Daily Herald opinion: Maybe too much outside influence in this not-so-genteel school board election

This editorial is a consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board.

Last Nov. 11, we wrote an editorial with this online headline: "As an ugly partisan campaign season ends, we turn to more genteel local contests in 2023." Now we can ask, were the contests more genteel? When it came to the school board races this year, some were less genteel than we've remembered in the past.

That was true especially in Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211, Barrington Community Unit District 220, Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200, Antioch Elementary District 34 and Algonquin-based Community Unit District 300. As we reported in Sunday's editions and previously, the elections in those and several other school districts got attention - as well as funding and perhaps exaggerated talking points - from outside influencers, in a national trend. In District 220, the New York-based 1776 Project Political Action Committee spent money on mailers for a slate of three challenging the incumbents. Yes, we did say New York-based. Some candidates got backing that was more local. Four candidates in District 200 were endorsed by Naperville-based conservative group Awake Illinois. Citizens for Kids Education, or C4KE, another conservative group, was formed specifically to support candidates in District 211, but one of those candidates received $6,000 from Lake Forest billionaire Richard Uihlein.

In response to this outside influence, the Democratic Party of Illinois created more, with the help of $500,000 from Gov. J.B. Pritzker's campaign committee. In addition to spreading money around such as by paying for advertising, the party created a website that listed candidates it thought should not be elected. The Illinois Education Association, the state's largest union, also got involved in elections. The union, Pritzker and the Democrats were quickly criticized for trying to shape community boards to their liking.

Some candidates themselves, no matter their political leanings, also showed some distaste for such outside influence. In District 211, Peter Dombrowski, the other candidate backed by C4KE, did not take Uihlein's or others' funding. One of the union- and Democratic-supported candidates, Kimberly Cavill, declined the party's advertising help.

District 200 incumbent Dave Long told us the difference between running in 2019 and this election cycle was "night and day." "No. 1, a lot of personal attacks, a lot of political vitriol," he said. Thankfully, he added, "but also a lot of support."

"Now we can set our sights on 2023's local election, which tends to be a much more collegial affair," we wrote last November. "Whatever happened to standing on your principles, talking about your good ideas and inspiring hope?" we also wrote.

Let's hope local candidates can be left to do that on their own.