In the 21st Century, the elected members of the Montgomery County Board of Education have been sympathetic to the needs of LGBTQ+ students, and have vigorously supported the enormous progress made in the last decade.
In the upcoming November 8 election Montgomery County voters may vote in all the BOE contests, regardless of the District in which they reside. Both the incumbents and the challengers for District 3 (Scott Joftus and Julie Yang) and District 5 (Brenda Wolff and Valerie Coll) have excellent records and public positions on protection and inclusion of our LGBTQ+ students. So do incumbent At-Large candidate Karla Silvestre and District 1 candidate Grace Rivera Oven. See links here.
However, the same cannot be said of At-Large candidate Mike Erickson and District 1 candidate Esther Wells. As shown below, they appear to be candidates whose views are adverse to LGBTQ+ students.
Mike Erickson came in second in the At-Large Primary, albeit with only 17% as compared to incumbent Karla Silvestre’s 56%. The Metro DC Chapter of PFLAG sent a questionnaire to every candidate in the primary. Of those who have made it to the general election, only one – Mr. Erickson – failed to respond. See here and here.
On April 18, shortly after Mr. Erickson filed – just before the last deadline – I telephoned him on behalf of Metro DC PFLAG, and we had a pleasant conversation; he gave me his email and said he would respond by April 30 (earlier-filing candidates had responded by the original March 15 deadline). He did not respond by April 30. I twice emailed and offered extensions to May 5, and then to May 7. He still did not respond at all.
Then, on September 1, I emailed him again, providing a new deadline of September 15. Still no response. I can find virtually nothing about his campaign or his views on the web.[1] Indeed, he does not even have a campaign website. All of this suggests that Mr. Erickson does not want to answer the questions because he knows that a vast majority of County voters disagree. Yet, he is on the November ballot, apparently hoping to slip in because of general discontent with the incumbent Board after more than two difficult years dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. But to cast a protest vote for this challenger or to abstain from voting in the At-Large 1 race (the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) has not made an endorsement in this contest) is a dangerous option.
Esther Wells came in second in the District 1 Primary, with 28% of the vote as compared to first place finisher Grace Rivera Oven, who received 46%. Unlike the answers to the Metro DC PFLAG questionnaire provided by Ms. Rivera Oven (and Ms. Silvestre), which were full-throated affirmations of the MCPS approach to LGBTQ+ matters in recent years, Ms. Wells’ answers, for the most part, were not responsive, as readers can see here. An even greater concern comes from her statement on her campaign website that she serves “as the Chairman & President Trustee of the Board of a multi-million dollar non-profit in Gaithersburg, MD.” What she does not mention is that the website of that non-profit states that it "opposes all forms of sexual immorality, including . . . homosexuality." See here and here. That information, interestingly, is not on Ms. Wells’ campaign website.
Similar Situations in 2010 and 2020
Such tactics are not unprecedented. In an effort to stem or reverse the progress made in the first decade of this Century, a stealth anti-LGBTQ+ candidate ran in 2010. Her pitch to the voters was “I am a PTA mom who cares about the children.” She made it through the primary to be on the November general election ballot. Although there had been widely-publicized litigation in 2005 and again in 2007-2008 against MCPS efforts in the LGBTQ+ arena, this candidate had said nothing publicly (either on her campaign website or anywhere else) about such matters during the primary campaign, or in the beginning of the general election campaign. When it was revealed that she was a major supporter of the 2007-2008 litigation against MCPS, both the Gazette papers and the Washington Post endorsed her opponent, explicitly rejecting her anti-LGBTQ+ history.[2] She lost in November by a significant margin. For details, see here at p. 15).
A decade later, another candidate sought election to the BOE touting opposition to boundary changes. His campaign signs, mostly illegally placed, plastered the County. But when it was revealed that his campaign was tied to extreme anti-LGBTQ+ elements (see here), many elected Montgomery County officials took the unprecedented step getting involved in the BOE election by speaking out against him. The candidate only received 13% of the vote in the primary, and did not make it to the general election. See here.
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In 1996, in the aftermath of Bill Clinton’s reelection as president, right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ political operative Ralph Reed said, “I would rather have a thousand school board members than one president and no school board members." The right-wing has targeted Montgomery County in the past, without success. We are a progressive community when it comes to LGBTQ+ matters, including caring for and embracing all of our students. So it is vital that the electorate is aware of Board of Education candidates who appear to have a different view.
POST SCRIPT: BOTH MR. ERICKSON AND MS. WELLS LOST IN THE NOVEMBER 2022 ELECTION.
[1] Mr. Erickson did not respond to Washington Post or Bethesda Beat/Magazine written or live forums. See here, here, and here.
Nor did he respond to The Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence’s questionnaire/scorecard questi
The only public statement available from Mr. Erickson on the web was in this pre-primary League of Women Voters Guide at p. 52, in which he said the he “would never vote for mandatory masking of children, it should be the parent’s decision. The psychological damage done to our kids is reprehensible, and the distance learning failures have set back most students. The truth is ZERO MCPS students passed away from COVID, and the response was overkill."
[2] “In District 5, incumbent Mike Durso is the better choice. . .; as for [his opponent], we are troubled by her involvement in a group hostile to gay rights. She is also member of the board of the Family Leader Network, one of the groups that sued Montgomery school officials in an unsuccessful effort to block a new sexual education curriculum that dealt forthrightly with sexual orientation.”
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