Denver school board elections are in November and the jockeying is only starting to begin for what is likely to be another rousing and bruising campaign for four seats up for election.
Meg Schomp on Tuesday became the first person to formally announce a campaign for the board. Schomp, a mother of two, is running for Jeanne Kaplan’s soon-to-be vacant seat in District 3, which represents central Denver. Kaplan is term-limited.
Campaigns officially begin Aug. 7, when potential candidates can begin gathering the requisite 50 signatures to get onto the Nov. 5 ballot.
Two have potential incumbents, Mary Seawell and Andrea Merida, will be seeking re-election. The seat that was occupied by Nate Easley Jr., who stepped down last month, will be filled by the school board in the coming weeks. Tonight, the board holds a meeting to winnow down the nine possible replacements for Easley.
Both Merida and Seawell have said they will run for re-election.
Merida, who has drawn controversy during her four years on the board, said it was “all systems go” for another run. Merida, who has been a staunch supporter of the union, said she doesn’t know whether the Denver Classroom Teachers Association will back her this time.
“They may support me if I ask,” she said.
Former Denver City Council President Rosemary Rodriguez is considering running against Merida but said she has yet to decide. Rodriguez is state director for U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who was superintendent of DPS before being appointed to the Senate in 2009.
Current Denver City Councilman Paul Lopez said people in his district have asked him to run for Merida’s southwest Denver seat. But the city’s charter expressly forbids any elected official to hold another elected position at the same time.
School board races are in off-year elections and tend to draw few voters to the polls, but they generate huge campaign donations because there are no limits.
In 2011, the three DPS races generated a combined total of $876,000 in campaign donations and a total of $168,477 in non-monetary donations. This all for positions that do not pay a salary.
Seawell, current board president and at-large member, raised the most money in school board campaign history in 2009 — $240,605.
“I’m hoping to do it for less this time,” Seawell said. “But it’s a city-wide campaign and that takes a lot of mail, which is expensive.”