Election Highlight: Hamilton
Reactionaries look to expand toehold in Hamilton
Hamilton is the most populated municipality in Mercer County, and it has the 10th largest student body in the state of New Jersey. The school board oversees 23 schools which enroll 11,816 students K-12. Parents and voters place immense trust in school board members, who are bound by strict ethics requirements that prevent them from abusing their power over young minds. School board elections should be apolitical and non partisan, but the 2023 Hamilton election is shaping up to be anything but.
Board member Stacy Burn was elected in 2023, and she has become the voice of a faction in Hamilton who oppose LGBT rights. The group began its campaign with a call to ban LGBT books from the school library. This provoked anger from progressives in Hamilton, and inspired an ongoing political boxing match at board meetings. The books targeted for decommissioning by Stacy Burn include Flamer by Michael Curato and an Easy Guide to Trans and Queer Identities by Mady G and J.R. Zuckerberg. The opponents of these books argue that they are “pornographic” and encourage students to experiment with their gender presentation.
The move to remove these books has lead to fierce debates at board meetings as speakers from both sides trade accusations. The far right group has accused the other side of being pedophiles and groomers, while the progressives have argued that their rivals are attempting to repress knowledge of LGBT identity to force children to stay in the closet.
The rancor at these debates has carried over to the BOE election. According to Krystal Knapp writing for Planet Princeton, “8 residents are running for three three year terms.” Three candidates are aligned with the progressive “Mothers. Leaders. Advocates” slate, while three are identified with the right wing Responsible Hamilton slate. Two more candidates, Donald Snedeker and Brandon McNiece are running as independents.
The progressive slate is composed of Christina Harvey, Meaghan Stanton, and Denise Soto. Christina Harvey and Denise Soto are incumbent board members. According to her profile on the slate’s website, Meaghan Stanton is a 3rd generation Hamilton resident and special education teacher. Christina Harvey claims to be running in order to support “working parents” with programs such as “before and after care, transportation, and preschool.” Denise Soto was appointed to the board in order to fill the term of retiring board president Susan Lombardo. Mrs. Soto works in the non profit sector and has been active in her children’s schools PTAs.
According to the slates website, they are running to make “decisions on behalf of the community and as parents seeking the best for our children.” They believe that as community leaders they can “bring a vision of progress and innovation to the education system, inspiring positive change and growth.” They hope to advocate for “individual success of everyone's child” and they “are determined to fight for every student's rights and well-being.” They want to make the schools safe for all children.
The Responsible Hamilton Coalition is a non electoral coalition that shares a name and agenda with the far right slate. The far right slate is composed of Pastor Marc Crabtree, John Muka and David Maher. Unfortunately, the candidates have yet to launch a separate website for their campaign so it is harder to find out what they will advocate for. However, we can rely on their previous statements as a guide.
Marc Crabtree is a pastor at the Refuge Church in Robbinsville NJ. At the start of Pride Month this year he gave a sermon entitled “Gods Rainbow vs Satan’s Rainbow” in which he describes the LGBT pride flag as a cheap knockoff of God’s Rainbow. In a speech to the Hamilton BOE in July candidate John Muka compared “transgender affirmation” to defacing the school district’s new football field. David Maher previously ran for school board in 2020 as a Republican and lost by 6,000 votes. Unfortunately, we have been unable to find information about his campaign.
The Responsible Hamilton website lists several issues that are important to the organization. They want to ban “pornographic” books from schools, since these people view anything related to LGBT identity as sexual; this means the erasure of gay people from the library. They want to force teachers to tell parents if students request to socially transition at school. They want to have an open book approach to student safety, specifically around bullying and “drug use via vaping.” Finally, they are concerned about “faltering test scores.” They want to give special attention to ensure that all students receive “enables success not only in school but beyond to success at work, community and in their families.” They want to make sure that all students can read by the third grade.
Donald Snedeker does not have a campaign website, and we were unable to find any information about his campaign online. However, Brandon McNiece does have a website where he states that “The children of Hamilton Township deserve better than to be treated as pawns in a national culture war.” He is running on three issues; literacy, numeracy and socialization. His website claims that “6 in 10 HTSD students are not reading at grade level.” Avoiding the book ban issue, he argues that it is vital that students should be able to read the books in the library. On numeracy, he states that “8 in 10 HTSD students are not appropriately proficient in math. That’s not traditional education OR progressive education. It’s a lack of education. The solutions to these problems are pedagogical and curricular, not cultural.” Finally, he argues that students are facing an “epidemic of childhood insularity.” This problem predates covid, according to Mr. McNiece; but the pandemic “pushed it over the edge.” He wants to “invest in opportunities that allow our kids to develop the social skills they will need to succeed in college and beyond.”
The first campaign event will be a question and answer session hosted by Hamilton Township Supporting Education; a parents advocacy organization. The session will take place at the Hamilton Public Library. Community members are encouraged to ask questions on a Facebook thread. A survey of the thread reveals several questions that appear to be aimed squarely at the right wing slate. Our report will attend this event and report back with the details.
It is crucial that progressives and leftists unite to prevent our children’s future from being taken over by far right ideologies. The goal of these fascists is to either destroy public education, or turn it into a center for indoctrinating kids. Public education should be non partisan, and it is right now. The far right is mad because non partisan, unbiased education means including all people; including those they view as deviant and degenerate.
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