Fiorella's Political Career

Running for office can bring out the worst in a person, as Fiorella learned the hard way years ago when she ran for School Board.

Your girl had been active in the community and served two terms as president of the city Parent-Teachers Association and also gained recognition as a local newspaper correspondent so you might say she had it in the bag--except that her opponent's bag was loaded with dirty tricks as petty as dumping Fio's trash bags into other people's cans to make it look like she was avoiding the pick-up fee and as blatant as, with great fanfare, joining Fiorella's church. 

It didn't stop there. When Fio listed her  four-point objectives, her opponent (her former PTA VP, by the way) claimed the same objectives. And then there was the battle of the campaign signs. One morning Fio woke up to see her sign had been replaced by her opponent's sign in her across-the-street neighbor's front yard. Her neighbor hurried across the street and said she had no choice--that it was the wish of a dying church friend. Then there was the woman who called and asked for ten signs, which Fio delivered--but when she checked back a week later, the signs were still piled in the woman's yard. Then Fiorella learned that her opponent had told the high school special-needs mothers that Fio, whose oldest was in a special needs class for reading, was opposed to these programs. 

Not that Fio didn't make a few stupid moves on her own which she didn't realize till it was too late, but surprisingly, even with the tidal wave against her, your girl got a fairly good turn-out--but not enough. 

But maybe School Board had not been in the cards for Fiorella. When she and Husband had visited Waco in the middle of her campaign, they pounded one of her signs in her parents' front yard so everyone would know what Fio was up to, but after they left, then circled the block to get a picture of the sign, it had been removed because "The neighbors would think we were selling the house."