[Editor’s Note: Only one School Board campaign event is scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Meghan Sahli-Wells will host a Meet ‘n Greet for Nancy Goldberg at 4201 Lafayette Pl., near Downtown, from 3 to 5 p.m.]
Whether or not her supporters believe she needs to catch up with School Board race frontrunners Scott Zeidman and Laura Chardiet, the opening question at last night’s Raintree homeowners Candidates Forum was designed, singularly, to spotlight Nancy Goldberg’s uniqueness and main playing card.
It was a setup inspired by the perennial nightclub line, “Have you stopped beating your wife?”
Everybody in the room knew the answer.
But did the move backfire?
“This question is for Nancy,” said the first speaker from the audience. “Nancy, you have 41 years of classroom teaching experience. To the best of your knowledge, does anyone running for the School Board have comparable experience?”
The audience laughed, so obviously was the setup designed to enhance Ms. Goldberg.
What the interrogator could not have known was that at that precise moment, Mr. Zeidman’s constantly whirring mind was formulating what he intended to be a knockout rejoinder.
Since all four of Ms. Goldberg’s rivals are past 41 years old — two of them not by much — the question begged for an unexpected punchline or a squelcher.
Ms. Goldberg played it straight. “To the best of my knowledge no,” she said, sparking another audience chuckle.
And Furthermore
Espying a juicy, fall-down-easy invitation to burnish her credentials, she veered off in a mystical direction. “Clearly, clearly we have another educator, and I think he is becoming our educator because he has been on the Board the last four years,” an allusion to businessman-lawyer Mr. Zeidman.
“That kind of experience (in the classroom) is invaluable. I’ve got to be honest. If you are in the same business as I am, and want to become a School Board member, I am very much conscious of the issues.”
For three months, Ms. Goldberg has been seeking to drive home perhaps her most important theme, that four decades of teaching in this town give her stronger insight and understanding of the most crucial subjects that will come before the School Board.
To speak more baldly, Ms. Goldberg contends that a terrific teacher will translate into a blue ribbon addition to the School Board.
After Ms. Chardiet, a lifetime educator, and Robert Zirgulis, a substitute teacher, signed up for Ms. Goldberg’s Teachers Are the Answer bandwagon, Mr. Zeidman sharply shifted the tone.
“I am not a teacher,” the only incumbent in the race began, innocently.
What Qualifications?
Diplomatically striving to declare that mere teaching credentials hardly amount to a panacea for what ails the School District, Mr. Zeidman paused as his eyes scanned the compact glass-walled room.
A sports aficionado, he asked, “Anyone ever hear of Ted Williams?
“Fantastic baseball player. Hall of Famer. Last player to hit .400. Probably the worst manager in the history of baseball.”
Zing.
Point made with emphasis.
“Just because you have done the job doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to succeed on the Board,” said Mr. Zeidman, who seldom wastes one word or one pluckable opportunity.
“It doesn’t mean Nancy won’t succeed. I am not saying she won’t. But having four or five teachers on the Board, with no mixture…
“You need a business background as well.
“Imagine running a $50 million budget with no business background.
“Being an educator is important. We have 337 teachers in our District. Most of our administrators were teachers.
“You need something else as well.
“You need business sense.
“You need common sense.
“You need a business background.”
In typically less than his one minute of allotted time, Mr. Zeidman achieved what for many others would be the unlikely:
So deftly that he almost did not seem to be trying, he seized upon an overtly adversarial situation and mercurially flipped it to his undeniable advantage.
The only one of the five contenders never to use even a postage stamp-sized note to read from, Mr. Zeidman has fully, enthusiastically capitalized on his advantage as the lone experienced candidate.
He did not suddenly appear around the community when election year dawned and aim his arrow for Election Day, Nov. 8. He is and has been ubiquitous. Mr. Zeidman has been a sure-footed, articulate, commanding leader — not just a symbolic drum major — from his arrival four years ago. He has earned the backing of all his Board colleagues and the full City Council, an impressive sweep.
Ms. Chardiet, a professionally rounded educator, virtually matches Mr. Zeidman in articulation and qualitative responses, and as a PTA Council veteran, she is thoroughly comfortable in exchanges with roused audiences.
In another election year, these two would have been a lock on Nov. 8, regardless of other contenders.
But Ms. Goldberg is an insoluble wild card.
Her phenomenal community-wide popularity, compounded by the fierce partisanship of her backers, make this an impossible outcome to predict.
