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Typically, the choice to challenge an incumbent from your own party for an elected seat is born out of severe missteps. A scandal of epic proportions, serious malfeasance on the job, something that would imply that the incumbent is now a liability and would be likely to lose in the general election to a candidate from the other party. But every once in a while, a Quixotic candidate whose reason seems to amount to little more than a pathological need to be an elected official throws their hat into the ring and throws punches at windmills, bound and determined to sully their reputation.
Enter Kimberly Yee. You may know her as the current Arizona Treasurer, and astute followers of Arizona politics may remember the short-lived, neutered run for Governor in 2022. Well she will be termed out of office after next year, and instead of finding an opportunity where her skill set and experience fits the role, she is taking a new direction…
…she is running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, against Republican incumbent Tom Horne.
Earlier this spring, Treasurer Kimberly Yee announced her bid to unseat incumbent Superintendent Tom Horne; not to boost test scores or improve outcomes, but to strip Horne of authority over spending in the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) voucher program. More specifically, as Horne has tried to reign in abuses within the system, such as denying “reimbursement to parents for items such as a $5,000 Rolex watch, a $24,000 golf simulator and even a vasectomy testing kit.”
Yes, so because Horne is preventing your tax dollars from being used on Rolexes and vasectomy kits, dollars specifically for use for education, Yee is trying to take out Horne.
Thoughts on Horne aside, this is simply embarrassing.
This race feels less about curriculum and more about tug-of-war over who gets to oversee nearly $1 billion in voucher funds. Yee’s campaign, seemingly spurred by conservative Freedom Caucus interests and by bomb-thrower Jake Hoffman, lacks clear education policy direction. If she’s serious about boosting student outcomes, she’ll need more than soundbites: she’ll need a vision beyond fiscal stewardship.
That said, that is clearly not on her mind. This is sparked by little more than the pathological need to be an elected official regardless of the office (the Rodney Glassman Syndrome) and to use not just fiscal responsibility, but preventing fraud as your catalyst for trying to take out an incumbent? It’s as shameful as it gets.
It’s unfortunate that Yee is choosing to put such an obvious blemish on her career like this. The voters deserve more than this; they deserve a roadmap for academic improvement and fewer obvious career politicians.