Yowza — Fiery Email Exchange Suggests Texas Education Board Race Could Get Very Heated

Texas State Board of Education member George Clayton’s guns are blazing in a searing email exchange that makes it clear he plans to run for re-election as a write-in candidate this November. Clayton finished third in the May 29 Republican primary for the Dallas-area, District 12 seat. Former state board member Geraldine “Tincy” Miller and Gail Spurlock face each other in a July 31 runoff for the GOP nomination against Democrat Lois Parrott. But what’s really interesting in Clayton’s emails is his open contempt for right-wingers who have used his sexual orientation as a campaign tactic against him.

Last November Clayton acknowledged he is gay after he became aware of a whisper campaign among right-wing activists questioning his personal life. Donna “Jeffrey Dahmer Believed in Evolution” Garner, a right-wing gadfly and ally of the state board’s creationist faction, subsequently withdrew her earlier endorsement of Clayton. She warned that he couldn’t be trusted to help revise new health curriculum standards — standards that cover sex education — because he’s gay.

Yesterday Garner fired off an email to her list supporting Spurlock, one of nine state board candidates who got the highest “grades” in a voter guide distributed by religious-right groups this past spring. (Spurlock’s views are way out there. Among other things, she charges that the Pilgrims were communists and says public schools shouldn’t teach sex education because young people “are gonna figure it out on their own anyway.”) Clayton replied to Garner’s email, and the Dallas Morning News has now published their exchange. Yowza. Check it out:

From: George Clayton
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:21 AM
To: Donna Garner
Subject: Re: GAIL SPURLOCK, NOT A FAKE CONSERVATIVE — SBOE, DISTRICT 12 RACE – BY DONNA GARNER — 7.10.12

Donna, you are as big a fake as Gail. Gail has no college degree. She is not teacher certified. She has never taught in the public schools. She is a hard right wing agenda driven bigot. Her zeal for her political/religious agenda is dangeous. She will NOT sit on the SBOE. However, neither will Tincy or Lois.

More to come.

George

——————————————————————————————————————–

—–Original Message—–

From: Donna Garner
To: ‘George Clayton’
Sent: Tue, Jul 10, 2012 10:43 am
Subject: MY RESPONSE BACK TO GEORGE CLAYTON — 7.10.12

By the way, George, Gail is so brilliant that she makes you and me look rather unintelligent. I feel really ignorant around her because she is so quick and has accomplished so much in the business world because of her intelligence and work ethic.

Gail is exactly what we need on the SBOE – a successful business woman who has homeschooled her own children for some years, worked closely with their public school teachers, taught herself many vocational and life skills, knows more about the computer and technology world than “Bill Gates or Steve Jobs” and has a zeal to make sure that our public school students are educated in the basic skills first.

Gail stands solidly behind the new ELAR/Social Studies/Science/Math TEKS and will fight to keep the PSF in place.

She will also work hard to make sure the Health TEKS are built upon fact-based, medical data that will help students to live healthy lives; and she will be an advocate for Fine Arts TEKS that contain solid content.

Gail also believes in strong discipline in our schools and exhibits self-discipline and strong conservative social values in her own life.

Gail Spurlock will be wonderful on the SBOE, and I can hardly wait to see her elected and in place.

Donna Garner

——————————————————————————————————————–

From: George Clayton
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:56 AM
To: Donna Garner
Subject: Re: MY RESPONSE BACK TO GEORGE CLAYTON — 7.10.12

Donna,

How quickly you dismiss my experience in education. Look Donna, I was trashed beyond belief in the primary campaign by Gail, Tincy and other narrow minded CINOS, Christians In Name Only.

You are one of them. You and Gail carry a Bible in one hand and a bag of stones in the other. If you have not figured it out yet, I will let you in. I plan to continue my campaign as a write in candidate in the November general election. It will be very high profile and, this time, with gloves off. So, you, Gail and that tax dodging Miller crowd just get prepared. Official press releases are prepared and ready to go out soon. In the meantime, a great deal of organizing with teachers and parents is underway. So you see, it is not over until it is over. I hope you don’t mind my frank talk. It is likely to become brutal.

Clayton

PS. Publish my remarks to your band of readers if you want. They are not part of my voter target.

9 thoughts on “Yowza — Fiery Email Exchange Suggests Texas Education Board Race Could Get Very Heated

  1. “Gail knows more about the computer and technology world than “Bill Gates or Steve Jobs”.” Really? This is gonna be bad. Reminds me of Kansas SBOE races in 2006. The kooks where out in full force.

  2. Go for the jugular, George….and win that position! We can’t have these conservative bigots deciding that Texas children can’t be taught critical thinking because it would undermine parental authority. Who’s going to tell their kids what to do when they’re grown up? (I imagine they could find the Devil Himself to do the job!) It’s an exercise in egotism, thinking that only parents can tell children what is “right.”
    Sue
    Santa Fe, NM

  3. I sure hope George can win with a write-in vote.

    As many of you know, Tennesseans were for the most part the first Texans. Since we are back to the subject of the Texas SBOE, a nutty science curriculum, and so forth, I thought you might be interested in what your long lost cousins are doing in Tennessee. On my blog, I have begun a multiple-post analysis of the new Tennessee Monkey Law. In addition, I have actually gotten a school official, who shall remain nameless, to pretty much suggest to me how some school systems plan to fight it.

    If you are interested, you can visit my blog at:

    http://contextintn.wordpress.com/

    You do not have to register to make comments.

  4. I’m sorry… it’s hard to have much sympathy for a gay guy dumb enough to be in a political/religious (can’t tell the difference anymore) party that despises gays. I guess he’s taken Groucho Marx’ advice to “not be a member of any club that would have me as a member!”

    It may not be obvious from the name, but Log Cabin Republicans are oxymoronic.

    “Jesus loves me, but He can’t stand you!”
    -Austin Lounge Lizards

  5. I sure wish Mr Clayton had shown the same energy and passion during the primary and then, maybe, we wouldn’t be in this predicament of having two awful candidates on the ballot.