We’ll be watching not only the gubernatorial elections in Maryland and Illinois but also the Senate race in Illinois and a number of other elections around the country today. This post will be updated periodically as result come in.
Maryland governor
Lt Gov Anthony Brown, Democrat, vs Larry Hogan, Republican. At about 12:12 AM Wednesday, the Associated Press projected that Mr Hogan had been elected governor of Maryland. The Baltimore Sun reported that Mr Brown had made a “very gracious call” to Mr Hogan, conceding the election.
Illinois governor
Gov Pat Quinn, Democrat, vs Bruce Rauner, Republican.
US senator from Illinois
Sen Dick Durbin, Democrat, vs Jim Oberweis, Republican. Mr Oberweis conceded the race just before 9 PM.
California State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Veteran educator and legislator Tom Torlakson faces huge competition, mainly because of heavy financial backing from what the Network for Public Education has called “Big Outside Money” in the state superintendent race. He is opposed by former Wall Street and charter school executive Marshall Tuck. Mr Torlakson has been re-elected in California, one of 13 states where the state schools chief is an elected position.
Arizona state education chief
This vote has strong implications for the Common Core in Arizona. The Republican candidate, Diane Douglas, has made repealing the standards the basis for her entire platform. The Democrat, David Garcia, has pumped a lot of money into the election, and if he loses anyway, the Common Core will also come out as a loser in Arizona.
As of Wednesday morning, 6:00 EST, this race was still too close to call. Diane M Douglas, Republican, who ran a one-issue campaign to repeal the Common Core, was leading 51 to 49 percent with 97 percent of the precincts reporting. The more experienced incumbent, David Garcia, said he knew it would be an uphill battle. We will update this page as results come in.
As of Wednesday evening, too many early and provisional ballots needed to be counted to make any call in this race. Ms Douglas had a lead of about 28,000 votes, but more than 300,000 provisional and early ballots in the state hadn’t been counted, AZ Central reports.
UPDATE Nov 10: Ms Douglas has won the race for Arizona state superintendent. She barely edged out Mr Garcia, who had strong bipartisan support and better campaign funding. Ms Douglas, a Republican, seemed to have a single issue: repealing the Common Core in Arizona. She largely ignored the media and barely hit the campaign trail.
Charter schools and the Indianapolis school board
Outside groups of rich people have pumped money into the campaigns of three candidates for the Indianapolis Public School board. The race is seen nationally as one that traps voters in between a proverbial rock and hard place: The challengers say if they’re not elected, Indianapolis students will continue to suffer in perpetually failing schools that don’t have any intention of innovating. The incumbents argue that if they aren’t re-elected, charter school operators will overtake the Indianapolis Public Schools, given the support of big money that helped them win the election. The Indianapolis Star has a more complete story.
The three challengers—Mary Ann Sullivan, Kelly Bentley, and LaNier Echols—defeated the three incumbents they were challenging on the IPS board. They have been elected, on a mostly reform agenda that would seem to increase the presence of charter schools in Indianapolis, to represent the at-large community, District 3 around the state fairgrounds and Broad Ripple, and District 5, which encompasses downtown and neighborhoods on the west side, the Indianapolis Star reports.
Republican governors and the move to restrict labor unions
We’ll be watching gubernatorial races in some key states because Republican governors have a tendency to spend money and effort to restrict the right of teachers’ unions to bargain collectively, to increase the use of vouchers to pay for private school tuition, and to cut K-12 budgets. In addition to Illinois and Maryland, where Democrats are heavily favored to win, we’ll be watching the races in several non-blue states:
- Gov Scott Walker of Wisconsin, also in higher ed
At about 8:50 PM, Google projected that Mr Walker would win. - Gov Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, also in higher ed
At 8:04 PM, CNN projected Tom Wolf, Democrat, had defeated Mr Corbett. - Gov Rick Scott of Florida, also in higher ed (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Mr Scott has been re-elected in Florida, narrowly defeating Charlie Crist. - Gov Paul LePage of Maine
Mr LePage has been re-elected. - Gov Rick Snyder of Michigan
Google projected at about 11:15 PM that Mr Snyder had been re-elected. - Gov Nathan Deal of Georgia
Google projected at about 11:10 PM that Mr Deal had been re-elected. - Gov Sam Brownback of Kansas
Mr Brownback has been re-elected.
The mood to spend money on schools
Illinois’s millionaire tax ballot question, which will be nonbinding, isn’t the only one that asks voters how they think states should pay for schools.
A similar millionaire-like tax on businesses would be imposed in Nevada if voters approve Question 3. A 2-percent margin tax on businesses with more than $1 million in revenue would be added to raise money for public schools. The teachers’ unions want a Yes vote, while the business community, warning that higher taxes will force job cuts, wants people to vote No.
Voters in Nevada rejected the millionaire-business tax, while voters in Illinois supported an additional tax on households with adjusted gross incomes over $1 million to help pay for schools. Most analysts think it’s a long-shot to get any such tax increase past the legislature and a new Republican governor, but the voters have made their opinion known.
The big (non-education) story
Of course, the story that has been grabbing all the headlines this Nov 4 is the projected wins by Republicans in the US Senate, which could give Republicans control of both chambers for President Barack Obama’s final two years in the White House. Republicans need to gain six seats in the Senate in order to accomplish this. The Washington Post says it’s really close.
- Democrats are almost certain to lose in Montana, South Dakota, and West Virginia. Republicans will gain at least 3 seats.
- Alaska and Louisiana, where President Obama lost in 2012, could switch to Republicans. Sen Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, and Bill Cassidy, Republican, will face a runoff election next month.
- Colorado has shown the Republican leading the Democrat in 12 of the last 13 polls.
- President Obama only got 37% of the vote in Arkansas, and it may lean Republican again.
- In Iowa, the Democratic candidate has run what may have been an uninspiring campaign.
- In North Carolina, outside groups have poured money into the Republican campaign, which could spell defeat for Sen Kay Hagan.
- New Hampshire is a possibility but a long-shot for Republicans.
However, any Republican losses, such as in Kansas or Kentucky, would offset any gains. Again, Republicans need to pick up a net of six seats in the Senate. It’s going to be close.
The election was seen largely as a wave of Republican, or anti-Obama, support, with Republicans now holding 52 seats in the Senate plus the possibility of one more in the Louisiana runoff, and the governor’s mansions in several key states, including the three PARCC states of Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts.
Politics in the US tends to move in cycles and waves like this, where the only certainty is change. In his telling of the Arthur legend in Idylls of the King, Alfred Lord Tennyson describes a scene where Arthur speaks to Lord Bedivere, as he passes away on his barge:
The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
Batavia advisory question about artificial turf fields
Voters in Batavia, Ill., advised the school board not to take out a $15 million loan for capital improvements to the school grounds, including the installation of artificial turf fields, parking lots, and windows. We reported on this issue earlier, and the Chicago Tribune has the latest.
“We are glad the public cared enough about the district to show up and vote, and we are glad the board cared enough to ask the question,” said district Superintendent Lisa Hichens in an emailed statement. “Board members put the alternate bond question on the ballot specifically to get direction from the public.”
Missouri voters kill the link between test scores & teacher evaluations
Although Illinois and Maryland have enacted recent laws that tie test scores to teacher evaluations, the concept of merit pay is nothing new. At least some school districts in Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia use merit-based pay schemes for teachers. But voters in Missouri Tuesday resoundingly defeated, 75-25 percent, Constitutional Amendment 3, a merit pay bill for teachers, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
If the amendment had passed at the ballot, it would have required Missouri teachers to be evaluated based on their students’ performance data, gathered from standardized testing. From this information, teachers would have been paid, dismissed, and demoted.
The amendment would have also eliminated tenure and required teachers to enter into three-year contracts with public school districts, while prohibiting any collective bargaining about the evaluation system. The people have, once again, spoken, and there’s no doubt this vote would have had a similar fate in any state.
