Anchorage School Board Doesn’t Need Social Media Bullies

Tuesday April 5th is Anchorage’s municipal election.

In the annual tradition, Assembly and School Board seats, and proposition questions are on the ballot for consideration. TV and radio ads are steadily being broadcast, while mailers trickle into postal boxes and digital messaging fills our emails and computer screens courtesy an expansive Internet.

One curious method of securing attention and votes remains social media communications. Not ads but posts, comments, and opinions. Facebook is by far the largest medium through which constituents can glean a candidate’s opinion or perspective on an issue. Campaign pages, digital signage, and issue commentaries afford the public a glimpse into the mind of a prospective elected official.

But what happens when a candidate uses social media, particularly Facebook, for more than just a sounding board… ? What happens when banter and debate mushroom cloud into bullying… ?

Enter School Board Seat B and a contentious race that has dredged up unbecoming fodder digitally lobbed at a well-meaning candidate.

David Nees is a retired school teacher. He is the “in perpetuity” candidate, running often and without being chosen by the voters. Nees ran for School Board Seat F in 2015 unsuccessfully. He also ran and lost in 2012 and 2013. In 2014 he ran and lost as a write-in candidate for State House District 22. Nees has decided to try his luck, or lack thereof, again for School Board. He is perceived as the all-over-the-map candidate, though purports to be conservative in his policy direction.

There are two other candidates for the open School Board seat.

Realtor Starr Marsett is another unsuccessful candidate who ran and lost in 2012 and 2015. She’s backed by the unions and perceived as a left-of-center candidate.

The newcomer to politics is Kay Schuster. She is the only candidate of the three who was born in Anchorage. She’s a Dimond High School graduate and currently teaches special education in the district. She appears to be the conservative candidate with the endorsements to prove it.

So how does bullying fit into the race?

Ask David Nees.

It’s apparent from recent Facebook posts that Nees has resorted to unfounded direct attacks at Schuster. Incessantly referring to someone as “clueless” and a “terrible choice” and “rich and clueless” and a “sock puppet” is unnecessary. It’s petulant, unprofessional, and makes one wonder how this same person, David Nees, would behave as an Anchorage School Board member and address our students, parents, and faculty.

Disturbingly, Nees recently published a post on Facebook from Assemblymember Amy Demoboski’s Facebook page, that was incomplete, suggesting she preferred him, when she actually praised both he and Schuster.

Nees once endorsed Democrat Bettye Davis in an April 2015 editorial in the Anchorage Press. He definitely shows, by his commentaries and opining on radio talk shows and in public forums, that he doesn’t root on one side of the political spectrum or the other.

His lack of allegiance to one political ideology or the other could be a good thing, or bad, depending on how one feels about a $4 billion budget deficit at the state level, and an economy nearing a fiscal cliff with oil closing between $35 and $37 per barrel the week of the election.

Those voters who want a candidate allegiant to labor unions, Marsett may be favorable.

Those voters feeling the urge to elect a fiscal conservative should reasonably look to Schuster.

Those who buy into aggressive rhetoric, and who don’t mind a little gender-bias, might look to David Nees.

Nees’s campaign Facebook page posts may be a window to his soul and harbinger of attitude to come. Only the voters know if they want that kind of person serving them on the School Board.

Should his 5th time be the charm, and David Nees wins on the pulpit of castigating Ms. Schuster as “entirely unprepared” and “clueless,” one can hope he will show a kinder heart to our children in school, some of whom are bullied in the same disappointing manner and gracelessness.

Words matter this election. So does your vote.

APEonline.org Editorial

Image David Nees