“The ‘Most Important County in American Politics’ has the opportunity to send someone to Columbus who will responsibly occupy this seat AND provide the leadership that the State Board of Education needs.”
Our campaign to send a strong leader to the State Board of Education’s District 11 seat enters a new phase now, after the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Executive Committee voted today to give its endorsement to one of the other candidates.
So many things went right: the hundreds of phone calls made by our Campaign Committee, the letters sent to each of the 497 Executive Committee members, the volunteers who showed up early and greeted the XC members as they arrived, the conversations that Campaign Manager Andy Mizsak and I had with participants before the meeting. In the end, we had everything we needed – except the votes.
The need to elect the right person continues. The Democratic Party brags about the importance of Cuyahoga in delivering critical votes to Democratic candidates. As I told the Executive Committee, “The ‘Most Important County in American Politics’ has the opportunity to send someone to Columbus who will responsibly occupy this seat AND provide the leadership that the State Board of Education needs.” Today, they opted not to do that.
There’s no denying that the race would become much easier if we had won this endorsement: the Democratic Party provides resources and access along with its brand, and those advantages will now go to someone else.
Immediately after the vote, supporters began encouraging me to stay in the fight, and that’s what I’ll be doing. I’ll take a day off from the campaign tomorrow, and early next week we’ll request a breakdown of the ward and city votes. Once we have that, we can start analyzing it to see where we can do better; and we’ll start working on a strategy that doesn’t rely on help from the CCDP in this nonpartisan race.
This post originally appeared on the website of my 2016 campaign for State Board of Education, http://bill4board.us.
Sunday
to: Bill Lavezzi
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I am a resident of Parma Hts. I am trying to
educate myself about the candidates for District 11
of the State Board of Education. I will be
voting in a month for the best candidate to
represent me, & the children in our schools.
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Your WEBSITE states:
“Some parents aren’t sure how to care, but they all
care for their children and want the best for them.”
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Could I ask you a question?
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I am in the Parma City Schools district, and
didn’t like the events of the past year. I
am disappointed, but somewhat confused, about
the financial situation , and levy request
which will appear on the same ballot for me.
**
I am also upset over the rush to “fix” this
by cutting services and consolidating
(again) our District. As well as the
“rush” to layoff teachers…………….
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Please comment on this situation. I am not
a newspaper reporter nor do I represent a big
interest group. I will not copy/spread your
answer. I just would like your thoughts
as a candidate, on our local situation…and
how you could work on the State level to
have prevented…or now improve this problem.
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Now that our School District has merited some
“STATE OVERSITE”, will the Board be
more closely involved”?
***
Here’s another question: The Cleveland
City Schools (of which I am NOT a resident)
recently had “labor troubles”. Comment on
this issue with the Cleveland Teachers,
on the resolution. How as a
State Board Member, you would attempt to
resolve issues like this, before they
result in “strike votes”, etc.
The Cleveland Schools continue to board
about how much things have improved. Do
you agree?
Dave Lynch
lynchde@cox.net