Still upset with the mismanagement of the school district by his predecessor and perceiving the current board chairman to be little more than a shadow of Cliff Hudson, Oklahoma City teachers orchestrated a well-oiled campaign to unseat a former mayor on Tuesday.Angela Z. Monson, a former state senator who carried the American Federation of Teachers banner, resoundingly defeated former Mayor Kirk Humphrey after garnering nearly 60 percent of the vote.
Mr. Humphrey (after Cliff Hudson was drummed out of his position as chairman of the school board) was hand-picked by the same board members who had helped facilitate Mr. Hudson’s trumped up controversy designed to fire Supt. John Q. Porter (only the second Black to serve in the position).
The board almost unanimously chose Mr. Humphrey to complete Mr. Hudson’s term.
Miss Monson had submitted her application to the board for consideration for the position, but withdrew when it became apparent she would not be chosen.<
Monson |
p>Then-Interim Chairman Albert “Al” Basey (one of Mr. Hudson’s most allegiant sycophants) directed the selection by the board of former Mayor Humphrey to complete the Hudson term.Miss Monson--who had gotten the endorsement of the local chapter of AFT (the teachers union) as Mr. Humphrey sought to win a full term as board chairman--won 6,387 (56.9 percent) of Tuesday’s vote.
Mr. Humphrey, who had campaigned vigorously to keep the office, was trounced, attracting only 43.1 percent of the vote (4,840).
That was considered to be a surprising and stunning defeat of the former mayor who had been a champion of the MAPS for Kids Program.
The teachers union, it seems, though, campaigned even more vigorously for Miss Monson than Mr. Humphrey campaigned for himself.
The group worked an effective phone bank that was busy even on Election Day to get the vote out.
The union even recruited former football Coach Barry Switzer to make rotor-calls to oppose Mr. Humphrey.
“Coach Switzer” (as he is still called by his fans), it is believed, played a key role in helping elect Gov. Brad Henry when he first ran for the office.
Some months ago (and, actually, even before former Mayor Humphrey was handed the office by an acquiescent school board, Mr. Humphrey led the effort ending with the selection of the current superintendent to replace Supt. Porter.
Some believed at the time that the selection of Supt. Karl Springer was a mistake, since, they believed, his experience as an education administrator was limited and his experience with running a large, multi-racial, urban school district was virtually non-existent.
Supt. Springer had headed the school district of Mustang (a small, generally monolithic, rural-suburban district).
Months ago, just as Chairman Humphrey was gearing up to run his campaign, Supt. Springer announced that he had discovered a shortfall in MAPS for Kids funds that would probably require another bond issue election.
Information surfaced that Cliff Hudson, chairman of the school board at the time, had failed to take the action that would have prevented the shortfall.
When asked who was at fault, Chairman Humphrey said he saw no purpose in discussing that, but an e-mail surfaced that indicated that, in fact, Mr. Hudson had been made aware of the problem in time to prevent it, but never took the required steps.
With Mr. Humphrey’s defeat, some of the coalition on the school board with allegiance to Cliff Hudson have been replaced, either because they were defeated or chose not to seek reelection.
The latter was the case with Board Member Al Basey (District I), who had at times been vice chairman and interim chairman.
Lynn Watson, one of three candidates for Board Member Basey’s seat in Tuesday’s election, enjoyed a large margin of victory by collecting 59.9 percent (1,447) of the vote.
She defeated Cordell Jordan (a one-time public information employee of the school district), who succeeded in getting 510 votes (20.9 percent); and Sherry Barton, who attracted 487 votes (19.9 percent).
