I wrote back in late August that of the $167,000 raised thus far by Board of Education candidates and PACs in the 2020 election cycle, roughly half of it has come from a single high school catchment area – River Hill High School. I surmised that River Hill was putting its financial might into a slate of anti-redistricting candidates.
Another round of campaign finance reports are out as of yesterday, and that story hasn’t changed. Except that the numbers have become even more mind-boggling. Today, a total of about $205,000 in contributions has been raised for the Board of Education races. Two hundred thousand dollars. How much has come from the River Hill High School area? Again, nearly half – over $100,000. Yes, you read that right; River Hill High School households have collectively spent six figures on the BOE this year. In the past six weeks alone, they have contributed $17,000 to Christina Delmont-Small, Sezin Palmer, and Yun Lu, who are considered to be the three anti-redistricting candidates.
Many will frame this as a grassroots effort by Howard County citizens to support the candidates they want, and that’s fair. None of this is illegal or shady. But any grassroots effort has a “why” driving its actions and contributions. I would say that for Matthew Molyett, Antonia Watts, Jolene Mosley, and Jen Mallo, the citizens who have contributed to their campaigns have done so because they support their advocacy for educators as well as their progressive ideals of equity and anti-racism. For Christina Delmont-Small, Sezin Palmer, and Yun Lu, their enormous popularity with those who opposed the 2019 redistricting effort and the sheer amount of money River Hill has poured into their campaigns is the proverbial walking, quacking duck.
And that duck is quacking “no redistricting for us.”