John Huppenthal wants the furor over his anonymous internet scribblings to just go away. He publicly renounced his online comments. He repudiated them. He apologized for them. He even said, cryptically, he “sought counsel about it.” (Could be psychological, religious or legal counsel he sought. He didn’t specify.) But he hasn’t said if he commented on sites beyond the list we’ve read about or if he’s used pseudonyms (pronounced “sway-do-nyms according to Huppenthal) other than Falcon9 and Thucydides.
Huppenthal has been asked if there are internet comments out there we don’t know about. Blog for Arizona’s Bob Lord, who uncovered the Falcon9/Thucydides/Huppenthal connection and exposed it in his blog posts, contacted Huppenthal but has yet to receive a response.
It’s now two weeks since I requested additional information about the aliases John Huppenthal used and the sites at which he commented. A week ago, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Now, it seems, he may be ignoring my questions.
I’ll go out on a limb here. I think Huppenthal’s aliases went beyond Falcon9 and Thucydides. On our blog, we had one comment from a Socrates that tracked to the same location as Thucydides and Falcon9, and was made after the last Falcon9 comment and before the first Thucydides comment.
Bob is probably right that Huppenthal used other aliases. “Socrates” and “Socrates1289” are close to a certainty. And I’ve found comments which I’m reasonably sure are Huppenthal’s on a few websites that haven’t been mentioned. No one should be surprised if it turns out he’s even more promiscuous with his commenting than we know of. Anyone equipped with a Google Alert for “John Huppenthal” is privy to every article published on the web about him anywhere in the world. And given Huppenthal’s late night, sleep deprived, shoot-from-the-hip commenting, there’s a good chance he’s dropped a stray comment or two on websites all across Arizona, and possibly around the country.
Huppenthal should answer Bob Lord’s question and make a clean breast of it. Otherwise, we have every right to wonder if there are more jaw-dropping comments out there beyond what we’ve already seen. If Huppenthal were a private citizen, this would be none of our business, of course. But he’s a public servant who hopes to serve for another four years superintending our children’s educations. His views are an important part of the decision Republicans have to make in the primary, as well as the all voters in the general if he gets past his Republican challenger Diane Douglas. Huppenthal has been caught publicly with his verbal pants down. We have a right to know what else he might have written in the dark of night using one of his many aliases.
This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2014.
Don’t know you keep on beating up on this idiot. There is no way he is going to win the race after what he did. There are other better candidates. But this is the Tucson Weekly after all.
@Fraser “no way he is going to win”?
Optimist.
Why was there no investigation of his use of state computers to share his views? Oh, yeah, I forgot. IOKIYAR.
No way he’s going to win?? We Dems can’t believe it is possible, but his comments may find a happy home among GOPers who agree with even some of his most disgusting tomes. Nothing surprises me any more. Look at the millions Sheriff Joe has cost Maricopa county taxpayers and they just keep on loving it.
Very timely article. I too have read some comments that I wonder about. And I join Pima Mujer on wondering why no one has gone after his use of state computers. The “accountability” movement is certainly active about oversight of teachers and school personnel, but doesn’t give a…whit….about its own administrators. Sort of parallel to its enforcement of accountability for state funds in public schools (extreme red alert) and for charters, vouchers or home schooling (relaxed to non-existent).
I agree with this column: We have a right to know what this public figure, in charge of Arizona’s public schools, has written.
Sadly, the typical stressed out, over worked and underpaid Arizonan has no clue who John Huppenthal is, let alone what he has written. And even sadder is the likelihood that the same newspapers that endorsed Huppenthal in the past, like the Arizona Republic, will endorse him again.
Those who know and care must continue to write about Huppenthal, educate the public and encourage voters to elect a decent chief of public education who cares about the education of all of Arizona’s children: David Garcia.
Thank you David Safier for caring!
I remember many years ago in a Taft Institute for Two Party Government being told by Conrad Joyner that there was no possible way that Evan Mecham would be governor of AZ and that Burton Barr would win as he was the most powerful man in AZ. Then the Barr folks were so confident they didn’t bother to vote in the primary. Guess what happened next? Lesson learned.
Hurri:
I stand corrected! No way he should even run! I used the wrong word, sorry. He is an insult to all public servants and to all taxpayers.
As a very, very concerned educator I thank David Safier for taking the time to let people know the kind of people who are governing in Arizona, presently. It is very simple, we must ALL get out to vote in order to change the path Arizona is taking. It takes a village to raise a child, it takes your vote to put someone in office that cares about the children of Arizona and their education.