Dave Schau, who in 2014 sought a seat on the Lee County Board of Education as a Republican, has left the GOP to become an unaffiliated voter, the Rant has learned.
In a message to the Rant, Schau, who finished sixth out of six candidates in the 2014 balloting for one of three seats on the school board, said that left the local GOP “for what I am sure are many of the same reasons as others leaving the party here in Lee County.”
Earlier in July, the Rant reported that school board member Cameron Sharpe had switched from Republican to Democrat, and noted “several years of exodus” by elected officials and otherwise from the Lee County Republican Party.
Noting that he’s not an office-holder and explaining that he’s “confident there is less interest in me changing my party affiliation” than there would be in others, Schau did say he hasn’t ruled out another run for public office at some point in the future, noting that if he did so he would be “quite a bit wiser about Lee County politics.”
Read Schau’s entire message to the Rant below:
While I do not currently hold office (I was not elected in my run for School Board in 2014) and I’m confident there is less interest in me changing my party affiliation than there was for those like the elected officials you noted in your recent report about Cameron Sharpe, I too left the ranks of Lee County registered Republicans today. I have been a Republican since I began voting, but for what I am sure are many of the same reasons as others leaving the party here in Lee County, I am now an unaffiliated voter. I believe you called this “several years of exodus”.
I have not ruled out another run for office locally, however if I run again I will run to win and to serve – quite a bit wiser about Lee County politics.
I still proudly serve on the City of Sanford Appearance Commission and the Mural Arts Subcommittee and remain active in our wonderful community. Great things are happening in Sanford with even more to come.