It wasn’t enough that the superintendent of Federal Way Public Schools recently got an enormous raise.

It wasn’t enough that the same superintendent now travels the world in the name of “bettering our school system.”

It wasn’t enough that now four school board members are also going abroad — on the taxpayers’ dollars ($85,000).

The Republican Party figured out a way to influence a mayoral race — by publicly thanking Skip Priest for the work he is said to have done three years ago.

Huh? Funding for the Federal Way Public Schools actually went down under Priest’s watch. Great legislator? Excuse me? If he had really done something for Federal Way during his time in Olympia, don’t you think he would have been honored already? Folks, Priest was a minor player in Olympia.

So, along comes Tony Moore. Tony Moore is a nice enough guy. But he’s a perennial Republican candidate for the state Legislature. He is now president of the school board. Connect the dots.

Is the timing on this not obvious to everyone? Maybe Superintendent Rob Neu doesn’t know what’s going on here. I would hope that he does. It’s a political move, pure and simple.

Priest sits in his mayoral chambers knowing and saying that he and the city attorney cannot use public resources to support a candidate for public office. That’s what he is sworn to uphold. But now he gladly accepts this specious honor from his Republican friends.

C’mon. I said it months ago. We’re going to see some dirty politics in this race. Well, here we go.

Dave McKenzie, Federal Way