The Observation Deck

With less than a month to the vote, as I travel throughout the city I could not help but notice a complete lack of people supporting the school levy. With the fanfare of the dream team heading this supposedly important campaign including the mayor, I am completely underwhelmed by their skill at reaching out to the voter. This might be a major reason conversations have turned from support to doubting it is needed. Where does one get a yard sign to support the levy?


“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ken Wilder wrote:With less than a month to the vote, as I travel throughout the city I could not help but notice a complete lack of people supporting the school levy. With the fanfare of the dream team heading this supposedly important campaign including the mayor, I am completely underwhelmed by their skill at reaching out to the voter. This might be a major reason conversations have turned from support to doubting it is needed. Where does one get a yard sign to support the levy?


“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

What are those strange icons that appeared in my message? I wanted to delete them but they do not show up in my post before posting?!!!!!!!!!


“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ken Wilder wrote:With less than a month to the vote, as I travel throughout the city I could not help but notice a complete lack of people supporting the school levy.

School levies are scheduled in May because most people are unaware that there are elections in May. That means lower turnout which means the most motivated will vote. The most motivated people are usually those who will get a piece of the action, levy supporters.

Advertising a levy would defeat the purpose of having school levies in May. I mean, if you wanted maximum participation why not have the levy vote in November?

It will be interesting to see how voting by mail will affect turnout and result. People who use to forget about the May elections are receiving an invitation to vote by mail. I hear the board expects the levy to sail through. We'll see.

Ken Wilder wrote:What are those strange icons that appeared in my message? I wanted to delete them but they do not show up in my post before posting?!!!!!!!!!

Hi Ken,

Those icons represent Twitter and Flicker, whatever, I think you can click on them and send your posts to your social networking timewaster sight. I think it means we're on a state-of-the-art, cutting-edge website here, which is a good thing, for spreading information across the universe right from here, if you need to. You can go virile right from here. Imagine the possibilities...

I'm not really sure how it works, someone else can come on who can explain it better who uses this stuff.

Betsy

Like most actions of this school board and its supporters they are only addressing their political base hoping they can fly it in under the radar of most of the community.
Being parent of children in the schools and active in school activities we've been under constant pressure to support the levy. In the last few days we've started getting the phone calls. I'll have to take me phone off the hook for the next three weeks.

Bill Trentel
school supporter – undecided voter.

Betsy Voinovich wrote: You can go virile right from here. Imagine the possibilities...

Betsy

This absolutely cracked me up

Post of the month!

Richard Cole wrote:

Betsy Voinovich wrote: You can go virile right from here. Imagine the possibilities...

Betsy

This absolutely cracked me up

Post of the month!

Thanks Richard. I meant viral. Not quite as fun to imagine, I guess..

Betsy

Like most actions of this school board and its supporters they are only addressing their political base hoping they can fly it in under the radar of most of the community.

Bill,

You are correct! It is my understanding that the levy committee did not want to bring attention to the levy & decided against yard signs (I was not personally involved so if I have this wrong someone on the committee should post).

The whole levy campaign has been about solidifying "the base". If someone on the committee comes across a voter who is against the levy the instruction is to not engage or try to change their point of view. If someone calls your house and you tell them that you will be NOT voting for the levy then they will say thanks and hang up. It is easier for them to get enough people out who will say yes, in their opinion. And, in the opinion of the company they hired to create the campaign and pass the levy. If you are viewed as a non-supporter then you are not invited to neighborhood parties, or other events.

It is the approach that is taken with everything the BOE takes on. Get the same people who support you to go out, make it look like they care about the city and everyone who lives here, and then get those few to make sure it looks like the overall community supports what you want.

If they are flying under the radar, why am I getting so many mailings in support of the levy? My wife even speculated that if they took the money they are spending on these flyers and gave it to the schools, we wouldn't need the levy.

Will Brown wrote:If they are flying under the radar, why am I getting so many mailings in support of the levy? My wife even speculated that if they took the money they are spending on these flyers and gave it to the schools, we wouldn't need the levy.

Lakewood has 27,000 houses at a median value of 145,000. I'm going to go out on a limb and estimate flyer printing costs are lower than .0069 of that.