This article was originally posted 10/25/2021 on SUBV Facebook page
Registered Republican voters were recently targeted with this mailer and text from the New York-based 1776 Project PAC - one of the out-of-state groups attempting to influence our Blue Valley School Board elections. The mailer dog-whistles about so-called “Critical Race Theory” and claims “the left is coming for our kids” (Um, what?) - in hopes of activating far-right voters with racist innuendo and false claims.
Blue Valley Republicans weren’t the only ones to receive this postcard. Exact replicas - with only the candidate names changed - were also mailed to Republicans in Shawnee Mission and Olathe districts. Looks like the New Yorkers want to take over those School Boards, too.
Candidates Bowers, White, and McMullen were endorsed in August by the 1776 Project PAC and not only have they NOT repudiated the endorsement, McMullen appears to welcome it and the others are pushing a false CRT narrative. McMullen even retweeted the endorsement from 1776, while he had his supporters come on our page arguing that the PAC’s endorsement did not constitute “support.” (Read our first post here: https://www.facebook.com/StandUpBl.../posts/2796301543995111)
An April article from the anti-public-education, dark-money (Koch-backed) Sentinel quotes Christine White “...critical race theory has no place in that district,” while making several incorrect claims about K-12 schools teaching CRT. The letter sent to area Republicans in August from White’s home address and signed by all three (Bowers, White, and McMullen) just before White announced she was withdrawing from the race stated “Our third goal is to remove anything related to the ideology of Critical Race Theory from Blue Valley’s curriculum,” and wrongly states “...it’s being taught in our classrooms.”
While we greatly appreciate the many Republican SUBV members who automatically tossed this 1776 Project PAC mailer and/or deleted the text, how many voters will believe these lies and vote because of them? How many voters FOR our schools need to be activated to counter these lies? We don’t know. But we do know this: Every pro-Blue Valley voter is needed to Get Out The Vote for our schools between now and Nov. 2. Our community must do better than the usual 17% turnout to overcome the out-of-state influence spreading these lies.
Lets send the New Yorkers packing by electing Andrew Van Der Laan, Gina Knapp, and Lindsay Weiss to the Blue Valley School Board. Advance voting is open this week! See our pinned post for days and times.
