Michelle Rahilly and daughter Anastasia were among the supporters of the conservative slate of Leonard Munson, Katey Baldassano and Matt Sheriff that ultimately fell short in last week’s election for the Barrington Community Unit District 220 board. (Steve Zalusky | Staff Photographer)
With few exceptions, candidate slates that pushed for “parental rights” and leaned into culture war issues failed to make waves Tuesday in politically charged races for suburban school boards.
In Barrington Community Unit District 220, the New York-based 1776 Project Political Action Committee dumped money into mailers for a losing slate of three challengers who also were endorsed by the group Moms for Liberty.
As outside conservative groups put more emphasis on local elections, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s nearly entirely self-funded campaign committee made a $500,000 donation to the Democratic Party of Illinois in late February to combat what party officials called “really extreme” school and library board candidates across the state.
In Barrington, Katey Baldassano, Leonard Munson and Matt Sheriff unsuccessfully ran on a slate vowing to “respect the voice and rights of parents.” They objected to “sexually explicit” school library books and called on the board to put “age filters on content” during a conservative radio station interview last month.
“You couldn’t walk down the street and show that to a 15-year-old kid on the street without someone calling the cops,” Munson said at the time about “Flamer,” a graphic novel about a boy grappling with his sexual identity.
Baldassano told the Daily Herald the trio were unfairly characterized in campaign literature by Democrats. She also said Moms for Liberty used their names for an endorsement of which they were unaware.
“What was a single piece of a proposal or a program or an actionable item that we were proposing that was extreme? There was none,” Baldassano said. “But it was characterized that way or attempted to be by associating us with groups that maybe others perceive as extreme. There was nothing extreme about anything we said.”
Read more here.
Related: “220’s Altshuler & Collister-Lazarri blocked Facebook members and deleted their comments throughout campaign,” “Choose wisely at the polls,” “Two term District 220 Board of Education member Angela Wilcox endorses Katey Baldassano, Leonard Munson, and Matt Sheriff for 220 Board,” “Endorsements: Munson, Baldassano and Sheriff for CUSD 220 Board of Education,” “District 220 Board of Education candidates Katey Baldassono, Leonard Munson and Matt Sheriff share their vision,” “Parents at top-rated school expose pornographic books in IL school library (DISCRETION ADVISED),” “The District 220 Policy Committee has a lot on their plate tomorrow,” “Who’s minding Leah and Barry’s campaign finances,” “What 220 voters need to know continued, including our recommendations,” “What 220 voters need to know,” “220 Parents call BS!”
Pritzker won and the parents and kids of D220 lost. Very sad for the Action PAC candidates, but even more so for the parents and students. It is completely revolting how the Democrats used outside influence to infiltrate our local government.
The Democrat party of Illinois won school board seats by calling parents, extremists, and portraying them as book banning villains.
“We can and must write in a language which sows among the masses hate, revulsion, and scorn towards those who disagree with us.”- Vladimir Lenin
And, they used trusted insiders in the Barrington community to do it. Did Beth know about the democratic funding of the candidates she supported before she started trashing Action PAC candidates with lies about them being “an outcropping of a national movement intent on forcing an agenda on our local communities by controlling school and library boards across the country”? She goes on to say in her email: “In my opinion, these outside influences have no business interfering with what goes on in our community, and in fact, most agree that school and library board members should be independent and free from partisan politics.” And, yet, every single one of the candidates she supported was actually funded by the democratic party. They are not independent and they are certainly not free from partisan politics. And now we know that people like Beth actively engage in partisan politics in our local elections. We will remember this in two years.