Superintendent of Public Instruction
Seven states elected Superintendents of Public Instruction. Actually, only three states elected Superintendents of Public Instruction: Arizona, Idaho and Oklahoma. The other four states have different names for the same office. Wyoming calls it the Superintendent of Instruction; Georgia, the School Superintendent; in Florida it's the Commissioner of Education and in South Dakota it's the Commissioner of Schools. For purposes of brevity and because majority rules on the Institution of Election Analysis Website (if nowhere else), I will refer to the office as the Superintendent of Public Instruction regardless of the actual title. These offices are usually an appointive office in most states, but in those states where it is elected, it is one of the more important.
In 5 of the 7 states, the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Commissioner of Education or School Superintendent received more votes than the Attorney General's race, normally the highest office after Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Senate, and House of Representatives. This shows the importance that the voters attach to education. One of the laggards was the unopposed candidate's race in Arizona.
The Republicans won 4 of the races and the Democrats won 3. The Republicans received 4,394,420 (56.1%) votes, the Democrats received 3,330,849 (42.5%) and the independents 107,686 or 1.4%. A total of 7,832,954 people voted for the top education officer in their state.
The vote totals are distorted by two factors: the Republican win in Florida, which was really the only big state to elect an education official, and the fact that the Republican in Arizona ran unopposed. The interesting anomaly is that the Democrats won in traditionally Republican states like: Idaho, Oklahoma and South Dakota; while the Republicans won in Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Wyoming.
Not only were the education races relatively important, the margins were narrow. Except for the unopposed race in Arizona, Oklahoma was the only state to just barely break the 60% barrier. All the other races were between 50% and 60%, except for Georgia which fell into the 49% category. So, 1 race under 50%, 4 races between 50% and 60%, and 2 races over 60%. After four years of the education President, and another eight under the Rhodes Scholar, I'd say the voters still think we have a long way to go on the instruction and schools issue.
| Az. SoPubI 98 | Keegan (R) | No Democrat | Scott (w-i) | Levosky (w-i) | Sup. of PubI 98 | (281,163) | ||||||||
| 729,899 | 0 | 17,478 | 1,609 | 748,986 | ||||||||||
| 97.4516% | 0.0000% | 2.3336% | 0.2148% | Ind. total | 19,087 | |||||||||
| Fl.Com. of Ed. 98 | Gallagher (R) | Wallace (D) | Com. of Ed. 98 | |||||||||||
| 2,185,027 | 1,679,893 | 0 | 3,864,920 | |||||||||||
| 56.5349% | 43.4651% | 0.0000% | 1.46936793852786E-39 | |||||||||||
| Ga. Sch.Supt.98 | Schrenko (R) | Joe Martin (D) | Cartwright (Lib) | School Supt.98 | 287,233 | |||||||||
| 857,321 | 794,324 | 76,800 | 1,728,445 | |||||||||||
| 49.6007% | 45.9560% | 4.4433% | Ind. total | 76,800 | ||||||||||
| Id. SPI 1998 | Anne Fox (R) | Howard (D) | SPI 1998 | |||||||||||
| 171,976 | 202,978 | 374,954 | (11,766) | |||||||||||
| 45.8659% | 54.1341% | Ind. total | 1.46936793852786E-39 | |||||||||||
| Ok. SoPubI 98 | Murphy (R) | Garrett (D) | S. Pub. Ins. 98 | |||||||||||
| 343,291 | 520,270 | 863,561 | ||||||||||||
| 39.7530% | 60.2470% | |||||||||||||
| SD Comm. Sch98 | Ingalis (R) | Johnson (D) | Vandenburg (L) | Schools 98 | ||||||||||
| 106,905 | 133,384 | 11,799 | 252,088 | |||||||||||
| 42.4078% | 52.9117% | 4.6805% | Ind. total | 11,799 | ||||||||||
| Wy. Sup.Ins.98 | Catchpole (R) | Lane (D) | Voting 1998 | Sup. Inst. 98 | ||||||||||
| 98,289 | 73,393 | 178,401 | 171,682 | (6,719) | ||||||||||
| 57.2506% | 42.7494% | Ind. total | 1.46936793852786E-39 | |||||||||||
| total | 4,394,420 | 3,330,849 | 106,077 | 1,609 | 0 | 0 | 7,832,954 | |||||||
| 56.1017% | 42.5235% | 107,686 | ||||||||||||
| 1.3748% |
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