burdened by a representative that was supposed to represent both Central and Southwest areas, but was rarely, if ever, seen in Southwest. She was also known not to answer emails or telephone calls from Southwest area constituents, and she was known to be close to Central parents. Ms. Maines would have to overcome this problem to receive consideration from the entire district.
Posted on March 1, 2006 7:58 PM
Wasn't Maines a proponent for diversity and all this bussing stuff?
She is another Mendenhall in disguise.
Posted on March 1, 2006 10:15 PM
We need someone that will take care of Andrews too!
Mendenhall only cared for Central. They still have Dot Kearns.
Posted on March 1, 2006 10:28 PM
Doug what would be interesting to know is the following. From this same primary election make the assumption that any Kirkpatrick votes would go to Hebert and any Kearns votes would go to Maines.
Now for the voting precincts within this School Board district tally up the votes and what the result is.
It would be appreciated if you could do this.
Thank you.
Posted on March 2, 2006 8:17 AM
Again, I think it's ludicrous to think that any one person can represent these two areas. Dot and Mendenhall have assured that this would be impossible. No matter if the candidates had the wisdom of Solomon and the compassion of Mother Theresa, there is always going to be suspicion of ulterior motive. It would be like Israel and Palestinians having the same United Nations reps. Emerywood / Central people see n. High point as an Emerywood province and a resource to be tapped to preserve their way of life in the center of a town which has undergone demographic shift in the last forty years. N. High Point people, like any free people anywhere cannot take to being somebody's resource, especially when it features abandonment by their elected rep. putting them in a taxation without representation scene. This is a mess.
Posted on March 2, 2006 9:27 AM
Mark, I make it 1,699 for Kirkpatrick to 1,651 for Kearns in District 2 in the primary on July 20, 2004.
In the general election, Nov. 2, 2004, with a much larger turnout, Kirkpatrick led Kearns in the same precincts 8,379 to 5,516.
Posted on March 2, 2006 11:10 AM
Diversity,
Andrews has Walter Childs. Oh, I see what you mean.
Posted on March 2, 2006 11:11 AM
Stormy,
yes we have Walter but we know that he has been a puppet for Kearns and Mendenhall. Maines is for Central, we don't need another mendehall to ride Walter.
Posted on March 2, 2006 9:05 PM