Although Clay County is called a “bedroom” community of Jacksonville, there’s nothing sleepy about it—especially during election seasons. If shameful political shenanigans were an Olympic event, there’s plenty of history to prove our county would need trophy cases in every nook and cranny to hold the gold medals.

Even so, most county citizens don’t typically hear about the democratic dumpster fires that happen during election season, or any other time.

Clay’s local print subscription newspaper survives largely on county-paid legal ads, so it’s a little gauche to bite the hand that buys all the ad space or someone who might be elected to be that hand—even if the ads could easily be posted online and save taxpayers a small fortune.

The free-pretending-to-be-newsies are pursuing advertisers, thus nothing is ever whispered about the unfitting behavior involving incumbents and their opposition, or their relatives, neighbors, golfing buddies, or anyone who once waved at the publisher.

Clay News & Views (CN&V) is an online publication—while paid subscriptions are appreciated, folk can read for free and usually do—so we don’t have to coddle the candidates or their entourages, tiptoe around advertisers or keep anybody’s political skeletons hidden in the closet under the quilting scraps.

To help local folks make educated votes, we watched campaign goings-on, talked with candidates and supporters as they trudged through their races, and dug into legal records and other sources of information to see if a candidate has used really bad judgment in the past or is a serial killer who was released on a technicality. We also proudly stalk candidates’ social media pages.

Disclaimer: The following chronicles the three district races for Clay County School Board—who’s doing what for whom, who’s doing what to whom and who’s working the room like they’re running for Prom King or Homecoming Queen. If you prefer to believe local political campaigns are fueled by patriotism, homemade cookies and baby kissing, please exit now.

Who’s The Who

The Clay County Education Association (CCEA) is the teachers’ union. The union lost most of the small liberal foothold they previously held on the school board in conservative Clay County when union maven Mary Bolla gave up her seat in 2024. But folks on the far left wink-winked to CN&V that union folks have a plan to get more “open-minded” people back on the school board.

Folks on the right are openly livid that the CCEA seems to be peeking around the back of the barn watching their surrogates support candidates and efforts to remove at least two incumbents.

There is an indication that folks from both directions are correct.

Seems efforts to oust the incumbents are being funded by a Political Action Committee (PAC) called Clay Education PAC and possibly a phantom organization called “concerned citizens of Clay County.” The Clay Education PAC is planting yard signs around the county suggesting Clay’s teachers want voters to clean house on the school board. The “concerned citizens of Clay County” are campaigning against incumbent Erin Skipper.

“Support Educators with School Board Change,” the education PAC’s signage reads.

Several signs in front of a school

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CCEA’s PAC signs appear throughout the county.

All PACs doing business in Florida are required to be registered with the Florida Division of Corporations (FDC) and the Florida Division of Elections (FDE). The Clay Education PAC is registered with the elections division, but not the corporations division. The elections division registration shows the union’s president, Vicki Kidwell, as the chairperson of the PAC.

CCEA’s Registration with the DOE and campaign expenditures for county signs

State law also requires any signage provided by a PAC which “acts for a candidate or independently,” to have a disclaimer stating they are “paid political advertisement paid for by (Name and address of PAC) independently of any (candidate or committee).” The Clay Education PAC disclaimer simply states “Sponsored by Clay Education PAC.”

School Board District 4

The District 4 school board race is between incumbent and retired teacher Michele Hanson and hopeful Michael Rathjen, an employee of Vystar Credit Union. CN&V interviewed both candidates and some of their supporters. There’s a lot going on in this race—some of it political, some of it personal and some of it best watched with a bowl of popcorn.

Michele Hanson said she simply stood on her record of supporting the students, parents, teachers and support staff in Clay County. She is supported by teachers, Sheriff Michelle Cook, business owners, and she has many small donations from individuals in the county.

Several Hanson supporters said they had issues with the fact that Rathjen “embellishes his work experience, makes up lies about Hanson’s school board attendance” and has been donating to local charities from his campaign account—which, they said, appears to be “vote buying.”

Rathjen said before he was hired at Vystar, he worked “as an associate teacher within early childhood education” in a public school. Records show he was a teacher’s aide.

Hanson missed one school board meeting when the date of the meeting was changed, and her family had already made plans and reservations to be out of the county.

Rathjen did donate to three charities from his campaign account. Although candidates typically donate unspent contributions to charities when closing out their campaign accounts, Florida Statutes allow donations from active campaign accounts as long as a candidate “does not personally benefit.”

Records show Rathjen paid his membership dues to the Clay County Chamber of Commerce from his campaign account—which is a little iffy.

Rathjen and his supporters had a lot to share on the record, including the part about Hanson missing “a lot of school board meetings.”

Rathjen disclosed to CN&V that he was being supported, in part, by the CCEA, but said he was a conservative. He relayed that he is a member and actively participates in eight civic organizations.

Although the school board race is non-partisan, he told CN&V he had been reproached by several people in the local Republican party. The reason, he believes, is because he was an Independent for a while, an NPA for a number of years, and became a Republican before he registered to run for the school board.

While Hanson’s camp seems to be quietly campaigning, Rathjen’s and some of his supporters have been going at it like a five-alarm fire just broke out at campaign headquarters—and, it sort of did.

Rumors and records have been circulating around the county naming Rathjen in an impressive assortment of felonies. He is proclaiming his innocence in person and on various videos on his social media.

Some of his supporters disappeared, seemingly into Witness Protection, as the records appeared to be legit.

The documentation came from an app called Forewarn. It’s a “real-time” safety app that realtors use to check criminal histories and financial information before they meet with prospective buyers and sellers.

Michael James Rathjen’s name came up on the app many times, with a slew of crimes committed in 2012, which would make most voters run for the hills rather than cast their ballots for him. A copy of one of the minor charges is as follows.

A screenshot of a phone

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CN&V accessed multiple court records, legal and law enforcement sites, and sought the help of law enforcement individuals in Jacksonville regarding the crimes attributed to Rathjen. The research showed that candidate Michael James Rathjen, whose birth year is 1981, had some legal, financial and traffic troubles leading up to and through 2012. At the same time, James Michael Rathjen, who has a 1976 birthday, committed a long list of felonies in 2012.

Consequently, the legal system erred and cross-referenced the school board candidate’s records with the felon’s in a series of documentation.

But, folks in Clay can rest easy as school board candidate Michael Rathjen is not a serial felon.

Rathjen threatened vengeance and lawsuits when speaking with CN&V and on Facebook, suggesting a member of the Clay County Republican Party shared the information. He may want to hold off, however.

It appears the person who inadvertently accessed the app and entered Rathjen’s name as a simple test appears to be one of his supporters. When records were discovered, the candidate was alerted, and he and some of his supporters tried to put out the fire throughout the county by reassuring folks the claims were bogus. Instead, the news and the seemingly accurate records spread like wildfire on a windy day.

Rathjen acknowledged he had a troubled past. When he 17, he was charged and found guilty of Burglary of a vehicle in Galveston County, Texas. Records show from 2001 through 2012, he was ticketed in Texas, North Carolina, Duval County and Clay County for driving with a suspended license for “more than six months.” During that time, he was also ticketed several times for driving a vehicle with an expired registration and no insurance. He later had some serious financial issues and has since received multiple speeding and traffic violations.

“I do have trouble with lots of traffic issues.” Rathjen laughed. “But I think the trouble I had as a teen makes me uniquely qualified to serve on the school board.”

Before CN&V cleared Rathjen of the most serious charges, we contacted Hanson about the records. She was his steadfast defender. She told CN&V she didn’t believe he was guilty of the offenses and said she told her supporters not to talk about or pass the information along.

District 1

Next on the political Richter scale, amid a flurry of unrest, is the District 1 school board race.

Retired teacher Lara Libretto is challenging three-year incumbent and nurse Erin Skipper.

CN&V interviewed Skipper, but Libretto did not return messages.

Skipper’s donations and Facebook posts show she is supported by teachers, principals, local business owners, Sheriff Michelle Cook, Governor Ron DeSantis, and some local and state officials for her conservative voice on the school board.

Libretto’s donations show she is supported by teachers, business owners, and CCEA members for her work and awards as a teacher in Clay County. A friend on social media, however, said she is independent of the CCEA union.

Michael Rathjen donated to both Skipper and Libretto.

Like District 4’s Hanson supporters, Skipper’s Facebook devotees seem to be typically mild-mannered, unless Libretto attacks Skipper at forums. But Skipper has a rule for her supporters, she says—they talk to each other about political attacks and do not engage in on-line criticism.

Libretto’s people, on the other hand, appear aggressively loyal and creative with their modes of attack against Skipper and her backers.

Skipper’s supporters have been dubbed “deplorables” on Libretto’s Facebook page. But her allies have mostly leaned into “mean girl” tactics against Skipper, with the incumbent’s appearance getting more airtime than actual criticism about her policies. Their most serious allegation on Libretto’s page may be the one that could bring democracy to its knees: Skipper has hair extensions.

Being serious journalists, CN&V again took it upon ourselves to get to the root of the matter—and, yes, we checked—no extensions. Skipper did admit she had “tried hair extensions in the past.”

The second group, “concerned citizens of Clay County,” possibly fabricated by the CCEA, appears to have a mission to become Skipper’s unofficial heckling section. Its campaign arsenal includes yard signs and light-pole literature that is usually reserved for lost cats and dogs, garage sales, and notifications about the end of the world.

The “concerned citizens” appear non-existent as they are not registered with the DOC or the DOE and have no footprint in any databases inside and out of the state. Their disclaimer, reading “Paid for by concerned citizens of Clay County,” also does not comply with Florida law.

In the midst of her supporters' unwavering exuberance, Libretto may have skipped over parts of the sworn agreement she signed with the Supervisor of Elections Office—particularly the parts that said she read, understood, and would follow Florida’s campaign and election laws.

Libretto began spending money in her campaign before she had money in her election account. Her signs initially had no disclaimers, and some were posted on private property next to Skipper’s signs. Property owners told CN&V that Libetto was asked to move them, as they were supporting Skipper.

Her yard signs were seen on school property and also on public right-of-ways in violation of school district and county regulations. Her advocates on Facebook suggested the signs had been torn down by Skipper’s deplorables, but a representative from Public Works said they attempted to remove all illegally placed signs and dumped them at the landfill.

Libretto’s FB showed she was sending petitions for signatures to get placed on the ballot through school mail, which is a violation of school policy. Signatures gathered through school mail also may not be valid.

District 5

There’s not much to see in this race between Gerald Beasley, incumbent Ashley Gilhousen, and Veronica Powell-Faison. Everybody’s behaving themselves.

CN&V interviewed Beasley and Powell-Faison. Gilhousen did not return calls.

Gilhousen has been in office since 2014. Besides her school board position, she works at the Seamark Ranch. Records show she has managed to take so few hard stances that even the gotcha squad in the union may be struggling to find something to gotcha-her about.

As an incumbent, her financials seem to indicate she’s not concerned about losing her race. She has collected few contributions, has few expenditures, didn’t register to run for her seat until February 2026, and her campaign signs were the last to go up about 10 days ago.

Gerald Beasley served in the Air Force for 18½ years. He said when President Clinton reduced the size of the armed forces, he offered bonuses for early retirement and Beasley retired. He works as a locksmith for the district and said he’s been in every classroom and office throughout the county, has talked with kids, parents and all employees of Clay’s schools and has a good understanding of their needs. He said if elected, he will retire from the school district and be a full-time school board member.

Beasley is self-financing his campaign, he said, so he will not be financially beholden to anyone except the students, parents and all employees of Clay County schools.

Veronica Powell-Faison was in the military for 10½ years. She is the mother of five and is bravely registered as the only Democrat in the primarily red Clay County.

Powell-Faison said she is being “advised” by the CCEA union, but has received no contributions from them.

And there you have it: The school board races, where the issues are serious, the budgets are complicated, and apparently some candidates haven’t figured out this race is not a seventh-grade reality series.

Vote early or on August 18.

School Board Races: False Charges and Hair…