Woolford legislation would do away with nonpartisanship of school boards

Legislation introduced last year by state Rep. Jason Woolford, R-Howell, would do away with nonpartisan school board elections and require candidates to declare a party affiliation.

School board races in Michigan — as well as those in most cities (depending on their charter), and all villages — have always been nonpartisan; the reasoning is that these local units of government provide services for which party affiliation makes no difference. There’s no Democratic or Republican way to teach kids, collect garbage, or plow snow. (Following that reasoning, one could easily make the argument that township and county boards should be non-partisan, too, but they are not.)

The reasoning continues that nonpartisan elections shield candidates from the pressure of partisan politics.

We saw how well that worked this month, didn’t we?

In an unprecedented move, the executive committee of the Livingston County Republican Party voted unanimously in a private meeting to excommunicate four members who also sit on the board of the Brighton Area Schools because they put a $156 million bond issue on the May 4 ballot. The four are: Roger Myers, president; Jennifer Marks, vice president; Katie Tierney, treasurer; and Alicia Urbain, trustee. (As an interesting side note, Marks of the BAS board was one of the candidates promoted by the LCRP in 2022, and she was one of the four members excommunicated by the LCRP this month.)

As jaw-dropping as that move was, the truth is that nonpartisan school boards went the way of the dinosaurs in 2022. That’s when the Livingston County Republican Party decided to recruit, train, endorse, and promote candidates for every school board in the community.

I’ve covered politics in Livingston County for over 30 years, and NEVER has either political party ever officially crossed the nonpartisan school board line before then.

It happened in the wake of the pandemic, when some parents rebelled against mask mandates and shutdowns and vaccinations, with much of their attention focused on schools. The fiery hot political energy unleashed then is still being felt today. Some of the candidates the LCRP endorsed refused to engage with the general public, and many did not answer traditional questionnaires from media outlets like The Livingston Post, and organizations like the League of Women Voters. Most didn’t appear at public candidate forums at which questions would be asked; instead, they preferred to engage only on Facebook, where some blocked questioners and restricted access. The Republicans promoted their candidates with a variety of amorphous themes like “traditional values,” “keep kids safe,” “education, not indoctrination,” “conservative values,” “parental rights,” and keeping boys out of girls’ restrooms and sports.

The LCRP spent some serious money promoting school board candidates. Below are some of the mailers and signs for which the party footed the bill:

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The hyper-partisanship of the Republicans’ 2022 strategy worked: the LCRP-supported candidates won 60% of the Livingston County school board races. In that election, two GOP-endorsed candidates won in Brighton: Jennifer Marks and Andy Storm; three won in Hartland: Michelle Blondeel, Glenn Gogoleski and Greg Keller; two won in Howell: Jason Bedford and Meg Marhofer; two won in Fowlerville: John Belcher and Danielle DeVries. But in Pinckney, the three GOP-endorsed candidates lost.

While the LCRP crossed the longtime nonpartisan line in 2022, the legislation introduced last year by Woolford — aimed solely at school board races — would erase it completely.

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House Bill 4588 — introduced by Woolford on June 10, 2025, would require candidates in school board races to declare a party affiliation, and force primary elections for school boards in August.

Woolford explained in reporting last year that his proposal would improve transparency around a candidate’s values and improve voter turnout.

“Party labels create policy consistency,” Woolford said. “Boards with clear ideological balances, whether conservative, progressive or mixed, can avoid gridlock and deliver on promises from better budgets to safer schools. Without labels, we risk surprises or recalls when candidates’ true colors show up too late.”

Partisan school board elections appear to be territory into which the Livingston County Democrats won’t willingly venture.

“Strong public schools are such an important shared value that it doesn’t make sense to turn them into a partisan matter,” said Judy Daubenmier, chair of the Livingston County Democratic Party.

In the meantime, Woolford’s bill remains stalled in the House.

In the wake of how the LCRP has been operating, one might wonder if it’s even necessary.

Editor’s note: This story was edited at 6:50 a.m. Thursday, May 28, to remove a photo of a sign belonging to the Clean Slate in Hartland — Michalle Blondeel, Glenn Gogoleski, Greg Keller, and Bob Merwin — which had NOT been paid for by the Livingston County Republican Party.