By Adam Pagnucco.
The Maryland State Education Association (MSEA), the parent union of most county teachers unions in Maryland, has funded a Super PAC to promote its candidates for school board. The group has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of its endorsed candidates, including in Montgomery County.
Marylanders for a Safe Future was founded on 2/29/24 and its officers are employees of Katz Compliance, a campaign finance consultant. At this writing, the Super PAC has collected two contributions from MSEA: $10,000 on April 10 and $50,000 on June 25.
At the same time, the Super PAC has so far spent $510,293. The discrepancy between contributions and expenditures is due to the nature of the reports filed so far, which include three spending disclosures on 9/20, 9/26 and 10/10. The next full report, due on October 25, should resolve that gap.
Marylanders for a Safe Future’s logo. From the group’s Facebook page.
The Super PAC’s spending includes $42,250 for a poll in July, $6,000 in compliance fees and $48 in bank charges. The rest of the spending has gone to online advertising ($451,100) and mail ($10,895). The spending covers school board elections across the state. Here are the line items affecting Montgomery County races.
Brenda Diaz (oppose): $3,632 on 9/20 for direct mail
Brenda Diaz (oppose): $16,860 on 10/8 for online ads
Shebra Evans (oppose): $3,632 on 9/20 for direct mail
Shebra Evans (oppose): $16,860 on 10/8 for online ads
Ruth (Lynne) Harris (oppose): $3,632 on 9/20 for direct mail
Ruth (Lynne) Harris (oppose): $16,860 on 10/8 for online ads
Rita Montoya (support): $7,700 on 9/25 for online ads
Rita Montoya (support): $16,807 on 10/8 for online ads
Laura Stewart (support): $7,700 on 9/25 for online ads
Laura Stewart (support): $16,807 on 10/8 for online ads
Natalie Eckhardt (Zimmerman) (support): $7,700 on 9/25 for online ads
Natalie Eckhardt (Zimmerman) (support): $16,807 on 10/8 for online ads
That’s a total of $134,995 in spending on MoCo school board races. I bet that will rival and perhaps even exceed the spending by the candidates themselves.
Super PACs may collect unlimited contributions but may not coordinate with candidates. The State Board of Elections writes:
Consistent with the legal authority on this issue, the State Board does not interpret the contribution limits of Election Law Article § 13-226(b) to apply to contributions or donations to Super PACs or political groups or PACs that make only independent expenditures or electioneering communications. However, candidate committees, slates, political parties, and legislative party caucus committees may not make a contribution or transfer to a Super PAC or any entity that makes only independent expenditures or electioneering contributions because, in that event, the contribution or transfer would amount to “coordination.” Once coordination exists, the contribution limits would apply to all contributions or donations received by the Super PAC and any amounts exceeding the legal limits would be subject to civil penalties.
This demonstrates once again the extraordinary muscle of the Apple Ballot, not only in Montgomery County but also in the rest of Maryland. This year, the mighty Apple has targeted three MoCo school board incumbents for defeat and has already beaten one of them (District 2’s Rebecca Smondrowski). Will the other two – Lynne Harris and Shebra Evans – survive? And if they don’t, how will the rest of the school board react?
We shall find out soon enough!