Voters to Tea Partiers, Creationists: Meh

Expecting to sweep into office on the heels of the Tea Party triumph in November, many far-right-wingers decided this was a perfect time to take on local governments and school boards. Not so fast. We have not found a single election where they were swept into office, except in one case where there was no choice. And in another case, it was a complete rout of those who would remold the schools in the image of their own religions.

All sides know that electing teaparty/creationists on school boards (rather than other boards) has the most potential for bringing religion to government. So why was uber-teapartier and Lake County Republican Chair Bob Cook running for the Wauconda Park District? Doesn't make much strategic sense to us. At any rate, he finished last, so we don't need to worry about the tea partiers preventing people from hugging trees.

In the Stevenson High School District in south central Lake County, on the other hand, four good-schools-for-all incumbents were returned to the board besting three creationism-touting challengers.

And in the Barrington High School District, where five people were running for three seats, the two non-tea-party candidates received the highest number of votes. Competing for the last seat, two tea-partiers are neck and neck, virtually tied at this point.

In Round Lake CCSD 46 in Grayslake, the tea party was more successful, but not for the expected reasons. The incumbent (non-tea-party) school board president was ousted, but more because of perceptions of financial mismanagement than anything else. In this race, two tea-partiers join the board along with the one non-tea-partier incumbent who was reelected.

And then there's the Lake Zurich School Board. All four candidates for that school board told the Daily Herald that they believe in teaching creationism in the schools. However, in a followup article, one backed off his answer and said he misunderstood the question. He was elected. Another guy running was an incumbent who had never before made noises about wanting to do any such thing. He was re-elected. The final spot, by default, will be filled with one of the true believers.

But he's only one vote. It is obvious, at least to this blogger, that voters are not flocking to the tea party side. They just need good alternatives to vote for. Signature gathering for the 2012 election starts this September. Think about it.