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Hernando Today

General Election Will Determine School, Judges Races

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By LINNEA BROWN

Hernando Today

Published: August 28, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - In at least two local races, there is much riding on the votes earned by those who won't progress to the general election.

School Board candidate Robert Neuhausen earned 4,439 of 16,854 votes cast countywide, only several hundred votes short of beating candidate Gene Magrini's 4,725 votes. While candidate James Yant led with 7,690 votes, he will now face Magrini because he did not earn more than 50 percent - meaning the voters who initially chose Neuhausen are the ones whose votes may determine the ultimate winner in the runoff.

So why did voters choose Neuhausen? He voiced numerous opinions during his race, including staunch criticism of Superintendent Wayne Alexander, a position that morale is down among teachers and spoke against the process used to create the centralized gifted center at Explorer K-8.

"Who knows what would have happened if there had been a better turnout," Neuhausen said, speaking of the roughly 14 percent of registered voters in the county who voted in the local school board race. "All three of us had different philosophies."

Yant, 62, a former educator who has been involved in Hernando County Schools and local educational organizations since the 1970s, said he believes many of the votes for Neuhausen came from local teachers and school district employees who feel intimidated in the district's current working environment.

"They don't feel a sense of security. They have to go out and perform to their maximum, yet they don't know if they're going to have a job tomorrow," he said. "I don't think they need to work under that kind of pressure. They want a work environment that is nonthreatening."

While he stressed that he would only be one member of the board, Yant said he would make sure to encourage all of the district's leaders - from the superintendent to school principals - to make the district a pleasant working environment.

"I'm not sure (Alexander) knows this, but many people in the community don't like the approach of the superintendent. It's often seen as dictatorial," he said.

"This doesn't just affect the employees," Yant continued. "If our budget is short and we need members of the community to help us, we need to make sure they buy back into the school system. Otherwise, where is that money going to come from?"

Yant said he refuses to promise anything, such as teacher raises or new programs, until he sees the condition of the budget he is working with. However, he said he believes in being fiscally conservative, taking the budget seriously and focusing on long-range decisions, instead of the "Band-Aid" approach of fixing the same problems year after year.

Meanwhile, his opponent is already stressing the issues he shared with Neuhausen, such as favoring magnet schools, the concept of gifted education and increasing opportunities for parent involvement.

"We both developed well thought-out platforms and did our homework, which is why the votes were so similar," Magrini said. "I know if the votes were reversed, I would have no problem giving (Neuhausen) my vote in November."

A self-employed human resources consultant, Magrini, 43, credits 21 years of successful business management with preparing him for the board.

While he preferred to remain mysterious about his upcoming campaign strategy, Magrini said he intends to keep stressing his innate ability to make sense of complex budgetary issues.

While Yant said he would consider partial-zoning for magnet schools, Magrini spoke against it, and said administrators should focus instead on strengthening programs at zoned schools.

While he did not mention Alexander specifically, Magrini agreed that there needs to be more "managerial courage" in the district.

"It all comes down to management," he said. "Having good management and good leaders (actually) leading the department heads, instead of just having that title."

Experience the issue in judge's race

Likewise, there will also be obstacles to overcome in the runoff for the empty circuit judge's seat in the Inverness-based Fifth Circuit's Group 3.

With most precincts in the state reporting, candidate Sandy Hawkins, 53, had a significant lead over Denise Lyn, 41, and Michael Lamberti, 48.

Hawkins garnered 48,455 votes, or 43 percent. Lyn had 36,069 votes, or 32 percent, while Lamberti had 28,076 votes or nearly 25 percent.

However, because she did not have 50 percent of the votes plus one, Hawkins will face off against Lyn in the general election in November.

Hawkins said she feels confident that residents voted based on experience, and said she feels voters who chose Lamberti will likely choose her over Lyn.

"I think what the voters saw was that as prosecutors, we are the most experienced," she said. "The combination of our percentages was overwhelming."

Hawkins, 53, offers 11 years of experience as a state prosecutor in Marion County, with seven years on felony cases and four years prosecuting domestic violence cases.

"In both criminal and civil courts, we are experienced trial attorneys, and a judge needs to know something about that," Hawkins said. "I think Ms. Lyn's lack of experience in a criminal courtroom may be something voters will (notice)."

Hawkins said she plans on taking a couple of weeks off from campaigning to return to work and prepare for upcoming trials, then get back into campaigning and participating in local forums whenever she can.

"I'm going to be out there getting votes," she said, adding that she plans on changing the format of her message to focus less on her background and more on the issues that a judge would have to address on a bench.

Lyn did not return a call for comment.

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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