October 12, 2011 09:56 PM UTC

New GOP School Board Strategy: Vote for the Dads?

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• by: Colorado Pols

A few readers have e-mailed us this image of the yard sign for Jeffco School Board Candidates Preston Branaugh and Jim Powers.

We’ve been keeping a running catalogue of the best and worst yard signs over at Colorado Pols, but we think the sign for the GOP’s dynamic duo in the school board race warrants special comment.

We wouldn’t say it’s a bad sign. It doesn’t look great, but it tells you who’s running and for what. Jeffco School Board is noted big enough there at the bottom, and there isn’t a ton of wasted space. Both names are on the sign as much as you can fit “Preston Branaugh” anywhere, and while we think they could’ve made this sign look a lot better by not including first names, it kind of works for the whole XY chromosomes thing going on here.

That brings us to the “Vote for the Dads” part of the sign. Those who have e-mailed us have mentioned that they thought it both sexist and a clear indicator that both candidates are backed by the same group of people. We’re not sure if that matters. The GOP has made it no secret that they’re running Branaugh and Powers as a slate of sorts. They have no reason to hide that fact; the whole strategy behind pushing these candidates as Republicans is the hope that Republicans across JeffCo will realize that, even though it’s a “nonpartisan” race, there are still two good ol’ boys you can vote for.

The slogan-of-sorts at the top there actually strikes us as kind of clever. It’s hard to communicate to voters that they can vote for two separate candidates in this race. Sue Windels, in her 2008 run for commissioner, was always fond of saying “you can vote for one boy and one girl” during her campaign against Faye Griffin and Jason Bane’s campaign against Kevin McCasky. Saying “Vote for the Dads” is a quick and easy way to remind people who only glimpse at the sign to vote for both male names on the ballot. If we were Branaugh or Powers, we’d be using that talking point in every speech and in every elevator, so to speak. It’s pithy. It’s memorable.  

Still, we think it’s disingenuous for Jim Powers to be calling himself a “dad” in the context of Jefferson County Schools. Sure, he’s a dad by way of his skills as a progenitor, but his kids aren’t even in Jefferson County Public Schools. Powers has “made the personal decision to home school his children,” according to campaign literature, so he’s certainly not a dad in the PTA sense.

Contrary to the image “PTA meeting” conjures, there are quite a few dads who are heavily involved with their schools and the education of their children in Jefferson County. Jim Powers isn’t one of them; he’s running to make education decisions that wouldn’t even affect his own children. We get that being a “dad” may earn Powers some votes, but the only PTA meeting that he’s ever had to attend and the only bake sale he’s had to supervise have been in the comfort of his own home.

We don’t have anything against homeschooling: that’s a personal decision incumbent upon a child’s parents. We do, however, take issue with Powers calling himself a “dad” in the public education sense. That’s a title you can only earn after getting leg cramps from trying to fit in those tiny desks at parent night. He’s a father of children, but he’s not a father of children in Jefferson County Public Schools.