Red State Rabble

In 2002, Iris Van Meter ran a successful stealth campaign to win a seat on the Kansas School Board. She made no public appearances or public statements, but raised more money than any other school board candidate and defeated incumbent moderate Val DeFever of Independence just the same.

"It's scary," said Val DeFever after the election. "Someone could never leave their living room, never meet the public, and win public office."

Just a week before the election, a shadowy group called Truth in Politics sent a mailing to voters in the board's 9th District that called DeFever an anti-President Bush liberal supported by an atheist organization.

Today, Red State Rabble received evidence that another stealth candidate who is recieving covert support from the religious right -- Jesse Hall, a Democrat -- is running for the District 1 board seat against moderate Janet Waugh.

The evidence, which RSR is reporting exclusively, is an e-mail to religious right supporters from Celtie Johnson, described by the Pitch, Kansas City's alterndative newsweekly, as "a God-fearing Johnson County mom who was largely responsible for the last battle over evolution in Kansas schools. Back in 1999, she led an honest fight for biblical truth, attempting to get the Genesis creation story taught to schoolchildren. She's back again, fighting evolution once more, but this time she's standing up for the watered-down ID agenda."

Here are some key excerpts from Johnson's message to supporters:

Dear Friend! Our State School Board Candidates need your undivided attention! ...and please forward this e-mail to your conservative friends, asap.

This important notice is for all my friends who want to directly impact the spiritual war against God at the root...the origin of everything.

Have you ever had a real life "do-or-die" event in your life...? (health issues excluded) Well, I believe we are in one of those very rare moments right now and that you may not even be aware of it, but I suspect that you are. It IS the upcoming Kansas State School Board elections.

There are five out of 10 seats that are being fought for on the state school board and I sincerely pray that we will all be very diligent as well as very encouraged by the fact that there are five brave conservative candidates who are WILLING to do all the hard physical work that it takes to be a viable contender.

If we win at least 3 of these 5 positions, creating a 5-5 stalemate, we will prevent the evolutionists from overturning the world-changing progress Kansas has made so far, which established science standards that give both teachers and students the freedom to approach the godless theory of evolution with objectivity. If we can win all five seats, creating a 7-3 conservative majority in spite of all the media and academia against us, then the liberals and evolutionists would learn the undeniable message that they can no longer get away with cramming evolutionism down ours and our neighbors kids' throats! It would be history-making!!!

Who are the five brave conservative candidates? Johnson names them in her e-mail:

• District #5: Connie Morris
• District #1: Jesse Hall
• District #3: John Bacon
• District #7: Ken Williard
• District #9: Brad Patzer

Johnson adds this about Jesse Hall, who has filed for office, but has yet to make a single public statement or campaign appearance:

Jesus has blessed us financially, Eric and I have given the maximum donation allowable from our family to each candidate. I hope and pray that you, too, will donate as much as you can. I've been told that if you must choose a candidate to support who needs your financial help the most, that that would be a toss-up between Jesse Hall of District #1 and Connie Morris of District #5, due to the unique dynamics of their races. Jesse Hall is a conservative, pro- life Democate who is running in the only "Democrat majority" district which is largely based in Kansas City, Kansas.

There are two take-away messages for moderates who want to get education back on track in Kansas. Right-wingers will employ any undemocratic method -- from playing fast and loose with the state's campaign finance laws to running stealth candidates -- to acheive their theocratic goals, and they will raise money to support right-wing candidates, lots of it.

Moderates need to alert the public about Jesse Hall and we need to raise money for moderate candidates. More on that in our next post.