Democrats pull school board member's endorsement
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 11:19 PM
By Bill Bush and Simone Sebastian
The Columbus Dispatch
Since spring, the Franklin County Democrats have told their supporters to keep Stephanie Groce on the Columbus Board of Education.
But tonight – only three weeks before Election Day – the Dems changed their minds.
About 80 people on the county party's central and executive committee voted overwhelmingly on a voice vote to rescind Democrat Groce's endorsement.
Though the union that represents Columbus teachers failed to endorse Groce last month, labeling her no friend of organized labor, county Democratic Chairman William A. Anthony Jr. said tonight's action wasn't related.
"This wasn't a labor-backed movement to get rid of her," Anthony said.
Groce couldn't attend the meeting because it had been scheduled at the same time as today's school-board meeting.
After learning of the vote this evening, she called the move "good old-fashioned bullying" and criticized the party for politicizing the school board.
"They have allowed the demands of the adults to rise above the needs of the children," Groce said. "It's these kinds of political shenanigans that motivate me to stay involved."
The debate tonight focused largely on what committee members viewed as Groce's attacks on labor and her support of charter schools.
Groce has said she supports unions, but believes that privatization of some school-district operations, such as food services, should be considered.
In a written statement released Monday, Groce said her position on charter schools is the same position as the national Democratic Party's in 2004: She supports those charter schools that meet high standards.
"She can have whatever opinions she wants, but she can do so without our endorsement," state Rep. Dan Stewart, a Democrat from Columbus, told the group.
Only a few people in the crowd supported Groce.
"I think that we're making a bad policy decision," Mark Dempsey said. "This should have been weeded out a long time ago."
After the vote, Anthony said that Democrats didn't know Groce's views on some topics until after the spring screening meetings.
For example, he said, party officials didn't know at the time of the screenings that Groce opposed pay raises for school employees if the district continued to lose students to charter schools.
But The Dispatch reported a year before the screenings that Groce said district employees should forgo raises in light of enrollment declines.
"I don't know of a business that would stay in business for very long if it lost a huge chunk of its customers but increased its salaries," she said at the time.
Despite the story, party officials weren't aware of her views until several weeks ago, Anthony said.
Groce said she won't fight the decision.
"This (vote) says, ‘My way or the highway. Leave your independent thinking at the door,'" said Groce, who has a 7-year-old daughter in the school district. "If they don't want a smart, independent-thinking mom, to heck with ‘em."
bbush@dispatch.com ssebastian@dispatch.com 
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Topic: The sad tale of Candidate Groce.
