77th AD Primary Preliminaries Finally End

Four 77th AD Democratic candidates will be missed this Saturday at the Westside Community Market: Dianne Hesselbein, Fred Wade, John Imes, and Doug Zwank (in order of finish).  Every one of the four would have served with distinction if they had won, and they deserve a huge "thank you" for being willing to put all that time and money into offering themselves as candidates.

Brett Hulsey worked very hard for every vote of his considerable margin, which was far larger than I had predicted.  Now he has to beat back Ben Manski, who will try to beat the very long odds against a third-party candidate.  I had Manski at 10-1 two weeks ago, and wrote then that his best long-shot possibility was "if Hulsey wins the Democratic primary, Manski could attract enough of the supporters of the other four that don't like some part of Hulsey's history to squeak in." So now does that make Manski's odds now better than 10-1?  Nope. Hulsey's margin was big enough, and his campaign professional enough, that he should win going away in November. If I had to bet real money, 10-1 would be fair odds. If a bookie was involved, 12-1. There are no fair odds possible on the Republican candidate, Dave Redick.

(However, as I wrote two weeks ago, if the Republicans take the Assembly, Manski's ability to yell "Bullshit!" loudly and often could be very useful. Hulsey will find much frustration in those circumstances. Ask Spencer Black about the fun years in the Assembly minority.)

- Barry Orton

Comments

[Brian (neaguy)]

As a teacher I'd sure like to see Ben Manski in the State Leg. I am tired of Democrats playing into the Republican frame on education: testing, testing and more testing...and now merit pay. The business model works for business, not teaching and learning.

Ben gets that like few Dems I've ever seen. Russ gets it, too, but he is that rare Dem that lays out an alternative frame, one based on democracy in education.

Last fall it was pathetic to watch the Dems pass a bill that will allow test scores to be included in evaluation of teachers as long as the union gets to participate in the development of that process.

When I called the usually excellent Gary Hebl's office to complain all I got was, WEAC's in favor of it. So, I said, that shows how dumb WEAC is.

The fact of the matter is that you do not reform schools by tweaking the business model. You supplant it with a better model: democratic schools and you put forth an alternative frame on testing, one that does not include a major role for discredited standardized tests.