MY FIRST POLITICAL POST

I lasted more than 49 years of my life without making a social media post about politics. People rarely go on social media to better understand political perspectives. Rather, they seek to dunk on enemy tribes or prove allegiance to their own. Because neither goal is important to me, I never saw the point in posting. 

Until this week. 

What made the difference? My children. 

Both candidates for the at-large seat on the Albemarle County School Board – Allison Spillman and Meg Bryce – have strengths. They are knowledgeable and passionate about county schools. After studying the candidates and their positions, my own view is that Bryce is better prepared to reverse the decline of our schools. She wants to hold the administration accountable for the district’s downward spiral. But, what removes any doubt about who deserves the seat is Spillman’s conduct in pursuing it. In a contest about care of children, smears to dupe voters for political ends must be disqualifying. 

First, Spillman promoted a website secretly built with the help of her former campaign manager that used her opponent’s name (megscaliabryce.com) to smear her with lies and distortions.* When her campaign manager’s involvement was discovered, the website was immediately pulled down, where it remains. What Spillman could have done next is explain her involvement in the website her own campaign manager helped create, and apologize for promoting it. She did neither. 

Instead, she doubled down on smears. Her recent campaign mailers opt against addressing actual issues in the race in favor of falsely painting her opponent as a right-wing extremist who seeks to whitewash history and ban books. These scare tactics distract from real issues our schools face.

The smears and scare tactics are part of the Spillman campaign’s broader politicization of the race. Virginia law protects schoolchildren from the ill effects of partisanship by leaving affiliation off school board ballots. Accordingly, Bryce is running without party affiliation and enjoys bipartisan support. Spillman’s campaign, by contrast, touts her party and endorsements, urges voters to support a party ticket, and even allows wealthy party donors to help her bring in an outside campaign manager with experience running state campaigns, at $5K per month, plus a bonus. For several reasons, the smear tactics and politicization are disqualifying in a school board race. 

First, and most importantly, if the smears succeed in duping voters, they deprive children of an election decided by issues that matter. And second, they raise alarms about Spillman’s agenda. Much of school board service is unexciting – budgets, maintenance, and the like. Why would a mother covet a school board seat so much that she would be willing to spread lies about another mother? For what political end? To place children in the crossfire of political warfare is to forfeit the privilege of representing them. 

Spillman’s campaign’s tactics have been so egregious that even those in her party have condemned them. Claire Russo, runner-up in the 2020 Democratic primary for Congress, calls the smears “absolutely meritless” and says she “respects Bryce so much.” Of the many sources available to educate oneself about this election, if you have time for just one, make it the interview of Russo. Since the 2020 Democratic primary, Russo has continued her longtime support of Democrats in state and federal races. But, a school board race is different, she says. It’s not about Ds and Rs. It’s about what’s best for children. “I find it really disheartening,” says Russo, “that there are individuals who are turning this into a highly politicized smear campaign in an attempt to avoid talking about the issues, which is what I want to talk about, which is why I am supporting Meg.” 

A newcomer to running for office, Spillman is determined, and could be a formidable candidate in a race in which she sticks to the issues. But, that has not happened here. As Russo puts it, Spillman’s campaign has been “so focused on partisan politics and their own beliefs that they’re willing to attack another human being.” 

Children need our protection. They need to know that when adults seek power over them through deceit, we won’t let it happen. 

Simon Davidson

* The former campaign manager of Allison Spillman's campaign is Chris Seaman, who helped build megscaliabryce.com, a site paid for by the PAC he launched this summer.