“Are you tired of the establishment elites? Are you tired of the media telling you how to vote and think?”
This is not an uncommon message for political campaigns these days, but it is an uncommon rallying cry to find in a contest for positions on a suburban school board.
A recently distributed campaign flyer in the Parkway School District’s controversial Board of Education campaign bears this slogan and seeks to make abortion an issue for school board voters.
One of the candidates promoted is Jeanie Ames, who received significant negative publicity for racially charged remarks on her Twitter account that included comparing Michelle Obama to a “giant rat” and calling for a ban on Islam in America. The bio on Ames’ now-deleted account identified her as a “Confederate.”
The flyer, distributed in favor of Ames and fellow candidate Jon Taylor, advertises their conservative values in opposition to candidates Kevin Seltzer and Matt Schindler. It emphasizes Seltzer’s status as the “vice chairman for the most aggressive pro-abortion organization in the state,” NARAL Pro-Choice America.
In fact, NARAL advocates aggressively for reproductive rights, not abortion.
The flyer then lists NARAL’s stances in favor of allowing young people to seek abortions without parental approval and against “crisis pregnancy centers like ThriVe.” Crisis pregnancy centers, which market themselves as places where pregnant women can receive information and assistance, are usually organizations that aim to dissuade women from having abortions.
ThriVe Express Women’s Healthcare is one of these centers, and the Christian organization behind it, ThriVe St. Louis, has been directly involved in Parkway previously. The group, which advocates against abortion and premarital sex, provided the sex education programs in Parkway schools until 2017.
The flyer also points out Schindler’s involvement in the advocacy group Better Together, which seeks to remove “governmental, economic and racial barriers” between St. Louis city and county.
The alternative to these candidates? “Jeanie Ames and Jon Taylor bring conservative values to Parkway,” the flyer says. It touts Ames and Taylor as “pro-life, traditional values” candidates who are against “social agendas” in schools.
It is not immediately clear where the money to distribute these flyers came from. A disclaimer at the bottom reads “Paid for by Go Fund Me: Stop Parkway BOE Abortion Campaign.” The online fundraiser, now closed, raised $277.
The attribution of funding to a crowdfunding campaign is unusual, and possibly illegal, in a political campaign. The Missouri Ethics Commission requires campaign materials to identify which individual, committee or organization paid for the campaign materials by full legal name. The names of the donors to the Go Fund Me campaign the flyer’s funding is attributed to are no longer available online.
According to James Klahr, executive director of the Missouri Ethics Commission, groups of people who join together to pay for election materials must still disclose the names of all funders. If the group is larger than five individuals, the “paid for by” section should include the phrase “for a list of other sponsors contact…” followed by the name and address of one individual, who is responsible for keeping a record of the sponsors and the amounts of their contributions and making it available to anyone who asks.
An unusual level of conservative activist attention to the district has drawn controversy in Parkway for several years. MassResistance Missouri, an anti-LGBT group, targeted candidates in previous school board races, including by spreading unfounded rumors that one candidate abused his children.
MassResistance has been tied to the organization Advocates for Educating Taxpayer Accountability (AETA); the two groups have nearly identical social media followings. Many of them, including MassResistance Missouri founder and Parkway parent Sue Weaver, are now posting about their enthusiastic support of Ames’ campaign.
AETA also distributed campaign materials that failed to disclose the name of the organization’s treasurer in 2017, which does not comply with Missouri Ethics Commission rules.
In February, Seltzer said his priorities as a candidate for the board include increasing student achievement, budget responsibility, character education and advocating for teachers.
“I want to make a difference in a community that is important to me and my family. My wife and I grew up in Parkway and we are raising our kids in Parkway,” Seltzer said. “This community shaped our values, and I want to be a part of making sure that it keeps promoting the shared values of this community to the next generation of students.”
Both Seltzer and Schindler have been embraced as candidates by Parkway voters hoping to prevent Ames from gaining office.
The only candidate not featured on the flyer is Amy Bonnett. Asked about her school board campaign in January, Bonnett said her top priorities were to increase transparency in the district and communication between the school board and Parkway parents.
“While our district does not have specific diversity education, I am supportive of any education that supports understanding diversity, our differences and helping us find commonalities and understanding that help us work together,” Bonnett said. “Some of Parkway’s character education focuses on celebrating and embracing diversity, which I support. We live in an increasingly diverse community and world. Learning to appreciate all cultures, and people is essential to building a successful community for the future.”
A forum on the election hosted by the League of Women Voters, featuring an opportunity for the public to ask questions of the candidates, will be held on Monday, March 12, 7-9 p.m., at Parkway Central Middle School, 471 N. Woods Mill Rd. in Chesterfield.
