Eye on Boise: Of endorsements, education, and an event in a bar

Cindy Wilson, the Democratic candidate for state superintendent of schools, last week received the endorsement of former Republican Attorney General Jim Jones, who also is the former chief justice of the Idaho Supreme Court.

“Providing the best education for Idaho’s children should not be a partisan issue,” Jones said. “Cindy Wilson is clearly the best candidate for that important job and that’s why she has my vote.”

Jones noted that he ran for national or state office five times as a Republican before serving 12 years as a nonpartisan justice on the Idaho Supreme Court. “I became accustomed to being a nonpolitical person,” he said, but added, “It’s little odd for me to be endorsing somebody from the ‘D’ party.”

Jones joined Wilson at a news conference at Boise State University before an event that had been planned as a debate between Wilson and incumbent Superintendent Sherri Ybarra sponsored by Idaho Education News, but Ybarra declined to attend. Idaho EdNews recast the event as a question-and-answer session with Wilson. It was streamed on Facebook.

Jones, who said he “strongly supports” Wilson in her bid to unseat the four-year incumbent, said Wilson will bring a sense of dedication to the job that he believes has been lacking in recent years.

“Having served eight years as attorney general and another 12 as a member of the Supreme Court, I know that it takes hard work to advance an agency’s priorities through the Legislature,” Jones said. “You can’t do it without exercising personal leadership and fully engaging with legislative leaders.”

Jones noted Wilson’s background of teaching in school districts in every part of the state over the past 33 years. “She knows the problems confronting school districts, large and small, across the state. More importantly, she has plans to fix those problems,” he said.

Ybarra’s campaign had no comment on the endorsement. Ybarra, a Republican in her fourth year in office, has announced endorsements from five GOP statewide officials: Lt. Gov. Brad Little; Secretary of State Lawerence Denney; state Controller Brandon Woolf; state Treasurer Ron Crane; and state Attorney General Lawrence Wasden. She also lists endorsements from 24 GOP members of the Legislature.

The Jones endorsement came a day after news broke that Ybarra held a campaign fundraiser – her only publicly promoted campaign event thus far – at an Eagle bar the previous Friday, co-hosted by a former Mountain Home school principal whose teaching license was suspended by the state over multiple sexual harassment allegations. Ybarra told Idaho Education News at the lightly attended two-hour fundraiser at the bar, “He was punished for that, and he’s still a friend of mine. We’re not around kids right now, we’re at a fundraiser.”

The former principal, William McCarrel Jr., whom Ybarra worked with at Mountain Home Junior High, owns the bar.

Jones said the incident was concerning. “My thought is she can have as many friends as she wants, she can go to the bar, but when she’s at an official function, she is in the public eye,” he said. To make an appearance “sponsored by someone who is a disgraced teacher, it is a really unfortunate thing. People see that. It just does not look good for a statewide public official, and particularly someone who deals with kids and whose job is to be an advocate for kids.”

Ybarra’s campaign issued a statement to the Idaho Press, saying, “Superintendent Ybarra is strongly opposed to all forms of harassment and has enacted meaningful reforms in Idaho’s schools to stop harassment, sexual or otherwise, and bullying. Also, she’s strongly committed to ensuring the State Department of Education is free from harassment or discrimination based on gender, race, age, national origin, religion or disability.”

Ybarra campaign spokesman Tyler Kelly also said Ybarra had held another fundraiser on Sept. 13, so the bar event wasn’t her campaign launch; but he didn’t respond to requests for the date, time or location, or provide other information about the event. Idaho EdNews reported the gathering at the bar was the only campaign event on Ybarra’s campaign Facebook page; she also declined to attend an Idaho Falls City Club superintendent forum earlier Friday, after telling organizers this summer that her calendar was full.

Wilson said, “I had the most wonderful experience at the City Club in Idaho Falls Friday, and I was very disappointed that Sherri wasn’t able to attend that. I found out when the story came out … where she was.”

“I wish she’d had time to come have a conversation about education with us in Idaho Falls,” said Wilson.

Betsy Z. Russell is the Boise bureau chief and state Capitol reporter for the Idaho Press and Adams Publishing Group. Follow her on Twitter at @BetsyZRussell.