Last night, the News Service of Florida reported that "Sen. Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican who also serves as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, on Thursday filed a measure that seeks to turn school board elections into partisan contests."
The proposal (SJR 244) "aims to place a constitutional amendment on the November 2022 ballot allowing voters to choose whether school board elections should be partisan," according to NSF, which noted that Fort Myers Republican Rep. Spencer Roach. filed a similar proposal (HJR 35) on Sunday.
As most of us know, Florida's school board elections are currently non-partisan races, but that hasn't let some anti-vaxx candidates who sometimes push anti-vaxx misinformation and QAnon conspiracy theories from dais from applying to run in Tampa Bay.
I wonder what party they'd run under.
Making school board races partisan is the next logical step, however, in the illogical slippery slope that's found right-wing activists swarming local school board meetings in Pinellas and other communities across the U.S.
The annual 60-day legislative session begins on Jan. 11, and legislative committee weeks start Monday—we can't wait.
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This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2021.