COEUR d'ALENE - Voters wanted change, and the candidates ran strong campaigns.

Jeff Ward believes that's what pushed candidates Tom Hamilton and Terri Seymour over the top in Tuesday's school board election in Coeur d'Alene.

Partisan influence on a nonpartisan election may have also brought more voters out to the polls.

Ward is president of the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans, an activist group that endorsed and campaigned on behalf of Hamilton and Seymour.

"In Coeur d'Alene, I see the situation that the voters were really responding to was a school board that was not being responsive to them," Ward said. "It was kind of a closed system, with the shutting down of public comment, and some of the decisions they made in terms of contracts."

In the days leading up to the election, volunteers worked hard on behalf of both candidates, Ward said, using targeted doorbell ringing and phone list strategies.

"Usually after a campaign, you find there are a lot of things you wish you would have done, but not in the Coeur d'Alene campaign," he said. "It was kind of a dream campaign."

Hamilton, who beat the incumbent candidate, Stephanie Powers, and Seymour will begin their four-year terms on July 1. Seymour won the seat now held by Bill Hemenway, who decided not to seek re-election.

Sitting chair of the five-member board, Edie Brooks, said school board members don't have much individual power.

"A lot of people want to be on the board because they have an issue. There isn't a lot you can do with an issue, unless you have two other people who agree with you," Brooks said. "We have a democracy and balance on the school board."

Brooks sees incumbent Powers' election loss as a loss for the school district.

"She has such experience with the district. We could have used that kind of experience on the board," Brooks said.

Coeur d'Alene Superintendent Hazel Bauman said she is looking forward to building relationships with Hamilton and Seymour.

"I believe we have the same goals which are to continue the great things going on in the Coeur d'Alene district, and to improve the areas that need improving," Bauman said.

Bauman said she will be looking for opportunities to meet with the new candidates, and have them attend activities and meetings prior to their being sworn in.

More voters may have been wooed to the polls Tuesday by partisan influence on the school board race, which is a nonpartisan election.

Ward said the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans are not approved by or legally associated with the Republican party. According to the group's website, they support the Republican party and "defend those principles of governance defined by the Founding Fathers" and "espoused by Ronald Reagan."

The group endorses candidates in nonpartisan elections, Ward said, because it helps voters decide who to support.

"In nonpartisan races, voters often don't know who to vote for. As they go down the ballot they tend to vote for people who share their ideology based on the letter behind their names," Ward said. "That's not a luxury in nonpartisan elections, so many voters just don't show up."

Ward said he doesn't see his group's involvement in the local nonpartisan elections as any different than the Coeur d'Alene Education Association, or any other union or community group's endorsement of candidates.

The Reagan Republicans are gearing up for another nonpartisan election coming up in November, the city council races.