Wednesday, November 3, 2010

School Board Race Headed to Runoff


Nancy Jester
This is probably the last thing that candidates Jim Redovian and Nancy Jester wanted to hear.  That their hotly-contested race for DeKalb County School Board, District One is headed to a runoff, which means four more weeks of campaigning.  The runoff is November 30.  This race was as close as it gets.  According to the DeKalb County election website, Jester got 45.8 percent to Redovian's 44.5.  Bobbe Gillis picked up the remaining 9.4 percent - it will be interesting to see where she throws her support (although I'm not one to put a whole lot of stock in endorsements from 3rd-place candidates). 
Interesting to note that of the other 4 incumbents running for DeKalb school board positions, three won outright with the 4th leading in her race.  The latter being the temperamental, some say might say incompetent, Zapora Roberts, who is headed to a runoff.  Roberts got 37 percent of the vote, her closest opponent 30 percent.  Usually when an incumbent can't get 40 percent, their chances of winning the runoff diminish greatly.  This is fabulous news.

The two other local races of interest saw Fran Miller handily defeat Eric Christ for the state senate seat being vacated by Dan Weber.  Former Dunwoody councilman Tom Taylor easily beat Keith Kaylor to win Miller's seat in the state house.  One other race of note, State Representative Jill Chambers, a longtime thorn in the side of Dunwoody, lost her reelection campaign.  Jill - don't let the door hit you on the way out!

I was happy to see the amendment to add a $10 tag fee for trauma care expansion fail (52-47).  While I'm not against trauma care, I'm not a big fan of a disguised tax increase.  Great to see the DeKalb County Homestead freeze pass by a 3-1 margin; ditto for the Dunwoody homestead freeze (with all due respect to councilman Wittenstein).  Again, less taxes are good!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

This runoff should get very interesting.

Paula Caldarella said...

Bob, I thought I saw you sneak into the DCPC meeting this morning? I was going to stop by after the meeting and introduce myself, but I didn't see you afterwards!!

Bob Fiscella said...

Dunwoody Mom - I was there - sorry I missed you!
Please say hi next time.

Bob Lundsten said...

The Trauma tag not passing was bad for all of Georgia. Nothing was disguised. No hidden tax. It was all open and transparent
We , the entire state, needs these trauma centers and a $10 per tag is a small price to pay.
I know the value of these centers first hand. When a life flight helicopter takes 30 minutes longer to get to one of the few Centers we have, people will die, FACT.
So everybody feel good that you saved a few bucks, is really short sighted Georgia.
If you think there is going to be money in the general fund, forget that too. 2011 is going to be a harder budget to balance than 2010.

10 bucks, once less bucket of balls, two fewer games at the bowling ally, A coke and Popcorn at the movies.

Some pretty messed up priorities we have.

Bob Fiscella said...

Bob - I will not argue the point that we need the trauma centers, but I'm not sold on the government being able to handle this. And you're right, I don't think there is going to be money in the general fund, because the state doesn't know how to handle money - you've made my point.
I wish I felt better about giving away my money to the government - but somehow I don't (and apparently 80 percent of the population feels the same way). I wish I could trust that my money is being spent properly - but I don't. I know if the government had used my tax money like it was their own - there already would be $10 available without having to hit all of us up for $10 more.
Maybe I've lived in DeKalb County too long.

Anonymous said...

As proposed, it was wrong to just tax just certain vehicles with a tag fee versus a funding mechanism that all motorists, including passing through motorists and truckers, would pay.

I think we all agree on the need for trauma centers...just the funding mechanism was ill-conceived.