Money, turnout and a rejection of ‘partisan politics’

ST. LOUIS — After more than a dozen school board candidates backed by conservatives lost their races across the region Tuesday, politicians and pundits attempted to explain the surprising outcome.

Conservative activists, including former state Sen. Bob Onder and radio host Marc Cox, blamed the defeat on heavy support from unions and low voter turnout, among other factors.

Indeed, the Missouri National Education Association crowed about the results, claiming an 83% victory rate for candidates endorsed by local teacher unions statewide.

Still, voter turnout figures and campaign finance reports don’t reveal an obvious advantage for most of the winners. The election outcome instead suggests that the majority of the people who voted are moderates who prefer nonpartisan school boards. The results track with a national backlash against boards that have stirred up controversy by restricting books and curriculum about race, gender and sexuality, among other political actions.

Local candidates endorsed by conservatives lost in school board races in Francis Howell, Ft. Zumwalt, Lindbergh, Mehlville, Parkway, Rockwood, St. Charles and Wentzville.

But the widespread defeat for conservatives doesn’t necessarily mean a win for liberals. Rather, supporters of the newly elected board members said in interviews they had grown tired of the drama and wanted to see boards return to their traditional roles overseeing district finances, contracts and tax rates.

“People are sick of these candidates, their culture wars, the politicization of schools and the belittling of teachers,” Tom Ferri, a parent in Francis Howell School District, said after the election. “They want school boards that focus on actual issues and student success.”

Francis Howell school board member Jane Puszkar said conservative voters in the district may have been apathetic this election because the board still holds a 5-2 conservative majority after last week’s results.

“But at the same time, I think the rallying cry was out there for the other side due to some of our decisions that weren’t so popular,” she said.

Voter turnout in the two school boards regularly embroiled in political battles, Francis Howell and Wentzville, was not too far off the county average. Francis Howell, with 19.9% turnout, beat the countywide average of 14.4%, according to Kurt Bahr, elections director in St. Charles County. But Wentzville only pulled in 12.7% of voters.

In Francis Howell, where Onder has been an occasional presence at board meetings, the conservative-backed candidates lost for the first time in three elections.

The conservative Francis Howell Families PAC raised about $21,000 this year, with opposing PAC Francis Howell Forward raising about $16,000, according to filings with the Missouri Ethics Commission as of Friday. The two PACs supported two candidates each — Sam Young and Adriana Kuhn for Francis Howell Families, and Steven Blair and Carolie Owens for Francis Howell Forward.

St. Charles County Families for Public Schools PAC provided an extra boost for Blair and Owens, spending $3,562 each on the slate.

The winning candidates also received support from labor unions, including Laborers’ Local 660 and IBEW Local 2. Though Blair and Owens were both endorsed by the Missouri NEA, only Owens received a $600 contribution from the teachers union.

Blair and Owens also received more contributions from individual donors compared to Kuhn and Young, who were mostly bolstered by Francis Howell Families.

The nearly $19,500 raised by Kuhn includes $10,500 from her marketing business, Kuhn Strategic Consulting. Kuhn said the business provided marketing materials for her and Young’s campaigns.

The election marked the first losses for candidates supported by Francis Howell Families, which helped elect the current five-member majority of Francis Howell’s school board.

In an interview after the election, Ken Gontarz, the PAC’s president, said members were disappointed but already preparing for the 2025 election.

“We are on fire,” Gontarz said. “Hold on to your knickers! We’re getting out the troops early, and with people in the know.”

Gontarz touted partnerships with people outside of the PAC who are “concerned about a lot of what’s been going on.” He would not provide specifics other than they aren’t from out of state, rather “primarily St. Charles.”

Puszkar, the current board member, said the election has created “an urgency for the board to continue the work that we have started.”

“We know there’s still a lot of things we have to do,” Puszkar said. “We just have to get this shored up tight so it’d take any board that’s liberal way too long to get it undone.”

Mary Bryant is an empty-nester in Francis Howell who started attending meetings after the board gained what she called “embarrassing and infuriating” national attention for decisions like rescinding a resolution on anti-racism and removing social justice standards for elective courses in Black studies.

“We’re just concerned citizens that rallied together. We don’t want partisan politics at the most local level, and we want more experienced and better qualified people serving on our board of education,” said Bryant, who joined the Francis Howell Forward PAC.

Jamie Martin, the PAC’s president, believes a wave of moderate voters stopped conservative candidates from sweeping all seven board seats.

“The fiscally conservative, social moderate, I think there are a ton of people in that category,” Martin said. “Now you pissed them off and they’re paying attention.”

Campaign contributions were more imbalanced in Wentzville, where the winning candidates garnered nearly four times the amount of their conservative competitors.

David Biesenthal, a teacher, raised $15,318 and businessman Brad Welsh raised $16,281 in their successful second run at the board.

St. Charles County Families for Public Schools PAC donated about $6,200 each to Biesenthal and Welsh. Board member Jason Goodson, whose term expires this month, split $5,000 between the two and the Missouri NEA spent nearly $1,000.

The conservative slate of Leigh Palitzsch and Cindy Reidy raised close to $4,000 each, including top donations of $1,000 each from the St. Charles County Republican Central Committee and $500 each from the 1776 PAC.

The conservative St. Louis County Family PAC focused its efforts on the Lindbergh School District this year, where the seven-member board has unanimously supported diversity and equity initiatives. The PAC is primarily funded by Des Peres resident Martin Bennet, who has also led campaigns against tax measures in the Kirkwood School District.

Bennet’s PAC raised close to $20,000 in support of the two losing candidates in Lindbergh, David Kirschner and David Randelman, who was making a third attempt at the board. Kirschner and Randelman ran on prioritizing academics over diversity, equity and inclusion.

The winning campaigns raised about $7,400 in donations including $1,050 from five different unions for Rachel Braaf Koehler, and $6,800 including $500 from the Sheet Metal Workers for incumbent Megan Vedder. Koehler and Vedder were endorsed by the Lindbergh teachers’ union.

After the election, Bennet posted on social media site X, “The inability of the right to get their base out for the MO Muni elections demonstrates weakness, lack of organization, and poor leadership. A massive effort must occur or public school progressive indoctrination centers will change politics by 2034.”

Voter turnout across St. Louis County on Tuesday was 16.3%, down from 18.1% in April 2023 and 19.1% in April 2022. But some precincts in the Lindbergh district reached 50%, among the highest turnouts in the county.