By Adam Pagnucco.
Last week, Maryland Matters reported on the State Board of Elections’ (SBE) biggest authority line fine in Maryland history. While the incident happened in Carroll County, it’s directly relevant to MoCo – and especially to stakeholders of MCPS.
SBE’s press release details the violation.
Charlton T. Howard III, Maryland State Prosecutor, and Jared DeMarinis, State Administrator of Elections at the Maryland State Board of elections, announced today that the 1776 Project PAC has been fined $20,250 dollars via civil citation for sending 13,879 text messages to Carroll County voters in the 2022 School Board Election.
The text message, sent on or about November 1, 2022, to Carroll County voters read “Stop indoctrination in our schools, early voting has started [sic] vote for the pro-parent ticket for school board Tara Battaglia, James Miller and Steve Whisler.” Maryland law requires campaign messages sent on behalf of candidates to record who paid for the information to be distributed, whether it is a yard sign, a pamphlet or a digital advertisement. There was no authority line or information stating that the text was paid for by the 1776 Project PAC.
The 1776 Project PAC is a national group opposed to the teaching of critical race theory. On their website, they write:
Supporters of critical race theory hold political power as being more important than facts. Oftentimes they will not engage with anyone who does not support critical race theory, because they believe that is “platforming” them, which gives their opponents’ arguments credibility.
Their positions are incredibly hostile to white people, Western civilization, classical liberalism, the enlightenment, the founding of America, and capitalism. Supporters of critical race theory believe it is the responsibility of everyone to evaluate their own internalized racism. Non-white members of society who disagree with them are accused of internalizing white supremacy and accepting the status quo.
The PAC is explicitly devoted to playing in school board races, writing, “We are a political action committee dedicated to electing school board members nationwide who want to reform our public education system by promoting patriotism and pride in American history. We are committed to abolishing critical race theory and ‘The 1619 Project’ from the public school curriculum.” It is sometimes aligned with another conservative group, Moms for Liberty, and they have both participated in school board races across the U.S.
The 1776 Project PAC is registered in Maryland with a New York address. Its treasurer, Nancy Marks, is the former treasurer for disgraced New York Congressman George Santos and recently pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy in federal court.
The PAC filed one independent expenditure report in Maryland covering the period of 1/1/15 through 9/29/22. The report’s summary is shown below. Note how it shows nearly $50,000 in expenditures and no record of any contributions. Note also how it does not cover November 2022, during which the texts forming the basis of SBE’s fine were sent.
So why should anyone in MoCo care about this? The 1776 Project PAC played in Carroll County, Maryland’s school board races in 2022 and won. The PAC bragged on Twitter, “We just flipped the Carroll County school board from liberal to conservative.”
Egged on by fellow conservative group Moms for Liberty, the new school board has gone on to ban more than 50 books from school libraries. Capital News Service reported that two-thirds of the banned books were written by women and LGBTQIA+ authors accounted for a disproportionate number of them. And they’re not done. According to a 10/12/23 report in the Carroll County Times, “A motion to direct staff to update the school system’s policy on selecting books and instructional materials for students — adding language that would ban books defined as sexually explicit — was passed unanimously by the Carroll County Board of Education Wednesday night.” Other school board members expressed concern about how this new policy would impact literature and the health curriculum.
Even if one agrees with the policy positions of the 1776 Project PAC and Moms for Liberty, the fact is that tens of thousands of dollars directed by an admitted criminal flipped a school board in Maryland and we still don’t know the ultimate source of the money. It’s unlikely that a $20k fine will deter this kind of activity. It’s worth reminding state authorities that political operative Julius Henson was sent to jail for an authority line violation in 2012.
And now to MCPS. As the school system circles the wagons and puts out a redacted report on sexual harassment that only the CIA could love, it has made itself an inviting target for a conservative takeover attempt. And that occurs against the backdrop of a twenty thousand dollar slap on the wrist for a successful dark money school board takeover in a county next door.
MCPS stakeholders, beware.