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child is barely a toddler, and Bridget works as an insurance agent. Her experience in educa- tion is limited to her own years as a student. Contrast that with the record of another can- didate, Ken Marsh. He has spent the bulk of his career in public education. For two decades, he helped guide the School Board with long- term planning, as well as quality assurance and teacher evaluations. Recently retired from the school system, he saw Todd's resig- nation as an opportunity to continue serving the Sarasota County schools. Unfortunately, he has no connections in the Republican "crony network," no political IOUs to call in. He only has decades of experience that make him ideal for service on the School Board. Perhaps that is why the governor ignored him and appointed the inexperienced wife of a political hack to the post. We urge voters to elect Ken Marsh to the District 1 School Board seat formerly represented so capably by Carol Todd. His experience, his acumen and his humanity and concern for all students will be an asset for the school district in the years to come, especially with the pending retirement of Lori White in 2017. Far more troubling than the machinations that propelled a barely qualified Bridget Ziegler onto the School Board is an attempt by Tea Party extrem- ists to seize control of that board. A l t h o u g h t h e Te a Party — which has b e e n s h o w n t o b e little more than a mod- ern-day incarnation of the John Birch Society, with the same rac- ist, xenophobic and anti-government dogma — has faded from political prominence in recent years, there remain pockets of zeal- ots who spout their exclusionist propaganda. Regrettably, some are in Sarasota County. Randy McLendon, the ringleader of the Sarasota County Tea Party faction, is one of the candidates for the School Board, seeking to unseat incumbent Jane Goodwin, the cur- rent chairwoman of the board. He is joined by Helen Wolff, who is opposing incumbent Shirley Brown. He also had recruited another Tea Party candidate to run for Todd's seat, but Geoffrey Fisher apparently had more import- ant obligations during the week set aside for candidates to file with the Supervisor of Elections (SOE). Fisher straggled into the SOE office one minute after the deadline for filing, so his candidacy was denied … and McLendon was deprived of having three extremist candidates running for the three open seats. The citizens of Sarasota County will not be served by having their excellent public school system become the province of misguided radical political beliefs. Tea Party extrem- ists deal only in bizarre conspiracy theories, and one of those is that the Common Core education standards are somehow a social- ist plot. Never mind that the local board has to follow the require- ments of the state in this matter, or that no less a Republican dignitary than former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is a major proponent of the Common Core Ken Marsh's experience, his acumen and his humanity and concern for all students will be an asset for the school district in the years to come, especially with the pending retirement of Lori White in 2017. OPINION Sarasota News Leader August 1, 2014 Page 92