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Health & Fitness

My Concession Speech

The following is the text of my prepared remarks to the Board of Trustees of the Lawrence Union Free School District delivered Thursday evening, May 30, 2013.

Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to speak briefly tonight.

When I told my close confidants that I was mounting a campaign for a seat on the School Board, they all told me I was crazy.  Aside from the political realities of our district that have made it difficult for public school parents to run successfully over the past several years, I was told that I had no chance because of my character – I was too honest, that I would be forced to give up my integrity if I entered politics.

Well, I am here tonight to tell you that those friends were wrong.  With the help of great friends and volunteers, in just four short weeks we built a campaign that all but won this election. Indeed, many people thought we had won this election, and I don’t recall any of them saying “oh, Jesse can’t have won.  That’s impossible. He was a terrible candidate!”

I know that many supporters of my campaign are terribly disappointed by that I did not win – and so am I. I read a study once that said that amongst Olympic athletes, the winners of both gold and bronze medals are overjoyed with their performances.  The silver medal winner, however, tends to be depressed, and rather than feeling like they won the silver medal, they feel that they lost the gold.  I must confess to you that tonight I feel very much like a silver medal winner.  When I entered this race, I wanted to win, but I recognized I was a long shot and was OK with losing.  To lose by 37 votes, however, is difficult.  But I take pride in how close we came. And how nobody in my organization stooped to negative campaigning to do so.  We ran a good, positive campaign, and received a tremendous amount of support from a wide cross-section of the Lawrence community.

A few words about the confusion surrounding the results: Members of my team and I have worked tirelessly over the past week to verify the election results. We have received the full cooperation of the Board and the District’s attorney who ensured that all of our questions were answered, and our requests for information responded to in a timely manner. 

In order to verify that no votes had been added to Ms. Plaut’s total after the close of the polls, it was necessary for the Campaign to examine both the voter lists and the sign-in registries for the election. After examining these records, I am confident that the number of voters who signed in to vote on Election Day is consistent with the number of voters who voted on the machines. More plainly, I do not believe that someone somehow added hundreds votes for Ms. Plaut after the polls closed.

I have also seen the original documents used to report the count incorrectly. Looking at the correct numbers and the original, incorrect numbers, it is easy to understand the mistake that was made. For whatever reason, the third digit of the number of votes for Ms. Plaut from two machines was dropped. “255” became “25” and “258” also became “25.”

While I understand what the mistake was on election night, I reiterate that I do not understand how it was allowed to happen. The Lawrence community must have the utmost confidence in the integrity of elections. I call upon the Board to investigate this thoroughly, and to report back to the community what went wrong, and the steps put in place to make sure this can never happen again. I look forward to helping with that process in any way I can.

So what can we learn from all this?  In the end, this election was about helping the children of our district.  So I will talk to the children of our district.  More specifically, I want to talk to my most enthusiastic campaign worker: My son Gabe.  Gabe is in the first grade, and made sure that every elementary student at the #2 School knew I was running for School Board.  It was not uncommon over the past few weeks to find myself walking along the street, only to be confronted by a child saying, “hey, you’re Gabe’s dad!” You will have to bear with me, as it is well past Gabe’s bed time, so he is not here, but this is what I would like to tell him.

In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 16 verse 20, the Hebrew Bible commands us “justice, justice shall you pursue.”  Make no mistake about it – the fact that out of the thousands of parents who send their children to the public schools in this district, not one will be sitting on the school board next year is a profound injustice. But Gabe, we recognized the injustice, and did something about it. And with the help of 1,610 people – most of whom we have never met – we came awfully close to succeeding. There is no shame in trying to make a difference, and make your community better – even if you do not succeed.  When you see injustice, you must try to right it.  And we did.

And here is a lesson for the entire community: the margin of victory will in this election is 37 votes. Every vote counts! Explain this to your friends and neighbors who thought my cause was hopeless and stayed home: a cause is only hopeless if you give up hope. And you cannot afford to give up hope when you are working to build a better community. Always vote, no matter how seemingly futile the cause, or insignificant the issue. Democracy can be our greatest strength, but only if we utilize it.

And I will add that my campaign did not fail.  Over the past week I have received phone calls and e-mails from a wide cross section of the Lawrence community, including many who did not support me in this election.  I have received invitations to tour yeshivas, visit synagogues, and dine with rabbis whom I have never met.  I look forward to a year from now when I run again, and I win with the support of the entire Lawrence community – not just the public school vote.

I am proud to announce tonight that I am taking what remains of the money I raised for this campaign and founding the Lawrence Children’s Political Fund.  The goal of The Fund will be to identify, nurture, and support viable candidates to run for school board from the public school community.  We will fund-raise year round, so that future candidates do not find themselves in the position I was in, desperately trying to build a campaign organization in the weeks before the election.  And we will educate the community as to what it means to run for office, and serve on the School Board so that we can have qualified and talented candidates contesting the elections.  I truly believe that this effort will benefit the entire Lawrence community – not just the public school families.

I want to once again congratulate all of the candidates in this election.  We fought a hard fight, but to my knowledge it involved none of the negative campaigning of years past. 

And now to the opponent who beat me, Tova Plaut.  Tova, you are not a parent of children in the public schools, which is the main reason I believe I deserved the seat over you.  You are, however, a mother, a professional educator of great achievement, and from all I can tell a friendly and open minded person.  I wish you the best of luck in your new position.  You add a women’s point of view to the board, which was as sorely lacking as that of a public school parent.  Always remember however, that though you won the election, the majority of the people who voted, voted for candidates other than you.  I do not mean that as a criticism – had I won, I would have been in the exact same position.  Rather, take it as a challenge to win the rest of the voters over.  Keep an open mind, and open communications with all the residents of District 15.  If you work to open the processes of this board, listen to everyone, and really involve the community in what goes on here, I have no doubt that your tenure will be a positive one for us all.

Thank you again for the opportunity to address you all, and thank you for listening.  Take me at my word when I tell you that if there is anyone in the room who does not know me personally, you should introduce yourself after this meeting.  I will remain a tireless advocate for the children of the Lawrence School District, and I promise that you will all hear from me again.

Have a great evening, and I look forward to working with the new board come July 1st.

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