'An unprecedented level of nastiness'

Apr. 5—Hamilton and Wenham, two small neighboring towns on the North Shore of Boston with barely 13,000 people between them, are in the thick of an election season hijacked by national politics, allegations of "dark money", and candidates who say they want their communities back.

The rhetoric is particularly charged in the race for Hamilton-Wenham School Committee. In testament to this, one reader reached out to The Salem News, unsolicited, to ask if the newspaper was "aware of the contentiousness of this election... it's an unprecedented level of nastiness."

"I find it hysterical," said Courtney Ashwood, a Wenham candidate for School Committee and one of three in the seven-person race identified as "ABC" candidates, who appear to be running together. All three are making their first bid for office. "It's the School Committee," she said. "It's a volunteer position. I didn't ask for any endorsements. I didn't know you needed to do that."

Ashwood, who grew up in town, said she's running for School Committee to "support the efforts of the schools, for whatever they need to make up learning gaps, to update our woefully out-of-date facilities." But she has become associated with the movement, aided by a recent campaign post on social media from Andrea Van Boven, a Wenham resident who represents the A in the setup. Fellow candidate Brian Scudder then shared the same photo the next morning on his Facebook campaign page.

In Van Boven's Facebook post, dated March 23, she appears alongside Scudder, a Hamilton resident who represents the B, and Ashwood, who represents C, during a candidate event. In the photo, all three are posing with a large sign that identifies them by name as the A, B and C candidates. The three also put out a campaign mailer, sent by multiple people to The Salem News on Monday, describing the trio as "a balanced centric approach to restoring academic excellence."

The three have been associated with Hamilton resident Mike Hebert, who has lived in town for several years and became chief operating officer of conservative social media app Parler midway into 2021. He'll soon move to Tennessee with his family as part of his new job at Parler, he confirmed.

"The Mike Hebert thing... it's funny. He's a vocal guy in town. He created a (Facebook) page — an uncensored page, because other pages do have a lot of censorship. Other people want to speak freely," Ashwood said. "He says who he's voting for, and all of the sudden, I'm a candidate he's backing with dark money?"

Van Boven described herself as "not a Hebert candidate. I didn't originate with Mike, that's for sure, and I took my papers out before I met him."

"In the course of standing up, other people decided they were going to run, and I'm still trying to get to know Brian and Courtney. But the time I've spent with them, I think they're wonderful," Van Boven said. "We're independent, and we just found each other. We have similar desires to see things happen in town."

Scudder was not available for an interview for this story.

Flags, masks, and diversity

In addition to Hamilton and Wenham holding their Annual Town Meeting the same day, they also conduct their town elections on the same day — this year April 7.

The elections have three contested races: The Hamilton Select Board race has four candidates for two seats, Wenham has two candidates for one seat on its Select Board, and there are the seven candidates for three seats on the regional school board. On the School Committee, residents in both towns run for three-year terms. This year, two Hamilton residents and five from Wenham are competing for those seats.

Over the past year, School Committee and Select Board meetings have become contentious over issues like who gets to decide what flags a school can fly, face masks in schools, and whether indigenous land declarations should be established — issues that have been just as divisive in surrounding communities over the last couple of years and across the country.

Much of the initial upheaval appears to be connected to the formation of local human rights groups, particularly a Hamilton-Wenham Human Rights Coalition. The group formed out of the civil unrest that defined the summer of 2020, where high-profile incidents involving Black victims at the hands of police sparked protests, marches and policy revision across the country. Movements advocating for the rights of the LGBTQA+ community have since become another major focus.

Anna Siedzik, president of the two-town coalition, said the progress the organization has made since forming "is tangible, with the formation of municipal human rights bodies, the raising of Pride and Juneteenth flags, numerous educational programs, indigenous land acknowledgements, and the first-ever Hamilton-Wenham Pride Picnic in June 2021, which drew almost 400 attendees."

Hamilton has its own separate human rights commission, while Wenham has created a committee. The formation of these groups has coincided with a level of discourse in both towns that points to their necessity, according to Siedzik, who is also a School Committee member. She is up for re-election next year.

"What's happening locally is just a reflection of national affairs, whereby the culture wars have been renewed along lines of social, racial, and economic justice," Siedzik said. "What we're seeing is an organized effort to rollback advocacy for human rights and equity for historically-marginalized groups, often using dog whistles like 'free speech,' 'family values,' and 'common sense' to rally support."

They are the same phrases often heard by those who support social media platforms like Parler, which saw a surge in alt-right popularity amid President Donald Trump's battles with social media companies like Facebook and Twitter, which ultimately banned him from their platforms following the Jan. 6 insurrection. Hebert was named Parler's new chief operating officer in May 2021, according to several media reports.

Others, Hebert included, say the political energy began with an "uncensored" Hamilton and Wenham group on Facebook — a private group administered by Hebert, who said he created it in response to censorship from administrators of other local Facebook groups in town.

"People haven't had unfettered speech in the towns because of the controls on the Facebook pages," Hebert said. "The Facebook page (created by Hebert) is clearly the thing that changed the conversation in both towns. By allowing that digital medium to be uncensored, it was just... nobody had ever seen that before. That was very new, and I can't underscore enough how significant it was to hear the other side."

The national discourse has saturated the Select Board races as well — where Hamilton incumbents Darcyll "Darcy" Dale and Rosemary Kennedy are facing challenges from residents Caroline Beaulieu and Tom Myers.

"The problem I have isn't with the discourse itself. Uncomfortable ideas are a part of any process," Beaulieu said. "There's a level of misinformation fueling this fire, and it means we're focusing a lot of attention and our time on things like a flag policy. To many people, the flag policy is conflated with a much larger issue, where we're, quote, 'indoctrinating students with radical Leftist ideologies and not core curriculum.'"

School candidates want to focus on issues

The School Committee candidates have grown tired of the attacks. That includes those who are accused of being in line with Hebert, and those who are accused of being in line with the Hamilton-Wenham Human Rights Coalition, which some have also accused of taking in dark money as well as being a political action committee.

The coalition disputes these claims. It is a registered 501(c)(4) nonprofit social welfare organization, which is different than a PAC. And, according to Siedzik, the group has not supported any particular candidates in this race or made contributions to any campaigns or ballot measures.

"This is School Committee, folks," Ashwood said. "This has nothing to do with Washington D.C. We have buildings that are falling apart, kids who have two years of learning loss, and we're talking about someone being funded by a national PAC, funded by Donald Trump?"

"It's a small minority," Ashwood said of those driving the attention. "I think the majority of people in Hamilton and Wenham know it's nonsense."

Hebert had this to say.

"People have learned to speak who had never spoken before, and I hope those who have never heard their side appreciate that operating within a censored online forum isn't reality," he said. "It's interesting to watch humanity come up with their interpretation of what's going on. Often times — most times, including these discussions about dark money — they're completely unfounded."

David Polito, the lone incumbent in the School Committee race, dismissed the characterizations of the "ABC" contingent.

"Courtney Ashwood is a friend of mine. She went to school with my sister. Her and her husband Scott, I consider friends," Polito said. "We're pitted against one another, but at the end of the day, whoever wins, I'm going to be happy to serve with. I'm going to be happy they stepped up."

Others, meanwhile, are more cautious. Several candidates who were asked to share biographical details like names and ages of their children — common details that might appear in a candidate profile — declined to do so, citing fear of their children being targeted in online attacks. Others asked for their comments be read back to them, to ensure they weren't saying anything that could get them in trouble.

Then there's Lauren Lambert, a Wenham candidate, who says there are really two teams in this race, and her. She said a second team has formed with Amy Kunberger, David Frenkl and Polito.

"This isn't a true race in my eyes," Lambert said. "It's almost like this group, the ABC group, is running against the other three candidates. It's almost like that group, versus that group... Then there's me."

Dale, a Select Board incumbent in Hamilton, said groups like lobbying organizations "who are determined to make everything political" get tagged as such and generally have rules they must adhere by to lobby support at the state and national level.

But there are no rules in place when they come to Hamilton and Wenham, according to Dale.

"There are groups... I'll put it that way... who are determined to make everything political. There's even an IRS designation for political organizations to act as social justice advocates, but this designation also allows them to go after political opponents, which they do with zeal," she said. "They are supposed to stay in their lane of national and state politics.

"At some point soon, there will be enough people injured, hurt or attacked, so there will be social media policies, maybe guardrails put up so these groups that are supposed to be working in state or national elections stay in their lane," Dale said. "In the meantime, it's going to be rough. It's going to be tough. It's going to be nasty."

Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.

Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.