School Board removes 'white advantage' language from Equity Statement

The Palm Beach County School Board voted,

to remove controversial language citing "white advantage" from its newly adopted equity statement following hours of critical public comment.

BUT, Omari Hardy wants it to stay. Of course he does. Democrat Erica Whitfield wanted the language to stay...of course she did. Nothing was non-partisan with her race in 2014 against Republican Tom Sutterfield

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Election Night - A Night to Remember

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Yesterday was one exhausting day.  From working my polling precinct off and on from 6:45am up until 5pm, a city commission meeting followed by a President's Council meeting at my community (having to leave both early) and then an election party on Clematis Street, it was non-stop.  I went to bed believing that Crist had won as well as medical marijuana. Rick Scott took 49% of the vote to Crist's 47% and medical marijuana failed to get its 60%.

Thank God we live in a state that is 65,755 sq. miles and the state and national elections are not decided in Palm Beach County alone.  Heavily Democratic strongholds are Broward and Palm Beach which is hard to overcome while running as a Republican. (Even Erica Whitfield, in the non-partisan School Board race, promoted Party loyalty on her campaign literature..."the only Democrat in the race").  Florida is the 4th most populous state with Democrats still outnumbering Republicans among Florida’s registered voters. Republicans Among Florida’s 11,446,540 registered voters: 40% Democrat, 36% Republicans, 20% No Party Affiliation (independents) and 4% Minor Parties.

Now with the GOP controlling Washington with 52 seats in the Senate and the Democrats with 44, this is a huge win for Republicans that will shape President Obama's policies for the next two years unless he institutes more executive privilege.  And in the House the largest majority was won by the GOP since World War II, 246.

Patrick Murphy won his race which was no surprise.  He had some of the best campaign ads throughout this election.  All of those for whom I endorsed won other than for House District 22 (wishful thinking because Frankel in this area is hard to beat, sort of like Alcee Hastings in his). It's hard to figure Frankel's popularity. When she was mayor of West Palm Beach, she told the people to screw off and did it her way anyway but there are other voters out of this city who only know her as a Democrat. There is a lot of Party loyalty with voters. Amendment 3 was rejected by the voters with only 48% of approval. It needed 60%.

The other was the non-partisan School Board District 4 race where highly qualified Tom Sutterfield lost. The City of Lake Worth voters, (in the city where Whitfield resides) came out strongly for popular Erica Whitfield who had a resounding win over Sutterfield. Whitfield had the backing of several unions. Her attack ads (I hope those are not a "Mother's voice") helped her to gain thousands of voters for her win. Tom took it with grace and class.

Moms and Apple Pie aren't what they're cracked up to be - PB County School Board Race

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The School Board race in Palm Beach County is usually innocuous but the race for District 4 just became nasty. Who would think that a non-partisan race for a school board seat would turn into ugly politics with smears and lies from such a sweet looking mom.

I received the Whitfield flyer in the mail. It was produced by Fact Check Florida Electioneering Committee out of Jacksonville (Click here) so that she can distance herself from the attacks on her opponent that charged some of his contributors with no accountability, some anti homosexual agenda (she is attempting to get the large GLBT vote here)  and school vouchers...dirty pool. By stating that she is a Democrat, her campaign is capitalizing on the majority of registered Democrats in Palm Beach County to bring her campaign over the top. Even though Democrats are losing in opinion polls because of trust issues, her flyer states that she is "A Democrat We can Trust" and then proceeds to personally attack her opponent, Tom Sutterfield, because of some contributors.

Ms. Whitfield has received money from the usual suspects in Lake Worth that show up in every campaign, many against the best interests of our city...illegal banners and all. You know who they are without my even mentioning their names. Most of our city commissioners donated and Maxwell gave in the name of his company. They support development at any cost. Even Jeff Clemens has contributed to her campaign along with his PAC. There are land developers, builders, contractors, lawyers, plumbers, and engineering companies along with Associated Builders.

You have to wonder why this race is attracting so much money to Whitfield's campaign. Does the School Board Budget of $2,315,232,281 for 2015 have anything at all to do with it or the possibility of building new schools that might come up for consideration? The person who gets elected will be voting on multi-million dollar construction projects in addition to million dollar R and R projects, so would these contributors have her ear to influence her selection?

Whitfield to date: $50,241,33
Sutterfield to date: $33,166.95.

Why make a non-partisan race partisan? Some people resort to this type of tactic when the race is close or when they are losing and then have a PAC do the dirty work for them. This is not a good example for kids especially when your only credential is being a Mom and you choose to vilify your opponent by attempting to destroy his integrity.

School is all about teaching the Three R's...reading, writing and arithmetic as well as what's right and wrong.  Even her flyer got the District she is running for wrong.

Who can you trust to get it right?

Tom Sutterfield for District 4.

Erica Whitfield running for PB County School Board

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Lake Worth's own Erica Whitfield running
Go to Erica's Facebook page--