Commentary: A concerted smear campaign is under way against two school board candidates. It is unworthy of us.

Some supporters of Will Begeny and Theo Oshiro are trying to paint Allison Samuels and Leslie Pollak as right-wingers aligned with a lawsuit against the school district.

The logo of Defending Education, formerly known as Parents Defending Education

As any adult who has lived in Croton for any length of time probably knows, since Donald Trump was elected to his first term in 2016, no candidate for local office can have any chance of winning if they support Trump and/or his right-wing policies. That’s because both the village and the Croton-Harmon school district, well as many other communities in Westchester County, are dominated by liberal Democrats.

This explains in large part why Croton village elections went uncontested for seven years, until last year when the Voice of Croton—which is led by registered Democrats and independents—ran a write-in campaign. (Voice of Croton will be running formally on the ballot in this coming November’s village elections.)

Likewise, elections for the Croton-Harmon Board of Education are often uncontested, for similar reasons. But this May 20, district voters will have a choice of four candidates for two seats: Incumbent Theo Oshiro, closely associated with progressive causes; Will Begeny, a leader of Croton Pride, who is the heir apparent of outgoing board member Josh Diamond (also well known for his progressive views;) and Allison Samuels and Leslie Pollak, well known community activists and registered Democrats.

More than a month ago, the Chronicle published an editorial entitled “Let’s keep our local elections clean and honest,” in which we commented on the fact that mudslinging in the school board election had already begun. At that time, we did not name any names, even who the targets of these smears were; we simply said that the political positions of some candidates were being misrepresented by other individuals.

We had hoped that the smears would stop. Unfortunately, they have not, and in fact they are ongoing up to the time of publication of this new Commentary. So now we have to be more specific, based on our reporting, which includes solid evidence that a smear campaign is underway.

Candidates Allison Samuels (left) and Leslie Pollak (right)

The main targets of the smears are Samuels and Pollak. Starting shortly after they declared their candidacies, some supporters of Begeny and Oshiro began claiming—on social media, in private list groups, and through word of mouth—that the two women were right-wingers and Trump supporters. While we have no evidence that Begeny and Oshiro are involved in this smear campaign, so far as we know they have not repudiated it nor attempted to distance themselves from it, which is very disappointing. (See comments from Begeny below.)

More recently, the smear campaign has taken a more specific form. Some supporters of Begeny and Oshiro have begun claiming—again via social media, list serves, and spreading rumors—that Samuels and Pollak are involved with the lawsuit against the school district filed last June by the conservative group Parents Defending Education. (The group recently changed its name to Defending Education, but we will continue to call it PDE here for convenience.)

That lawsuit was originally dismissed by a local U.S. district judge, but PDE has appealed the dismissal and it is currently pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In the lawsuit, PDE has not only tried to block any future DEI policies by the school district, but is asking the courts to strike down every single anti-harassment and anti-bullying policy currently on the district’s books. Such a result, should it come about, would mean that every imaginable form of bigotry known to humankind would become protected speech in our schools.

The idea that Samuels and Pollak would be sympathetic to such an effort is absurd on the face of it, given their history and their political leanings. Indeed, on her campaign Facebook page, and in a recent Guest Editorial in the Chronicle, Samuels made their position clear:

“Like the majority of Crotonites, Leslie and I believe that students should be able to be their authentic selves whatever that looks like and they need to be supported. This means that we need to have all of our policies match the legal protections that are available to us at all levels. We're not interested in rolling back the progress that we've made as a district to support our LGBTQIA+ and other students who are being targeted by the current GOP administration. Quite the contrary - we want to strengthen antibullying policies and supporting definitions to allow kids to freely be themselves.”

And in the current issue of The Gazette, Pollak specifically addressed the PDE allegations as part of a letter in support of their campaign:

“It has come to my attention that there are false rumors circulating that I am involved with the current lawsuit brought against our school district by Parents Defending Education. I am not, nor have I ever been, connected to the group or any legal action against our school district. This seems to be an effort to discredit me and dismiss my concerns that our school district is not fulfilling its promises and responsibilities. I encourage the community to look at what I’ve accomplished for our students, have a conversation with me, and visit crotonkidsfirst.com to learn more about who I am and what I stand for.”

We asked Begeny and Oshiro to comment on this situation and what we see as a clear smear campaign, and whether they would repudiate or distance themselves from those of their supporters who are engaged in it (we know the identities of several individuals involved, but in hopes that they will stop on their own accord we are not publishing them at this time.)

We heard back from Begeny, who acknowledged that none of the four candidates are from the far right. (Begeny made clear that he was speaking only for himself, since Oshiro is a named defendant in the PDE lawsuit and might not be able to comment.)

“When I announced my candidacy, before I knew if anyone would be running, I was terrified that we'd see people from a hard right camp come forward as challengers. The lawsuit was absolutely top of [my] mind, along with Trump's executive order about K-12 schools. I'm deeply relieved that we haven't seen a candidate like that come forward in this race and I sincerely hope we don't in the future.”

Begeny went on to describe the dangers to the district and the community if the PDE lawsuit was successful, which, given the strong conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, it could ultimately be. (See our analysis of that question here.)

“The danger in this specific legal strategy is massive—if the case wins in appeals, it could mean that any org can sue any district for anything it finds problematic. They don't even need to have an aggrieved student or parent involved. This could mean teachers walking on legal eggshells for the foreseeable future, and it can mean very real harm to so many kids. Safeguarding teachers from all this is high on my list of advocacy and policy initiatives.”

We then asked Begeny a second time if he and Oshiro would repudiate or distance themselves from the smear campaign being carried out by some of their supporters. At that point, even though we had described the smear campaign in some detail, Begeny claimed not to know what we were referring to. We find this disappointing, and we hope that he and/or Oshiro will say more. If they do, we will update this commentary.

Candidates Will Begeny (left) and Theo Oshiro (right)

We would like to be able to say, as the cliche goes, that there is “no place” for such unethical and dishonest tactics in our local election campaigns. Unfortunately, Croton history reflects several cases of misrepresenting the opponents’ political positions and affiliations, and even some formal decisions by the county’s Fair Campaign Practices Committee against the parties who have done it.

The Chronicle does not endorse candidates in elections, but as a journalistic endeavor we do have a mission to try to distinguish fact from fiction. We will continue to do that throughout the course of this and all other electoral campaigns.

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