It is Election Day today in the Capistrano Unified School District, where voters have been given the opportunity to recall two school board members, Sheila Benecke and Marlene Draper. Voters will be able to vote for them or their opponents as well.
Here is what the O.C. Register is reporting:
In Trustee Area No. 2, voters will first decide whether to recall Draper, and then have the option of casting a vote for challenger Sue Palazzo.
In Trustee Area No. 5, voters will first decide whether to recall Benecke, and then have the option of casting a vote for Ken Maddox, Gary V. Miller or Makim Subbarao.
Absentee voting results will be released at 8:05 p.m. Tuesday. The first results from the polling places will be released at 9 p.m. The registrar anticipates having most of the results counted by 10:30 p.m. Tuesday and the election certified by Friday.
In Area 5, Maddox is the OC GOP machine candidate. His endorsements include: Orange County Republican Party; State Sen. Dick Ackerman (R-Irvine); State Assemblyman Chuck Devore (R-Irvine); State Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange); State Assemblywoman Mimi Walters (R-Laguna Niguel); State Sen. Mark Wyland (R-San Juan Capistrano).
A retired special education teacher, Gary V. MIller, who has also served on both a city council and a school board before, is running for Area 5 as well. The third candidate, Subbarao, owns a biotechnology company. You can find out more about him at his campaign website.
Voters beware! Maddox is NOT the answer in the Capistrano Unified School District. He has a history of supporting unions, including a letter he wrote in support of the O.C. PLA (project labor agreement) which banned non-union contractors from bidding on Orange County public works projects for a number of years, driving up costs and creating needless delays. He is also anti immigration and part of the “Talibani” wing of the OC GOP with regard to his neolithic social views.
In Area 5, obviously voters should go with the challenger, Palazzo.
The trustees facing recall are in hot water because they blew a lot of money on the district’s Taj Mahal headquarters. So of course the Santa Ana Unified School District recently hired the CAPO construction manager to help them blow their new bond money. That figures.
No matter what, please do vote today if you live in the Capistrano Unified School District!
Art. While we voted by absentee mail last week I did visit our neighborhood polling station after the swearing in ceremony of our new sheriff this morning.
Talk about a low turnout. My sense is that we will see another high percentage of absentee voting in a very, very low turnout for this RECALL
One thing for sure. There is no waiting in long lines today.
Constituents should thank everyone who was brave enough to run — three challengers for one seat and only one for another. The district is in terrible financial shape (spending or wasting nearly half a billion dollars a year). Despite the public embarrassment of being dumped, the two trustees who will likely be recalled by the end of the day might be thankful to throw in the towel.
The guy who went to Santa Ana is not the construction manager, he was a maintenance manager . . . and one who was not paid for helping with the bond work to modernize schools. Your information is spun or you are spinning, one of the two.