Category: OSPI

Certainly wouldn’t ever mention something like this. Except it was for my obsessive blogging earlier in the winter about how I totally noticed that she was registered to run and more actively raising money than the other declared candidates.

And, yes Jim: her website is horrid. Very horrid.

A media something-or-other finally put finger to internet and saw that OSPI chief Terry B. is running again, so my vigil is over. Olympian Education Blog:

According to the Public Disclosure Commission, Bergeson’s committee filed its registration paperwork a few weeks ago, as did Richard Semler, who (according to our sister paper The Tri-City Herald) is the soon-to-be retiring superintendent of the Richland School District. Donald Hansler of Spanaway filed a campaign committee registration form in 2006, but nothing else since then.

Leave it to a blogger though, in this waining days of my watch, to take a close look at a couple of roots of the race (if this race were a tree…). Ryan at I Thought a Think:

The business community loves Terry Bergeson, because the business community gains personally from the higher standards of education that the WASL represents. The WASL is a very bottom line assessment, something that business leaders understand, and I don’t know that there’s anything that teachers or parents could say that would turn their heads to our way of thinking.

…

Terry’s biggest donations might come from the private sector, but her largest numbers of donors are those who work under her.

…

There are an awful lot of people around the state who have a personal stake in seeing Bergeson returned to office. They have history, cache, an in; however you want to put it. If a new wind blows their boat goes off course, and that’s when personal self interest kicks in and gets them to reach for their wallet.

Everything I’ve heard and seen speaks to the idea that Richard Semler is a good man. I’ve heard him talk about the how the testing system in Washington has gotten far away from any educational purpose, and he’s right. Living here in Eastern Washington, where we voted Tom Foley out of office when he was Speaker of the House, I should probably be more optimistic.

As things stand, though, Bergeson is racing with a Porsche while Semler hops behind on a pogo stick. And that’s why she’s going to be, once again, the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

My thoughts on this entire thing is that we should focus less on making employees and focus more on making citizens. But, I’m a liberal arts major, so you’d expect that.

Almost a month now and no one has noticed that she’s filing PDC reports, she’s running for re-election. Does she need to notice a press release for anyone to really figure this one out?

Read about people getting mad about math.

She has $25K in the campaign kitty.

Guess who knows she’s running? City of Olympia Mayor (for now) Mark Foutch and Paul Allen (yes, that Paul Allen) of Vulcan Capital. Because they donated to her campaign.

No official announcement, so I assume no one in the media is writing that Terry Bergeson is running again for head of OSPI in 2008.

On top of her 15k plus, she’s raised $4,450 more (pdf file).

Also, looks like Judi Billings has decided not to run again.

Does it really take a press release for anyone to notice that Terry Bergeson is running again for OSPI? Apparently. I wrote this a week ago, and not a mumble since. Well, it was Thanksgiving week, but if all you have to do is look at the PDC site.

Washington State Politics blog (which also seemed to notice that Bergeson is running) has a good rundown on the OSPI elections since the Billings era.

Not sure how anyone else has missed this one, but from what I can tell from the PDC, Terry Bergeson is running for the fourth time to head up OSPI.

Hunter George writes here (in pointing out a new dry side opponent) last month that she “has not announced her plans for 2008.” Well, 12 days before he wrote that, Bergeson filed her C1 with the PDC bureaucratically announcing her campaign, and then just today, she put up a C3 announcing that she’s raised $15, 495.

Also looks like Judy Billings is in the running too.

Richard Semler, the guy from Richland? He’s raised $100. Yippee.