The elections of Chris Stampolis and Michele Ryan are not as surprising as we would like to think. We all knew it was going to happen. We just did not want admit it.
The “Get Stampolis Squad” was made up of retired educators who simply had little idea of what the voters of Santa Clara Unified were concerned with, and the “nomination” of James VanPernis was as wise as the decision of King Philip to choose someone to lead the Spanish Armada who suffered from chronic seasickness.
Stampolis simply took a lesson from the Obama campaign, and cobbled together a coalition. As I said months before, while some people were golfing, Stampolis was targeting. It was not a strong buck deer that came after him, but a mumbling band of befuddled wizards. Bottom line: Stampolis and Ryan simply learned that it is the people you do not know that decide elections. Not only has the old guard lost, they have made it impossible for anyone else to win.
