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Voters see School Board candidates through a new lens: Trump versus Clinton

 
Eliseo Santana interacts with a voter as he campaigns for Pinellas County School Board outside the Supervisor of Elections headquarters, where people were voting early. School Board candidates, who are running for non-partisan seats, are increasingly being asked whether they support Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in this year’s vitriolic election. Santana is running against incumbent Carol Cook for the District 5 seat. [JIM DAMASKE   |   Times]
Eliseo Santana interacts with a voter as he campaigns for Pinellas County School Board outside the Supervisor of Elections headquarters, where people were voting early. School Board candidates, who are running for non-partisan seats, are increasingly being asked whether they support Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in this year’s vitriolic election. Santana is running against incumbent Carol Cook for the District 5 seat. [JIM DAMASKE | Times]
Published Nov. 5, 2016

Carol Cook came to the polls Tuesday prepared to talk about issues.

The good things happening in struggling schools, an improving graduation rate, Hispanic student achievement and more career education options. The 16-year Pinellas County School Board incumbent could expound on them all.

Instead, many passers-by avoided her gaze or sidestepped away. When voters did talk to Cook, they weren't focused on education. They didn't ask about her opponent, Eliseo Santana. They wanted to know: Are you for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton? Are you a Republican or a Democrat?

In a typical election year, candidates for School Board often complain that their nonpartisan races at the bottom of the ballot don't get the attention they deserve. But this year, during one of the most vitriolic presidential contests ever, candidates face a new dynamic: Increasingly, they are confronted by voters who view support for Trump or Clinton as a litmus test for everything else.

"Everybody wants to know where the School Board lands, and we don't fall into those categories," Cook said. "A lot of people think we're hiding behind that."

• • •

In the final days before Tuesday's election, four School Board candidates — Cook and Santana for District 5 and Joanne Lentino and Matt Stewart for the District 1 at-large seat — hustled to get out the vote. They knocked on doors, handed out fliers at early voting sites and did radio interviews.

They met voters who couldn't say for sure who they chose for School Board. They met people who voted, but not in a School Board race.

"Sometimes we forget to ask if they voted until after a 10-minute conversation and it's like, 'Oh, I voted and I don't know if I voted for you,' " said Carla Pulse, a campaign volunteer for Lentino.

Cook emphasized her record on the board as the second-longest-serving member behind Linda Lerner. Santana, who is retired from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, called Cook a "career politician" and pushed for a fresh perspective — his. With no incumbent in the District 1 race, Lentino told voters about her years of teaching at Gulfport Elementary, while Stewart talked about his Pinellas roots, his teenage foster son in the school system and his doctorate in education.

In fleeting moments with voters, they condensed their message down to a title. School teacher. Board member. Father. Grandfather. Sometimes it was just a name, shouted at voters hurrying by: "Santana!"

• • •

In St. Petersburg, Lentino canvassed voters on First Avenue S with a volunteer. She knocked on doors and left fliers behind for people who didn't answer. On each flier, she wrote a personal note.

"Did you vote yet?" she called out to a man sitting on his porch.

"Trump!" he shouted back.

"I know, but you can also vote for School Board," she said.

"Are you a Republican or a Democrat?" he asked.

"I'm a school teacher," she said.

"Oh, well, you have my vote," he said.

A few houses down, Hilary Arvin tells Lentino, 67, that she voted for her after using Google.

"I had no clue," she said, adding that she was impressed by Lentino's teaching experience.

In two hours, Lentino stops at more than two dozen houses. At about half of those, a door opened.

• • •

Surrounded by blue and red lawn signs leading up to the voting booths, Stewart tried his best to play it down the middle.

When the question of his party affiliation inevitably came up, he pointed to his endorsements from local politicians: Republican John Morroni and Democrat Charlie Justice, both of whom sit on the Pinellas County Commission.

"I think you need to have bipartisan support going in and have leaders support you on both sides of the aisle," said Stewart, 36.

Sometimes, just showing up is all that matters.

"I was kind of torn between (Stewart) and Joanne," said Angie Day, 42, a former college professor from Coquina Key who met Stewart on her way to vote in downtown St. Petersburg. She said her first choice was Lentino but made a mistake on her first ballot and marked Stewart on her second try.

"At least I did get to meet him," Day said, adding that she would have voted for Lentino, "perhaps, if she would've had the same opportunity."

That's how Stewart knows the effort is worth it.

"If you don't know anything and you meet the person, it makes a difference," he said. "It's all about the personal connection."

• • •

In the shade of a tree outside an early voting site in Largo, Santana, 58, called out to voters, handing each one who stopped a flier with a picture of his 10 grandchildren.

"I think the hardest question is when someone asks me, 'Are you voting for Trump or Hillary?' I tell them: 'I do not have control over what happens on the national stage or even the state level. But I do have control over the 100,000 children right here.' "

He connected with one Trump supporter after he called Cook a "career politician."

He told other voters that not all children in Pinellas County are learning to read and write.

He earned the votes of Charles and Peggy Treney of Largo.

"I never heard of the guy before," Charles said.

Peggy nodded. The couple doesn't have children and "wouldn't look too closely at School Board," she said.

But they liked Santana's friendly approach.

"We do agree the educational system needs some work," she said.

Charles nodded: "A lot of work."

• • •

It's hard to tell who among the early voters are from Cook's Clearwater- and Largo-based district.

Anyone living in Pinellas can vote at any early voting site, which means she won't be on every ballot.

But Barbara Adolphson's Seminole address didn't stop her from voicing her support for Cook, 65.

"She has the same values that I do," said Adolphson, 82, a retiree and self-described conservative.

The school district's issues are much more complex than conservative or liberal, Trump or Clinton. Schools make up the biggest single portion of everyone's property tax bill, and the district is the county's largest employer. Yet many who passed by said they voted Republican down the ticket and "just picked one" in the School Board race, or didn't vote at all because they didn't have children in the school system.

Cook's explanation of the nonpartisan race often left voters without the answer they were looking for.

"That doesn't matter," Cook said. "They still want to know."

Contact Cara Fitzpatrick at cfitzpatrick@tampabay.com. Follow @Fitz_ly.