4 Days Until the Election!

This is a copy of an email that I sent to the staff here at Anderson. If you'd like the stickers that are mentioned, just let me know and I'll email the template to you ASAP.

--Ryan--

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Hi friends,

One of the things that I remember from election day growing up is that, after they voted in the morning before school, most of the adults could be seen sporting those "I Voted!" stickers that you used to be able to get at the polls. That tradition sadly went away with the rise of mail-in ballots, but the tradeoff is that I can vote while watching Gossip Girl, so I think that's reasonable.

Anyhow, I miss those stickers--so I went and made some. If you'd like an "I Voted!" sticker, there are some sheets in the staff room that you can use. I figure it's a quick and easy portable civics lesson that you can show on your chest.

Thanks!

--Ryan--

Dino Rossi and Christine Gregoire Have a Debate

Two weeks from today and the election will be behind us; three weeks from today the work for the 2010 election begins. We'll all get a reprieve from campaign ads, at least!

Of the 5 debates that they had, the best one for getting their insights into education was the 5th, hosted by King 5 TV out of Seattle. You can watch it off of their website here; the neat thing, too, is that you can watch it in sections, instead of trying to piece through the whole debate. The parts most related to education were 3 and 4.

Good luck to whichever candidate you're supporting--it should be a heck of a finish.

The Primary is Coming! The Primary is Coming!

In about three weeks, on August 19th, it will be primary election day here in Washington State. After the Governor the position with the most potential to impact us is Superintendent of Public Instruction, so I thought I'd pass along some resources that I've found that can help as you study the candidates!

The six candidates are, along with their campaign websites:

• Terry Bergeson, the incumbent running for her fourth term. Her official OSPI biography can be found here.
  
• Randy Dorn, recently Executive Director of the Public School Employees Union and a former state legislator.
  
• David Blomstrom, a fan of Hugo Chavez and past candidate for the office. His website is NSFW.
  
• Enid Duncan, a city council member and small business owner from Edgewood with experience advocating for special needs students.
  
• Donald Hansler, a former teacher and writer who once put forth an initiative that would have required lawmakers to pass the WASL in order to hold office.
  
• John Patterson Blair, a supporter of school vouchers. He finished third in the race in 2004.

Richard Roesler of the Spokesman-Review did an overview of the candidates on his blog in May; there was also an article with a bit more exposition in it, here.

Over at Politicker WA you can find out information about all the candidates by clicking on their name to see what stories they've done.

TV Washington has put together a Video Voter's Guide which gives you a chance to hear from the candidates themselves; if you follow the link to "View All", you can also download the interviews as an MP3. This goes along with the state's printed voter's guide, which should be in your mailbox soon if you haven't received it already.

The OSPI race could well be decided here in the primary; if anyone gets over 50% of the vote, they win. Make your vote count!