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Incumbents falter in Delaware school board elections; Sonja Cameron survives recall
May 18, 2015
By Margaret Koenig and Tiffany Rouse
Fewer than half of the seats up for re-election in Delaware's five largest school districts will see incumbents return to them following Tuesday's elections. Eight seats were up for election in five districts, but only four incumbents filed to run for new terms. Two of those incumbents, George Evans in the Christina School District and Catherine Thompson in the Red Clay Consolidated School District, did not face challengers. Both of their elections were canceled. Also successfully re-elected was Martin Wilson Sr., the District B incumbent in Red Clay, who faced a solitary challenger, Alfred Lance Jr. Incumbent Ronald Pierce of the Colonial School District lost his seat to challenger Margaret Kennedy.
No candidates filed to run in the Colonial School District District D race. The board will appoint a member to the seat on June 30, 2015. The seat will be up for election again in 2016.
The five school districts saw an increase in competitiveness for their school board races in 2015. In the previous five elections, the districts in Delaware had an average of 1.97 candidates file per available seat. This is higher than the top 1,000 districts nationally, which average 1.90 candidates per available seat. This year's Delaware election featured 2.50 candidates file per available seat.
California recall election
A recall election was held in the Twin Rivers Unified School District for the Area 5 seat held by Sonja Cameron. Cameron was appointed to the position on December 8, 2014, to fill a vacancy on the board. The seat was vacated in October 2014 when trustee Cortez Quinn pleaded no contest to charges that he conspired to obstruct justice in a paternity case and accepted illegal loans and gifts from a school district employee. Recall proponents, including the Del Paso Heights Community Association and the Democratic Party of Sacramento County, argued Cameron's appointment was done illegally and without consulting the community.[1][2]
As the effort to unseat Cameron focused on the decision of the other trustees who appointed her, board president Rebecca Sandoval defended the board's actions. She stated the board did nothing wrong in making the appointment earlier than scheduled and that the idea to make an early decision if a majority supported one candidate was discussed at the beginning of the meeting on December 8, 2014. She also drew attention to the fact that the final vote was taken in open session and that a community meeting had been held on December 1, 2014, in Area 5 for public comments.[2]
A "cure and correct" letter prepared by Sacramento Democratic Party attorneys on behalf of Sascha Vogt and the Del Paso Heights Neighborhood Association was sent to school district officials. The letter asked the board to revoke Cameron's appointment and to schedule a special election to fill the seat instead.[2] At the same time, recall proponents gathered signatures to start a recall election of Cameron. They had until January 7, 2015, to gather at least 1,083 valid signatures.[2] Supporters reported submitting 1,461 signatures by the deadline.[3]
On January 22, 2015, David Gordon, the Sacramento County schools chief, announced the recall election would be held. The election was approved even though supporters submitted signatures totaling 1.49 percent of the district's voters when they were required to have submitted a total of 1.5 percent. The shortfall in signatures was due to 40 to 50 signatures that were misdated as 2014 instead of 2015 from the beginning of the new year.[4]
Cameron defeated her opponent in the recall election and retained her seat on the board. She won by more than 10 percent of the almost 2,000 votes cast. The seat will be up for election again in 2016.
Spotlight district: Appoquinimink School District
In the 16 years prior to this election, no race for the Appoquinimink Board of Education garnered as many candidate filings per seat as in 2015. Compared to Delaware's other largest school districts, Appoquinimink has been the most competitive in recent elections. In 2015 alone, Appoquinimink saw 3.2 times as many candidates as the average for all five districts. From 1999 to 2014, however, each seat up for election in the district averaged less than three candidate filings; only two elections had more than four candidates. More than half of the time, candidates were unopposed or faced only one other challenger in their election bid.
Since 2010, an average of four candidates ran in each election, ranging from a low of two to this year's high of eight. Just one seat was up for election each year. During this period, incumbents sought re-election twice and faced opposition both times. Ultimately, the two incumbents who sought re-election won against their challengers. Incumbent Julie Johnson did not file for re-election in the 2015 Appoquinimink school board race. Two candidates withdrew their campaigns before the election, which left six candidate vying for the open seat on election night. Substitute teacher Michelle Myers Wall beat out the five other candidates for the at-large seat. She will take her place on the board in July 2015.
Compared to Delaware's four other largest school districts, Appoquinimink School District also had the lowest incumbent retention rate from 2010 to 2014. From 2010 to 2015, these school districts saw unopposed school board races 44.44 percent of the time. Appoquinimink, alternatively, saw no unopposed races during that period. In that same period, only one other district, Brandywine School District, averaged less than one incumbent per election at 0.83 incumbents per seat up for election. Appoquinimink was significantly lower at just 0.33 incumbents per seat in the six-year window. Appoquinimink's races from 2010 to 2015 have been more than twice as competitive as the average for the state's largest districts in that time period.
Candidates
Note: An (i) next to a candidate's name indicates incumbent status.
DelawareAppoquinimink School District Brandywine School District Christina School District |
Red Clay Consolidated School District |
California
Twin Rivers Unified School District
Recall
☑ Sonja Cameron (i)
☐ Basim Elkarra
See also
- What's on your ballot? - May 12, 2015
- Appoquinimink School District elections (2015)
- Brandywine School District elections (2015)
- Christina School District elections (2015)
- Colonial School District elections (2015)
- Red Clay Consolidated School District elections (2015)
- Sonja Cameron recall, Twin Rivers Unified School District, California (2015)
- School board elections, 2015
- School board recalls
Footnotes
- ↑ The Sacramento Bee, "Twin Rivers taps charter school leader Sonja Cameron to fill board vacancy," December 9, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 The Sacramento Bee, "Democratic Party joins recall fight in Twin Rivers school district," January 2, 2015
- ↑ The Sacramento Observer, "Sac County Democrats Turn In Petitions For Twin Rivers Special Election," January 8, 2015
- ↑ The Sacramento Bee, "Twin Rivers Unified to hold May election for trustee post," January 23, 2015
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