Dems Take Ed Board: End of the Reign of the "Prince of Darkness"

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by: Colorado Pols

Rebecca McClellan.

As Chalkbeat Colorado’s Nic Garcia reported this weekend, and it’s an important endnote on the recent elections: Democrats will take control of the Colorado Board of Education for the first time in nearly 50 years after a squeaker of a win for Democratic CD-6 board candidate Rebecca McClellan.

Democratic challenger Rebecca McClellan has outlasted incumbent Republican Debora Scheffel in a hard-fought State Board of Education race that extended beyond Election Day, handing Democrats control of the governing board for the first time in nearly 50 years.

McClellan, a former Centennial City Council member, has an insurmountable lead of 1,296 votes over Debora Scheffel, a career educator and dean of the School of Education at Colorado Christian University, according to the latest unofficial results released Friday…

“It’s exciting, very exciting” McClellan told Chalkbeat. “I think that people in the district really believe in public education, particularly in the Cherry Creek School District. … It’s not a trivial matter. I think people want to see their public schools preserved.”

Steve Durham.

McClellan’s narrow victory is nonetheless expected to have a large impact on the future course of the Board of Education, which has been dominated in recent years by less-than-serious right-wing ideologues who have rendered the body almost a malevolent influence on public education in the state. Dogmatic crusades against important public health surveys and programs, and bizarre spates of conspiracy theorizing from board member and longtime Capitol lobbyist Steve “Prince of Darkness” Durham have overshadowed the board’s less controversial work–which led in part to the decision by Republican Board Chair Marcia Neal to resign last year.

Well folks, in a photo finish, it’s a new day for the Colorado Board of Ed.

6 thoughts on “Dems Take Ed Board: End of the Reign of the “Prince of Darkness””

ohwilleke says:

November 21, 2016 at 11:14 am

The fact that the State Education Board race, which is about as close as you get to a generic partisan preference test, was 50-50, while Morgan Carroll was crushed by Mike Coffman in the same CD-6 with exactly the same voters, is pretty discouraging.

It suggests that the even partisan split of CD-6 in terms of baseline party registration and voter inclination of real, but that through the power of incumbency that Coffman has secured genuine meaningful support relative to Democrat challengers. Whether Carroll and Romanoff were perceived as too liberal, or whether they were simply not extraordinary enough to overcome the incumbency effect, the future prospects for this seat are pretty discouraging.

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1. bullshit! says:
  
  November 21, 2016 at 11:48 am
  
  Hard to argue with you, unfortunately.
  
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2. Mike W. says:
  
  November 21, 2016 at 12:22 pm
  
  Carroll had millions of dollars of dark money attack ads thrown against her. McClellan's opponent barely campaigned. Pretty simple explanation actually.
  
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  1. JeffcoBlue says:
    
    November 21, 2016 at 12:36 pm
    
    Now THAT'S hard to argue with.
    
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    1. ajb says:
      
      November 21, 2016 at 1:37 pm
      
      Or maybe it's just God's will.
      
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  2. ohwilleke says:
    
    November 21, 2016 at 2:46 pm
    
    But, isn't the fact that third parties are going to marshal big $$ to support the incumbent against a challenger pretty much a fact of life in every challenge to an incumbent member of Congress?
    
    Any successful challenge, hardly specific to Carroll would have to deal with that issue. The exact details of the attack ads would differ, but surely there would be millions of dollars of attack ads thrown against any viable challenger. And, while these ads might have been "dark money", if by some miracle a ban on dark money were enacted during the next two years of Republican control, surely disclosed money would do essentially the same thing.
    
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