The official voter guide and sample ballot of the Talbot County Board of Elections for Talbot County voters includes the following introduction on upcoming Board of Education elections.
Non-Partisan Contest
Candidates in this contest may or may not be affiliated with any political party.
This election cycle, at least three Maryland political party organizations will be involved in local board of Education elections at significantly different levels.
One is the Maryland Democratic Party. Recently Maryland Matters reported “The Maryland Democratic Party will spend “tens of thousands of dollars” targeting at least eighteen school board candidates that they maintain are looking to bring a “hateful” and “right-wing agenda” to schools.”
The article noted the Maryland Democratic Party has never before been involved in nonpartisan races for local boards of education.
The article also noted the Maryland Democratic Party plan includes hiring workers to canvas, knock on doors, and urge voters not to elect twenty-six school board candidates whom the Maryland Democratic Party says support rewriting history, discriminating against kids, and book bans. The Maryland Democratic Party will also provide resources to local Democratic Central committees for helping candidates who support “Democratic and inclusive values.”
Nowhere currently on the Maryland Democratic Party website is a definition of “Democratic values,” nor a mention of supporting candidates who back efforts to improve student achievement scores and ensure safe classroom learning environments.
Maryland Democratic Party leaders say this unprecedented initiative is needed to fight “extremist” agendas favored by certain candidates in eleven Maryland counties — Anne Arundel, Calvert, Carroll, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery, St. Mary’s, and Talbot. The party also plans to warn against eight other candidates in Allegany, Cecil, and Washington counties.
In Anne Arundel County, the Maryland Democratic Party has identified three candidates as “extreme” candidates who not only support book bans but are also against those in the LGBTQ community. In a post on “X,” the Maryland Democratic Party has referred to the three candidates as the “Anne Arundel Hate Slate.”
The Maryland Democratic Party is not the first or only political organization to target candidates in school board elections. At least two Republican County Central Committees have either done it or are doing it, albeit on a much smaller scale than the Maryland Democratic Party.
The Cecil County Republican Committee endorsed three Republican school board candidates in 2022. The Calvert County Republican Central Committee endorsed Republican school board candidates in at least two election cycles – 2022 and 2024.
This year the Calvert County Republican Central Committee website lists three issues for their endorsed candidates – safety and discipline, fiscal responsibility, and educational excellence.
Going forward, it is impossible to predict if, how, or how much, state, and local political party organizations may be involved in local board of education elections and what their campaign messages may be.
Some may suggest state and local political party organizations have a right to endorse and support local school board candidates.
They do have that right. The larger question is if they will exercise that right in the correct way.
The correct way is embracing the principle of civil discourse even with those who hold widely differing opinions. In other words —agree to disagree without being disagreeable.
Incorrect ways include referring to certain school board candidates as the “Anne Arundel Hate Slate” and targeting at least eighteen school board candidates who are characterized as looking to bring a “hateful” and “right-wing agenda” to school boards.
Our society is already dealing with deeply held and seemingly irreconcilable differences on a wide range of public policy issues based largely on vitriolic and divisive messaging from political party organizations. Their continued involvement in local school board elections is almost guaranteed to generate even more divisiveness.
Voter access to information to make informed voting decisions is not an issue.
Voters already have numerous opportunities to research and evaluate every school board candidate’s background, experience, and views on what they consider to be the most critical issues of the day, as well as their positions, or lack of positions, on those issues.
These opportunities include but are not limited to information posted on candidate websites, candidate campaign literature, candidate meet and greets, and candidate forums where all candidates are invited to speak and answer questions from attendees. Voters can use all these opportunities to draw their own conclusions on which candidates have views on education matters that resonate best with their views.
Voters do not need any political organizations to make those conclusions for them. Let the voters and the voters alone decide.
Accordingly, with regard to all future local school board elections, no state and no local political party organizations need to be or should be involved in any way in those elections.
David Reel is a public affairs and public relations consultant in Easton.
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