Texas SBOE Runoff — Creationism Returns?

Mary Lou Bruner

Last week we wrote Texas Board of Education Creationist Candidate. As you now know, Mary Lou Bruner (pictured above) will be in the May runoff election for a seat on the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE).

We quoted some of Mary Lou’s more outrageous statements, including one claiming that the theory of evolution is responsible for school shootings. Then we shifted into sarcasm mode and said:

Texas needs Mary Lou on the Board of Education. Things haven’t been the same since Don McLeroy left.

What we didn’t know at the time was that the seat for which Mary Lou is running had once been McLeroy’s seat. Until 2010, the SBOE was dominated by McLeroy, the creationist dentist, until McLeroy was defeated that year in the Republican primary by Thomas Ratliff. The Discoveroids were furious — see Discovery Institute Weeps for Don McLeroy.

Alas for the students of Texas, Ratliff is not seeking re-election this year. His seat is open, and Mary Lou is one of those trying to take his place.

With that as background, we present to you, dear reader, an editorial, Curious candidate, subtitled “The Texas Board of Education needs serious representatives, not bomb throwers,” which appears in the Houston Chronicle, the largest daily newspaper in Houston, the most populous city in Texas. They have a comments feature. Here are some excerpts from the editorial, to which we added some bold font for emphasis:

The nation is once again noticing the Texas State Board of Education. And once again, it’s for the wrong reason. All eyes are upon us because of the candidate voters in the East Texas SBOE District 9 seem on the brink of electing as their representative for this critically important body.

Former teacher Mary Lou Bruner took 48 percent of the GOP primary vote earlier this month, narrowly missing the plurality she needed to win the nomination outright. She will face opponent Keven Ellis, a Lufkin chiropractor, in a May 24 runoff. We hope the “speed bump” of the runoff will give voters more time to educate themselves about the candidates and, perhaps more important, the role of the SBOE.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! It’s better than we dreamed. Mary Lou’s opponent is a chiropractor! Let’s read on:

Candidates needn’t be rocket scientists. But, at minimum, voters should expect competence and a candidate’s willingness to focus on the quality of education students in our state’s public schools receive rather than an ideologically driven personal agenda.

It’s fair to say that neither Mary Lou nor her chiropractor opponent could be described as rocket scientists. The editorial continues:

The panel’s work at times has been hijacked by a divisive, partisan tone driven by a majority, conservative bloc whose members have drawn national derision by staking out such positions as rejecting evolution and claiming that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t protect separation of church from state. We believe the board would return to its days of dysfunction were District 9 voters to send Bruner as their representative.

Indeed, and that would be tragic for the students in Texas. But as a blogger, your Curmudgeon thrives on the activities of creationists, so you know we’re going to be following this election closely.

The editorial doesn’t say much else, so we decided to find out more about Keven Ellis, Mary Lou’s opponent. Here’s his campaign website: Ellis for Texas. It doesn’t mention evolution, creationism, or science education, nor can we find anything about his thinking on those subjects in any other news stories.

At the moment, Ellis’ views are unknown — at least to us. But the fact that he’s not saying much, if anything, suggests that he may be a closeted creationist. Time will tell. Meanwhile, we’ll continue watching this race.

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