Campaign signs for Calvert County Board of Education candidates Melissa Goshorn and Paul Harrison, two of the candidates around the state backed by Project 1776, are posted along Route 4 last month. Photo by William J. Ford.
A first-ever effort by the Maryland Democratic Party to spend tens of thousands of dollars targeting “extreme” school board candidates had mixed results, with voters choosing to elect more than half of them in this week’s election.
The party targeted many candidates in the supposedly nonpartisan school board races that it said were affiliated with Moms for Liberty, an organization with GOP ties also formed in 2021 to focus on local school board races, or endorsed by Project 1776 PAC, a group that pushes for conservative education policies and parental rights in schools.
Aiden Buzzetti, head of coalitions and candidate recruitment for Project 1776, confirmed in an interview Thursday that it spent at least $75,000 spent in the general election to support 19 candidates in nine counties. Buzzetti said his group was “still able to win more than half the races we got involved in,” even though he claimed the state’s Democratic Party and the state and local teachers’ unions had more funding and resources to invest in the races.
“The candidates that we support care about turning our schools around, and they’re willing to engage with parents and teachers, other community stakeholders, and that resonates with them,” Buzzetti said. “We get involved because these candidates deserve to have a voice and not be drowned out by teacher’s union.”
But Maryland State Education Association Executive Director Sean Johnson noted that most of the union’s members are parents as well as educators.
“We take the partnership with parents very seriously. Groups like the 1776 Project are not the voice of Maryland parents. They don’t speak for them. They’re funded by out-of-state, far-right interests,” Johnson said Thursday. “Our efforts are more reflective of the interests and values of parents in Maryland, than a group like the 1776 Project.”
Maryland Democratic Party Chair Ken Ulman said the party achieved its goal of informing voters about certain candidates in the nonpartisan contests who promote book bans, target marginalized students and support anti-inclusive policies. He noted that the founder of Project 1776, Ryan Girdusky, was kicked off CNN last month for a derogatory comment made live on air.
Girdusky told another guest on “CNN Newsnight with Abby Phillip,” a Muslim journalist, that “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” an apparent reference to pagers rigged with explosives that the Israeli military used against the militant group Hezbollah, which various news reports said killed dozens of people and injured thousands. Gidursky apologized for what he said was meant as a joke, but was banned from the network as a result.
Ulman said that if candidates with “extreme views” run for future school board seats in Maryland, the party would get involved again.
“In places where we were successful, we’re really pleased. In places we were not successful, we’re still really pleased that we entered the discussion and entered the fray and able to point out the differences between the candidates,” Ulman said.
“Whenever there are candidates that espouse hate, ban books and the things that are anathema to the Democratic Party’s values, we’ll stand up and make the case for candidates that share our values,” he said.
Winning candidates
The party also had mixed success with the candidates it targeted because it said they were affiliated with local chapters of Moms for Liberty. Out of the two dozen “extreme” candidates the party focused on, voters from seven counties elected 15 to represent them on their school boards.
Two voters cast ballots at Ward Farm Voter Center in Calvert County on Oct. 31, the last day of early voting in Maryland. Photo by William J. Ford.
According to unofficial results posted Friday morning by the state Board of Elections, some of the targeted candidates who won included:
Dawn Pulliam in Anne Arundel County’s District 7;Greg Malveaux and Kristen E. Zihmer were the top two vote-getters in Carroll County;Jaime Brennan and Colt Morningstar Black were two of the top three vote-getters in Frederick County. Brennan stepped down as chair of the county chapter of Moms for Liberty to run for school board seat;and Charles Burkett, Ashley McCusker, Victoria Beachley and April Zentmeyer were the top four vote-getters in Washington County.
Winning candidates supported by Project 1776 are Melissa Goshorn, Paul Harrison and Joseph Marchio (top vote-getters in three districts on the five-member Calvert County board); Anna O’Connor and Karla Wieland-Cherry (in two of three districts in Talbot County); and Crystal Bender (top vote-getter for one of two seats in Allegany County).
The political action committee noted victories for five other candidates: Mary Beth Bozman and Matthew Lankford (in Somerset County); Carrie Sutherland (Queen Anne’s County); Matthew Trezise (Garrett County); and Stephanie Johnson (Caroline County).
Trezise was one of two candidates who ran unopposed in Garrett County, while Johnson and Sutherland were also unopposed in their counties, according to the board of elections.
Eight other candidates endorsed by Project 1776 lost their school board races in Anne Arundel, Cecil, Howard, Montgomery, St. Mary’s and Talbot counties.
Wieland-Cherry, who was ahead by 330 votes, said in an interview Thursday she was not aware the Democratic Party had targeted her and other candidates.
The registered nurse and associate real estate broker said two of her top priorities are improving student discipline and “the need to get back to basics” to teach children how to read, write and do math. In terms of attracting more teachers to the school system, Wieland-Cherry said the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan isn’t working.
“It’s not very effective. Counties aren’t able to fund it,” she said. “It’s vaguely written. We need to get the Blueprint straightened out.”
by William J. Ford, Maryland Matters
November 8, 2024
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