Jerry Roberts
By Jerry Roberts
A negative social media ad, produced and posted by a key group backing Ismael Ulloa and Rose Munoz, has introduced a sudden note of bitter acrimony into a school board race that has been singularly civil.
The 90-second online spot, put up by the political arm of the Latino advocacy organization CAUSE, targets the “Save Our Schools slate,” rival board contenders Mark Alvarado and Kate Ford, who are backed by an alliance of parents often referred to as SOS.
The spot conflates several race-based education issues and an infamous episode of digital threats of violence aimed at female students, combined with some inaccurate information and misleading allegations, into a mix of insinuation about SOS and innuendo about its endorsed candidates. It has been shared widely on social media by allies of CAUSE Action Fund, including the local Democratic Party, since being posted on Facebook last week.
“We’re trying to make sense of a complex race that has a lot of layers – we just wanted to connect all those dots,” Frank Rodriguez, policy and communications associate for CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy) told Newsmakers, in defending the ad.
“We never addressed Mark and Kate,” he said, but added, “I definitely see how it can be taken” as directed at them.
You can watch the ad below. A line-by-line deconstruction of it is found at the end of this article.
Gauging reaction. Although the ad does not mention Alvarado and Ford by name, it refers near its beginning to the “Save Our Schools slate.” Through words and images, it then associates the slate with a host of right-wing attitudes, beliefs and policy positions – racism, misogyny, white supremacy and opposition to the concerns and rights of minority students and immigrants, among them.
“Dividing our community may win an election, but it will not bring Santa Barbara and Goleta closer to our goals,” Ford said in response. “We are proud to run a positive campaign and are proud of the support we have received from across the community.”
“I don’t want to go toe-to-toe to perpetuate the divisions,” Alvarado told us. “We’ve run a good, clean race and we don’t want to go down these dark roads.”
Ulloa and Munoz, the intended beneficiaries of the ad, both said they had nothing to do with its production and posting, but bobbed and weaved when asked directly if they would condone or renounce it as a tactic in furtherance of their campaigns.
At one point, the ad references the controversial demotion of former San Marcos High School principal Ed Behrens last winter. The move, set in motion by Superintendent Cary Matsuoka, followed a brief but turbulent period at the school, which began when a group of male students made violent threats against a group of female students in an online chat room. The Independent reported that one of the boys was convicted of making a terrorist threat.
Ulloa told us that he could not state a clear opinion about the ad because it referenced Behrens, who since has sued the school district in a wrongful termination action.
“I had nothing to do with the video (script, narration, production, etc),” he said in an email. “As part of this video has to do with a personnel decision and is connected to pending litigation, I can neither condemn nor condone this video or its message.”
Munoz also equivocated.
“It could have been done in a better manner,” she said, adding that she supported CAUSE’s efforts in “making sure all the voices are heard.”
“I wasn’t involved in the making of it,” she said in a telephone interview.
Save Our Schools members unsurprisingly were livid about being tarred as racists and misogynists.
“This ad is full of falsehoods and misrepresentations,” said parent Marcy Wimbish, speaking for the group. “Negative campaigning has no place in local politics.”
Alvarado and Ford both signed a “Code of Fair Campaign Practices” promise, an option for candidates when they pull their papers, according to the SOS statement, which added that, “It’s unfortunate that the other candidates didn’t do the same.”
Ulloa and Munoz both said that was untrue; each said they did sign the pledge, while Ricardo Cota, Jim Grimble, Bonnie Raisin and Jill Rivera, the other candidates in the race, stated that they did as well, in response to email inquiries.
To be sure, the eight hopefuls over the past two months have discussed and debated a host of issues, including those surfaced in the video, with unfailing civility and mutual respect in the campaign for a purportedly non-partisan office.
Alvarado and Ford, however, skipped a recent forum put on by the Santa Barbara Youth Council, because CAUSE was a co-sponsor and its action fund already was distributing campaign literature boosting Ulloa and Munoz; both them attended, as did Cota.
Democrats qua Democrats. Although Ulloa and Munoz both said that CAUSE Action Fund operated independently of their campaigns in posting the ad, the video has been shared on Facebook by other of their prominent backers, including the Democratic Party of Santa Barbara County, and some of its leaders and elected officials, including Daraka Larimore-Hall, a longtime local chair who is now vice-chair of the California Democratic Party, and SBCC Trustee Jonathan Abboud.
In posting the ad, Abboud was particularly enthusiastic about attacking the SOS slate, calling them “dangerous and privileged.”
“EVERYONE in southern Santa Barbara county needs to watch this video about our school board election,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “A dangerous and privileged slate with a dog whistle of a name “Save Our Schools” is trying to win a majority on the board.”
Rodriguez, in stating that his group did not intend to vilify Alvarado and Ford, said that, “If they get elected, we want to work with them.”
One irony of the campaign controversy is that Alvarado, Ford, Ulloa and Munoz all are liberal Democrats, with few substantive differences among and between them on education policies.
A number of SOS members, including some contributors to Democratic candidates and causes, are similarly inclined.
Which makes the dissemination of the attack ad seem like an online version of the famed Democratic circular firing squad.
I split up the “running partners” and voted Ford and Ulloa. It would be nice to see each demographic well represented on the board.
Even though that ad wasn’t “officially” done by Democrats it sure looked like it, judging from the last 15 seconds. I can’t stand that political parties are getting more and more involved in what are otherwise non-partisan elections.
According to the official CA Assessment of Student Performance website only 30% of SB Unified School district students meet the most basic level of expected achievement in literacy and only 21% meet the most basic standard in math. By this metric it seems that anyone who is currently serving on a school board that has produced these results should not even be running much less win. Our schools clearly need new board members with new ideas.
This type of smarmy campaigning has no place in a school board election. Thanks to this, I’ll definitely be voting for Ford and Alvarado.
Democrats and their teacher union allies up to their same old self-serving dirty tricks. When will local voters know they are not doing this “for the children” but for their own pocketbooks. Throw them all out. Re-set button time.
If this post made you change your vote, or caused you to vote for Ford and Alvarado, then it is a prime example of what is wrong with our political system. Our votes should be based on who has demonstrated good values and strong performances in their previous political career and not on a negative article about what a 3rd party did during a campaign. To my knowledge, Ulloa qualifies based on his performance on the School Board. I need to do more research on the other candidates to select among them.
Knowing there are well-funded special interest political action committees out there, using last minute smear tactics, intimidates many decent people from running for office in the first place. This calculated 11th hour timing prevents rebuttal, and skirts required late campaign contribution reporting before election day. Reject anyone who becomes associated in these low-down tactics.
What is at stake, what levers of power, are handed over to those who try to elect their favored candidates by any means necessary. What do they expect in return? Your tax dollars are at stake and someone wants their hands on them very badly.
Unfortunately the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee really doesn’t want to give voters a choice, even when all candidates are Democrats, Party officials hand pick candidates they can control and then make it hard for independent thinkers to run. It’s certainly making it more difficult for Democrats to support their party.
Another informative article from Jerry Roberts; keep ’em coming, Jerry!
Neither Ismael Ulloa or Rose Munoz is denouncing the ad, which means only one thing to me: they are in on it. How low can these two go? Pretty darn low as far as I can tell.
Why did you reject the other non-partisan or non-Democrat candidates? Why do you keep putting only the teacher unions de facto representatives on our school boards – they have little to show for their decades of resistance to education reform in this state. Who did you vote for state school superintendent?