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BY MARTHA MARRAZZA

In print | Published November 3, 2005

In one of the most contested elections in recent Swarthmore history, Republican and Green Party candidate Mary Gay Scanlon will face off against Democratic candidate Mark Kuperberg for a position on the Wallingford-Swarthmore school board on Nov. 8.

Kuperberg, a Swarthmore economics professor, is a two-term incumbent fighting to keep his post while Scanlon, an education attorney, is providing a challenge to the Wallingford-Swarthmore school board status quo. The controversial election has raised not only issues with actions of the current school board, but also broader political issues, including candidate party affiliations and the role of Swarthmore student voters in town elections.

As registered Democrats, both Kuperberg and Scanlon chose to cross-file in the Democratic and Republican primaries. “I won the Republican primary and he [Kuperberg] won the Democratic primary,” Scanlon said. “It was a close popular vote.”

After winning the Republican primary, Scanlon sought the Green Party nomination for the Nov. 8 elections. “The election isn’t about party politics, it’s about the schools and the direction of the school district. Having ended up on the Republican line, it’s odd for a registered Democrat. I also am listed as a Green Party candidate because I did want to re-emphasize that the election is not about party politics,” Scanlon said.

Robert Small, a Green Party member who is running for Elections Judge in Swarthmore’s Western precinct, said allowing Scanlon to run on the Green Party line makes sense. “She [Scanlon] came to a meeting and [Delaware County Green Party members] interviewed her. She knows our ten key values and believes in them. We thought her plan to run on the Green ballot line was appropriate. The way the election laws have been written, someone who wins the primary can run on two tickets. We thought, even though she is listed on the Republican line, she sounds more like a Democrat, and even more like a Green,” he said. “Her being listed as a Republican and a Green is not conflicting for us. What’s more important to us is a person’s philosophy and what a person stands for versus a label.”

Kuperberg grants that the election is controversial because of factors ranging from the school board’s treatment of a recent elementary school renovation to inherent taxing issues in the borough of Swarthmore. “Exactly why it is a contested election is complicated. The school district has extremely high taxes because there is almost no commercial property in town, so there is always the potential for a tax revolt. But generally there aren’t enough, or a big enough, mass of voters to make something of that,” he said. “Then two years ago, the elementary school was renovated and it didn’t go well. Parents who normally wouldn’t have had anything to do with the tax revolt became dissatisfied.”

Scanlon is appealing to parents who seek school board change, but her campaign has also incorporated citizens displeased with the current tax rates that rank Swarthmore as one of the most taxed districts in Pennsylvania. “I am getting a lot of support from folks like myself who have kids [in the schools] now, or even from seniors stressed by the tax burden. I think we should establish an education foundation, a nonprofit affiliated with the school district, to raise money to benefit the [educational] programs,” Scanlon said. “Our [current] board is not interested in alternative methods, but I think we have to look at other options first. We can’t just keep taxing people.”

Fred Pryor, a Swarthmore economics professor also running for re-election as the Judge of Elections in Swarthmore’s Western precinct, acknowledges the weaknesses of Swarthmore’s tax system. “The problem with Swarthmore is that there is not a very large business district to draw taxes from, so more taxes end up on the individuals. The expenditure per student is actually relatively low in the county, even though we have high property taxes.”

Scanlon argued that Swarthmore College, as a major town landholder, should share the tax burden. “It is true that without a significant business tax base, or at least because we don’t have business properties we can tax, that adds to the tax burden. I think this is exacerbated by the problem that the college owns one-fourth of the land in town and they don’t pay taxes since they are a nonprofit organization,” she said. "It presents the issue of what is the college’s responsibility to the town in which its campus is located.

“I know there are other colleges making payments in lieu of taxes because they recognize the importance of supporting the community in which their college is located. I think we have to look at new ideas to solve the problem of our incredible tax burden. We should pursue but not force the college to see whether they can make payments to the town as part of their civic commitment.”

Kuperberg said the college does actually contribute to the Swarthmore community, just not directly to the school board. “There are a lot of people who support my opponent who have the view that the college pays no property taxes. That’s not true,” he said. “The college pays property taxes on the faculty housing it owns. The college does give money to the town in lieu of other taxes, but it make a contribution to the Swarthmore borough, not to the school district.”

Kuperberg lauded Scanlon’s ability to bring together voters who oppose high taxes and those who favor creating more educational programs, two seemingly opposing political groups. “My opponent has crafted the kind of message that appealed to tax revolt people, but parents are her true constituency. My opponent’s method is brilliant in that it unites both groups,” he said. “She’s taking two polar opposite groups of people, diametrically opposed, and uniting their views under the umbrella of those who are dissatisfied with the status quo. She’s claimed that we could basically lower taxes if we got a lot of grants. This unites both groups because she said we can have lower taxes but have more programs.”

Kuperberg sees Scanlon’s choice to secure the Green Party nomination as a political tactic, however. “I think it was just a cynical political move to get another line on the ballot,” he said. “It’s also an attempt to create voter confusion. My opponent is a Democrat who won the Republican primary because her message was Republican but she has a weird fusion of political ideas. Most Republicans wouldn’t want to be caught dead on the Green Party line, but she’s really a Democrat, so she figured she could expand the set of people who could vote for her if she was listed as Green.”

In this election, Scanlon is downplaying party affiliation while highlighting the need for school board reform. “I’m proposing a more engaged school board. I think the school board has become somewhat remote from parents and the community,” Scanlon said. "[When the elementary school was renovated] kids got shipped out of school for 6 months and the elementary school opened late. The board did not respond. There was construction going on in the school with the kids in the building. Kids got sick and they lost instructional time. There was a lack of responsiveness from the board. I think transparency in government is an issue here.

“There is a perception that our board has become somewhat complacent. We need people to push and consider more ideas, while bringing the community into the decision making process.”

Swarthmore students inadvertently exacerbated the controversial nature of the campaign when they hosted a debate for Scanlon and Kuperberg last spring. “Scanlon contacted us and asked if we wanted to become involved in her campaign. We said we weren’t ready to be involved, but we’d like to meet with her,” said Jonathan Petkun ’07, Vice President of the College Democrats. “Kuperberg had not yet contacted us, so we contacted him and decided to hold a debate for both candidates rather than working directly with either campaign. Unfortunately, after the debate, there were allegations that Kuperberg had courted the support of the College Democrats. We sent a letter to the Swarthmorean [the borough newspaper] indicating that this was not the case.”

While both candidates encourage eligible Swarthmore students to vote in the Nov. 8 election, Kuperberg said students should exercise discretion when voting. “I think Swarthmore students need to ask themselves whether they want to vote,” he said. “It would be in my interest to say that Swarthmore students should vote like crazy, but I really think that students should consult their own conscience.”

Students who go to the polls may have to fend with Swarthmore’s history of trying to prevent students from voting, Pryor said. “In the past, some students have been harassed at the election and historically it’s only been done by one party: the Republicans,” he said.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean the Republicans in Swarthmore, per se, but perhaps on the county organization level. They’re upset that students who don’t pay taxes in Swarthmore play a determining role in the elections, which is highly dubious. Sometimes they latch onto technicalities to claim that students are not properly registered. What a student should do if they are challenged that they are an ineligible voter, is they should speak with the election judge and present their registration card there,” Pryor said.

Scanlon said reports of student harassment spurred her to become involved in Swarthmore politics. “I do think students have been harassed and that’s absolutely what got me involved [in voter protection activities]. In 2002 or 2003 Delaware County Republican Party operatives were near Swarthmore polling places and I think they were trying to prevent students from voting, putting up signs saying you can’t vote here and at home,” she said.

“While that’s technically accurate, the signs were clearly intended to intimidate the student vote. With last fall’s presidential elections, and Pennsylvania being a swing state, several attorneys in town got more heavily involved and made sure there were copies of the law and lawyers available at polling places,” Scanlon said. “I also worked with national organizers [the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights] in the fall of 2004, as part of the ‘protect the vote’ initiative.”

Both Pryor and Scanlon doubted that the upcoming election will be this heated in regards to student voters.

Although some citizens question if Swarthmore students are warranted to vote in the Ville elections because they do not pay taxes to the borough, Petkun stresses that there are numerous justifications for Swarthmore students to vote. “We’re 20-year-olds, so we don’t really make enough money to pay for taxes anywhere. It’s mixed logic,” he said. “There are a lot of issues that are decided upon by elected officials that are non-related to taxes. For example, the Ville revitalization efforts affect services, stores and restaurants that students use.”

The outcome of this election will greatly affect the local Green Party, said Kevin Murphy, class of ‘89 and the co-chair of the Delaware County Green Party. "[Scanlon’s registry as a member of the Green Party] is obviously an indication that the Green Party is growing in Swarthmore, in Delaware County, in Pennsylvania and in the entire country," he said. “Obviously the Green Party is still extremely small, but it’s a good sign that some voters and activists are open to new ideas and new approaches.”

Lora Lavin, a director of the Swarthmore League of Women Voters, said the nature of the election is a vibrant example of our political system. “I think the heated nature of the race is good for the public,” she said. “It stimulates an examination of issues and promotes participation and voting. The voting public is provided with a real choice here, and I think that’s good.”

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