Baisley is board president for STEM High, a proposed science, technology, engineering and mathematics charter school in Highlands Ranch. Baisley actively pushed for four of six Republican candidates, as evidenced in this this email and guest column he wrote at conservative blog Backbone America:

This election is non-partisan; that is, party affiliation (Republican or Democrat) will not be indicated alongside candidate names on the ballot. Candidates are not vetted by the political parties through Colorado’s traditional caucus and assembly process. However, sides have been staked out for these races by the two general political philosophies of conservative and liberal. The Douglas County Republicans and the Teachers Union have endorsed candidates in each district…

Baisley goes on to list the candidates the GOP endorsed and provide instructions on how to vote with a mail in ballot.

Douglas County GOP Vice Chair Mark Baisley

The school board race was technically non partisan. The candidates names on the ballot did not list their party affiliation. But from the beginning, the race was oddly marked out by the local GOP and its supports as a crucial battle. The campaign featured an intense robo call and email campaign that, on deeply tenuous grounds, tied the candidates backed by the Douglas County Federation of Teachers to conservative hot-button groups and topics like the AFL-CIO, ACORN and President Obama’s health care reform. Two of the Federation-endorsed candidates, however, are longtime and active Republican Party members now disgusted by the politics that characterized the race. Colorado Ethics Watch filed a complaint against GOP-endorsed candidate Meghann Silverthorn, a Department of Defense employee, for violating the Hatch Act, which forbids government workers from running for partisan office.

According to unofficial results posted at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday night, GOP-endorsed candidates John Carson, Dan Gerken, Doug Benevento, and Meghann Silverthorn defeated Douglas County Teacher’s Federation-endorsed candidates Sue Catterall, Kevin Leung, Kristine Turner, and Emily Hansen, in Tuesday’s election. At 10:45, Gerken had secured the greatest margin, winning 59 percent of the vote in District D; Benevento won by the slimmest margin, winning 56 percent of the vote in District E.

But even as votes were being tallied Tuesday night, the current Douglas County School Board was holding a public hearing on the charter school application submitted by STEM High.

The decision on whether to grant the school a charter will be made by the newly elected board at its first meeting Nov. 17.

Modeled on the Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology in Fairfax, Va., STEM promises to set a “higher, more rigorous standard” and to focus on “basic skills in reading, writing, communication, math and critical thinking as the tools to success in later learning, life and work.” Partner high-tech companies will maintain a permanent presence on the school campus in order to “demonstrate how theory becomes profitable, applied science.”

The GOP-endorsed candidate bloc — which will now hold a voting majority on the new Douglas County School Board — may not automatically grant the charter. But the Douglas County GOP pitched the election as a battle for choice in public education, holding up the charter school model. And there is strong affiliation between the local Republican party and the proposed charter school.

In August, the Douglas County Republican webpage promoted an Aug. 24 informational meeting about the school:

Please come to see what big union opponents of Republican school board candidates are disingenuously referring to as Obama’s type change. Senator Ted Harvey, Rep Frank McNulty, House Minority Leader Mike May would all laugh to hear board members in the union’s pocket calling them each Obama radicals. Will union board members sink to nothing?

The local party also endorsed the Aug. 24 event on its Facebook page.

STEM may well be a great asset to Douglas County. But the newly elected candidates will have to work hard to prove that they are thoroughly examining the school’s application in the next few weeks — and not just returning a favor.

Got a tip? Freelance story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

It’s no secret that the historically nonpartisan election has become a partisan battle in Douglas County this year—not a battle between Democrats and Republicans, but one between four GOP-endorsed candidates and four candidates endorsed by the local teacher’s union (two of whom are Republicans).

The campaign has been ugly for weeks, featuring high-flown Glenn Beck-style doom and gloom rhetoric and accusations.

Better times in Douglas County (dcgop)

In an email to potential funders October 22, Douglas County Republican party chairman John Ransom argued that groups with ties to “ACORN and other extreme left-wing causes” were organizing in Douglas County to help promote their school board candidates of choice.

“If these groups defeat our Republican-endorsed local School Board candidates: Doug Benevento, John Carson, Dan Gerken and Meghann Silverthorn,” wrote Ransom, “then there is no telling what else they will try to do in our County.”

Gross disrespect for Republican candidates

The vague assertions have frustrated some Douglas County Republicans. They lead, for example, to the October 13 resignation of Republican Rick Murray, captain of the Tenth District, who cited his frustration with the current GOP leadership.

“I am not breaking with my party, and will still be very active and a contributing member,” Murray explained to the Colorado Independent, by email. “I will still chair the Highlands Ranch monthly breakfast, and support candidates of my choice.  I will still work with and sustain candidates who I feel have their principles and positions aligned with what I believe.  Nothing will change in that area.

“I will not continue working with the present leadership of the Douglas County Republican Party, due to their gross disrespect for all legitimate Republican candidates for office.  They are free to support their choice, under certain bylaw restrictions, but they are obligated by principle to respect all candidates.  They have not done this, and will not receive my support in the future.

“The school board election did bring this problem to the surface, but was not the deciding factor of my resignation as a district captain.  There are six Republican candidates running for positions on the board, and all deserve the equal respect of the officers and party.”

Also in October, Republican, and Douglas County educator Mike Erickson publicly expressed his frustration with the leadership of the Douglas County Party in a letter to several news outlets, including the Colorado Independent.

“As a taxpayer, Republican, former business leader, and current educator, I am appalled at the misleading information and unethical rhetoric that has overshadowed this election,” wrote Erickson.  “Instead of fostering scare tactics and political partisan gains, as a community we need to be focused on preparing our students to embrace a rapidly evolving future.” In his letter, Erickson went on to detail what he felt were falsehoods propagated by the Republican party.

At least one Republican candidate, targeted by GOP rhetoric, says she will leave the party.

“I am planning to switch my party affiliation to an unaffiliated voter, as I don’t want to be associated with the foul type of behavior that the Douglas County Republicans have displayed,” Kristine Turner wrote in an email to the Colorado Independent.

A training session for 2010

Both Turner and fellow Republican Kevin Leung have been criticized by the Republican Party since receiving the endorsement of the Douglas County Federation of Teachers. Recent Robo calls, emails and op-eds have tied them to the AFL-CIO and/or ACORN, and some have alleged that the four union-endorsed candidates will unionize charter schools, promote wasteful spending, or allow the unions to control school curriculum.

“It’s just horrible,” said Leung, of the allegations being lobbied against him. Leung, a Republican, pointed out that he is a three-time county delegate. And though he received the endorsement of the Douglas County Teachers’ Federation, he has not accepted any union money.

Leung likens the party’s heavy involvement in the school board election, in part, to a sort of training session for the 2010 election.

“To energize its supporters to help in this election, the Douglas County Republican Party is portraying this election as a trial run for next year by testing its new phone bank system and robocalls and mailings techniques,” he said. “The party needs to show a big win to energize its base. If we lose in our own backyard, this will be devastating.”

Turner—pointing out that in two recent elections, she received both the Republican and union endorsement—attributed the ugly politics of the race to a rightward swing of the local party.

“I think this is an effort of the far right to have control over the school board and to implement a far right agenda along the lines of charter schools and vouchers and more of a privatization of public education,” argued Turner. “And I think that is pretty common thinking.”

Turner worried that Douglas County is only a microcosm of a larger nationwide trend in which candidates have to move to the extreme right or left to earn support.

Just politics

But John Ransom, chair of the Douglas County Republican party, argued that ensuring choice in education is part of the Republican party platform.

“Typically, Democrats want one type of school,” he contended. “A union-run school, where the union dictate how everything is run, and dictate the curriculum. Republicans want to give choice and let the marketplace work it out.”

Asked if he thinks his election tactics have alienated local Republicans, Ransom said “there’s always going to be that segment of the population that’s not going to be happy.”

“Obama is considered kind of popular and he’s only got 52 percent approval rating,” he noted.

Ransom discounted Mike Erickson’s letter, for example, by pointing out that Erickson is a teacher. “I would especially think that professional educators might be a little concerned because they typically align themselves with the union,” he said.

Pressed as to whether Republican rhetoric, specifically, might have alienated GOP voters, Ransom said “I mean, that’s what political parties do. Is there anything untrue?”

Are the two union-endorsed GOP candidates really aligned with ACORN?

Ransom argued that the registered agent for a 527 campaign group that receives funding from the American Federation of Teachers, which is affiliated with the Douglas County Teachers’ Federation, is a woman who used to work for a woman who runs ACORN in Denver.

“I mean, there’s definitely alignment,” he said.

Got a tip? Freelance story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

This summer, the Douglas County GOP endorsed conservative Republicans Dan Gerken, Doug Benevento, Meghann Silverthorn and incumbent John Carson.

Meanwhile, the Douglas County Teachers Federation has endorsed the four opponents:  incumbents Emily Hansen and Kristine Turner, along with Sue Catterall and Kevin Leung—several of whom are also Republicans. (The current make-up of the board is 6 Republicans, 1 Democrat.)

The GOP is ponying up plenty of money for its endorsed candidates, too: The Douglas County Republicans have given about $13,000 in in-kind services to the conservative four. Ralph Nagel—Denver investor, artist, regular GOP contributor and board chair of the Alliance for Choice in Education—has contributed to three conservative candidates, for a total of $15,000. By contrast, the teachers’ union has donated about $7,500 to its candidates.

Rumors concerning the GOP Four may well be unfounded:  that they plan to convert Douglas County to an all-charter school district, get rid of teacher contracts and appoint former congressman “Big Oil” Bob Schaffer to the superintendent’s post.

But it’s clear where they’re coming from: a newsletter(pdf) written by Christa Huff, District 6 Captain for the Douglas County Republicans, acknowledges that the four GOP-endorsed candidates were recruited by the party to run as a “conservative bloc” in the hopes of gaining a voting majority. The four list their goals as transparency, fiscal responsibility and the promotion of charter schools.

On the “Moms Like Me” blog, candidate Kevin Leung—a longtime active Republican who did not earn the GOP nod—voices his frustration with the Republican attempts to frame the race as a fight between union liberals and GOP conservatives:

My Party boss now has accused me [of being] a handpicked candidate by the union even though I have not received a dime of donation from the teachers’ union.

Indeed, several candidates have voiced the opinion that they are not a “union bloc”—they’re simply four people with different platforms who happen to have been endorsed by the union—and coincidentally not endorsed by the GOP.

But the GOP is working equally hard to make this race about endorsements. In advance of the election, it has sent out emails with graphs indicating the different “blocs.” The language of the email text attempts to frame the election as a clear battle between the GOP-endorsed conservatives and those endorsed by the teachers’ union (people who must then be “liberals”).

This election is non-partisan; that is, party affiliation (Republican or Democrat) will not be indicated alongside candidate names on the ballot.  Candidates are not vetted by the political parties through Colorado’s traditional caucus and assembly process.  However, sides have been staked out for these races by the two general political philosophies of conservative and liberal.

At Rocky Mountain Right, lawyer Mike Robinson takes things further, with the disingenuous argument that the American Federation of Teachers (the parent of the Douglas County teachers’ union) is actually the group trying to gain control here (though he prefers the provocative phrase “gobble up”).

According to Robinson’s narrative, upon being elected, the union-supported candidates will unionize all the district charter schools. He is less clear about how they will advance the rest of their alleged anti-liberty agenda, but the plan appears somehow to involve leveraging their school board power to pass a public option in the U.S. Congress and cede control of the district directly to Obama. Thus, writes Robinson:

If you like Government Health Care, unionized Charter Schools and Barack Obama, go with the union picked candidates.

If you don’t want Government Health Care, unionized Charters or the direction the country is heading, go with the Republican endorsed candidates.

Hat tip to EdNews Colorado.

Got a tip? Freelance story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.