Overexposure Ruins Candidate

Bikinis and ballots don’t mix, according to a principal in Germantown, Tenn. So a student who hired a bikini-clad model to boost his campaign for senior class president has been disqualified from the race, said Ernest Chism, the principal of Germantown High School near Memphis. Chism said that the appearance of the model, in which she carried the candidate’s poster at an on-campus election forum, violated guidelines for campaign materials. The model wore a modest dress until time for her campaign duties and then stripped down quickly to reveal the bikini, Chism said. “It was very, very scanty,” he added. Brad Pate, 17, said he hired the model, identified only as Deanne, to escort him from the school gym after a campaign speech. “It cost $50 an hour. It was only for about 10 seconds,” he said. “It was expensive.” Chism said Pate, an honor student, was in an election runoff against a girl who has been her class president throughout high school. “He was desperate,” Chism said. “He just made a 17-year-old kind of judgment and it was a mistake.”

--Another election--one for a $10-million bond issue for road improvements in a San Antonio, Tex., subdivision--will be decided by one vote. David Rubio’s vote, to be exact. On Nov. 3, Rubio, the only eligible voter living in the subdivision north of downtown, will cast the single vote in the Bexar County Road District No. 4 bond election. “The indications are that he is going to vote for it,” Dan Parman, one of five owners of the subdivision, said. “We hope he will. We are going to go out and campaign for him to vote for it. . . . I’m hoping he doesn’t forget to vote.” Future residents of the 1,400-acre subdivision will pay to retire the bonds. County officials said it is not uncommon for road district elections to be settled by a few residents, although the vote has not come down to a single ballot before.

--There won’t be any ghosts or goblins prowling the halls of Coal Creek Elementary School in Louisville, Colo., this year. In deference to some parents who say Halloween celebrates paganism and the “dark side,” school officials have decided to turn the yearly costume day into a celebration of the 200th birthday of the U.S. Constitution. The 641 pupils will be permitted to wear only Colonial dress, no traditional Halloween costumes, to school on Oct. 30. Principal Ellen Goering said that finding “alternative ways to celebrate traditional holidays” is an attempt “to be aware of and sensitive to everyone’s feelings.”