Julie Marsh:
Well, I mean, I think we have been seeing this happening for a little bit.
These used to be really quiet, sleepy kinds of elections, low spending, low turnout, nonpartisan. What we have been seeing in the past couple years is a lot more spending occurring. I mean, I think — I heard reports the past couple weeks in Minnesota and Pennsylvania that it was about three times the usual rate of spending on some of these races.
People have become more sophisticated with their political strategies, negative ads, TV ads in places that never seen that for these kinds of elections. I want to make the point that this is not accidental. I mean, this is that school boards have become pawns in a broader political game here. It’s been a flash point for the culture wars.
But I think folks have seen, conservative folks have seen that they can fund and be very strategic about advancing candidates, using the parents’ rights agenda, as a way to build their bench. They’re using these kind of strong emotional appeals to energize their base.
