Of course, we are going to have this fight in Butler County, Ohio. It’s happening globally, nationally, statewide, and regionally. Look what Ken Paxten is going through with the Bush political machine in Texas right now. We find the same kind of problem regarding issues on the Lakota school board: populism as opposed to machine politics. The main reason I can’t support Lynda O’Conner for the school board is due to her performance, which has been rooted in machine politics that has stood against the kind of reforms education needs.  She has her role in the nasty storm that is about to hit, and rather than trying to destroy fellow school board member Darbi Boddy personally, she should have been preparing the community for what’s about to happen.  I know many people are getting caught up in the Rs and the Ds, even though school board people are supposed to be nonpartisan.  We know from experience that such a concept is far from the truth.  And based on partisanship, I don’t see any difference between Lynda O’Conner, Julie Shaffer, or Doug Horton.  They all would fit nicely in Kathy Wyenandt’s living room as like-minded Democrats.  Lynda has called herself a conservative, and she has a network that leans in that direction, but her behavior has been more on the side of Kathy Wyenandt’s pro-government school posse of progressive insurgents and far from small government and fiscally conservative values of the GOP.  All the intimidating phone calls, going through people’s garbage, messing with their utilities, or property ownership with useless bureaucracy attempting to show power over the anti-Lynda forces can’t change what she has done.  She has told me what I wanted to hear in the past, yet she has behaved in the opposite direction, and those are not traits that can be endorsed.  She brought us Darbi Boddy, then immediately, as soon as she was sworn in, turned on Darbi in excessively unhealthy ways, not showing good leadership at all.  And now Lakota has a lot of problems looming on the horizon, and because of the time she has been on the board and what she has chosen to do with her time over the last two years, any rational mind would be crazy to endorse her.  I was hoping she wouldn’t run and that she would point her interests in a different direction, such as a trustee position.  But she has done the worst thing possible: running again when strategically it makes no sense, so now we must have a difficult conversation. 

I’ve heard it all before: We must have Republicans on the school board, and these conversations have occurred in name only.  Like some sports player who wears any team’s jersey, they are told to play against, without true loyalty to any team.  The brand damage associated with Lynda will be very damaging in the months and years to come.  I was at an event recently where some very smart political people were talking, and one of these particular people was right about this “perfect storm” that is about to hit.  But we disagree on what role Lynda should play in it as an endorsed candidate of the Republican Party.  I would advise that the GOP doesn’t touch this one with a 50-foot pole and let the Democrats choke on it because the storm is an act of their creation, and Lakota can do nothing to avoid it.  I’m not against the GOP endorsing candidates.  A GOP endorsement is powerful enough to do as it has in the past, but with two more good Republicans on the school board; otherwise, we’ll end up with union stooges.  But for one of those two endorsements to be Lynda is a problem because the candidate might as well be one of the many liberals of Butler County who know they would never otherwise get elected to anything unless they were affiliated with the Republican Party. 

The time to deal with this story would have been over the last few years when Lynda picked a fight with Darbi over, essentially, political power, and now the kicking the can down the road is leading to catastrophic circumstances.  Obviously, it would have been better for Lynda not to be near a school board when these things hit the fan.  But nobody listened, so the brand damage is going to be devastating.  Nobody will be able to say I didn’t warn them.   The best thing to do would be to throw this election to the Democrats.  That doesn’t change any positive support for Russ Loges, who I think will be a great school board member.  Darbi could use help, and Isaac can decide whatever he wants to do.  But a teacher’s contract is coming, and they will want more money.  There is a facilities plan that looks like it will legitimately cost a billion dollars over the next 20 years.  Of course, that is attractive to people in construction, but it’s a vast, expensive commitment to a school system that is changing rapidly with school choice options that will become more dominant soon.  This isn’t something that just occurred; the school board has been discussing this facility plan since Brad Lovell was president of the school board, and Lynda was looking for help dealing with him.  It’s been a long time; meanwhile, Lakota has burned through its surplus and worked up the community toward a tax increase.  The problem is that property value assessments are increasing significantly due to state auditor complications.  So, the amount of taxation from those increased property value assessments will be significant.  Not the environment that makes for a healthy community passing tax increases to support a government school.  Then, of course, the national political challenges with inflation, supply chain issues at the grocery, and general temperament have brought pain to everyday people.  These next few years are going to be rough. 

I would have advised Lynda to ride off into the sunset after 16 years.  Instead of digging in and picking a fight with Darbi Boddy because she didn’t fall under the control of the school board president like other members did in the past.  And now there is a whole political faction within the Republican Party that is very angry at Lynda.  And with all the intimidation techniques employed, it has only dug them in deeper.  And they will continue to make their voices heard.  Instead of working to solve those genuine problems, we have significant fractures that will be very destructive.  Things would have been different if anybody was willing to play a little chess.  The blame for this would be much better placed where it belongs, around the neck of Julie Shaffer or Doug Horton.  But if Lynda is the endorsed candidate, it will likely end up around her neck, which isn’t good for her.  And everyone supporting her will end up with eggs on their faces during a crisis period that will need a lot of leadership.  This happens when you mix political philosophies in the way things have been done at Lakota.  It is far better to have apparent political disagreements and to let the losing side be obvious than to let a GOP member burn at the stake with everyone else.  And that is what kicking the can down the road financially for over twenty years will cost, which won’t be good for anybody.  Lakota is not a quarter of a billion-dollar business with Lynda running it.  It’s instead a quarter of a billion-dollar lottery ticket for the unions that have the power to distribute that pile of money collected by property tax owners that is spent on liberal political issues.  And as all that hits the fan, it would have been best to have distance politically from the destruction that will follow.  That is why I won’t support Lynda O’Conner for the Lakota school board.  I would have supported her for trustee or some other position.  But not for this mess, which occurred on her watch, actions she did not provide the leadership necessary when it was needed most.

Rich Hoffman