9 Candidates, 4 Seats And More Than $240K Spent To Gain Control Of This Riverside County School Board

Publisher’s note: The reporting in this story is based on multiple interviews, email exchanges and four years of campaign finance filings with both Riverside County and the California Secretary of State. Work like this is made possible by contributions from readers like you.

For the second time in two years, voters in four of the five districts that make up the Temecula Valley Unified School District (TVUSD) Board of Education headed to the polls last month, but this time the stakes were much higher as hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent in an effort to secure the board majority.

Up for regular election were Trustee Area 1, currently held by Allison Barclay, and Trustee Area 5, currently held by Steven Schwartz. The other two districts, Trustee Areas 2 and 4, were up for special election following the resignation of former Board Member Danny Gonzalez and the successful recall of former Board Member Joseph Komrosky, respectively.

For voters in Trustee Areas 1, 2 and 5, the choice was between a candidate backed by Christian conservative groups such as the Murrieta Temecula Republican Assembly (MTRA) and the Inland Empire Family PAC (IEF) — which have both voiced support for policies such as the controversial parental notification policy and the ban on teaching critical race theory — and a candidate backed by the Temecula Valley Educators Association (TVEA) and One Temecula Valley PAC (1TVPAC) — both of which vehemently opposed those policies. 

Last week, the newly elected TVUSD board voted unanimously to rescind the parental notification policy and its flag policy following the Public Employee Relations Board ruling on two unfair labor practice charges filed by TVEA.

Sarah Reckhow, a political science professor at Michigan State University, said that local school boards have become more susceptible to cycles of conflict like this over the last two decades.

“The challenge we’ve seen with partisan polarization more broadly…is that it does seem to have this self-perpetuating cycle where people get outraged about something happening on one side, and then there’s a reaction to that and outrage,” she said. “Schools do seem to be more caught in that than they were like 15-20 years ago when there was quite a bit more bipartisan consensus about education as a policy.”

Her 2019 book, “Outside Money in School Board Elections: The Nationalization of Education Politics,” dives into the battle over charter schools and teacher evaluation reform that she said served as a kind of precursor to what’s currently happening in districts like TVUSD.

“Sort of the two sides of that was actually two coalitions within the Democratic Party, one being primarily teachers unions and allies of teachers unions, and the other being supporters of charter schools and school choice,” she said. “Now, we’re in a set of divisions that seems to have a lot more to do with social and cultural issues in schools, or what people call the ‘culture war,’ and it is happening between the two political parties rather than within one party.”

That shift, she said, seems to have happened as a reaction to widespread school closures during the pandemic, with groups that mobilized around that issue expanding their platforms once the schools reopened to target things like critical race theory, issues relating to the LGBTQ+ community and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, all of which are featured in the national Republican Party’s 2024 Platform, as reported by Chalkbeat.

Komrosky, who won election to the Trustee Area 4 seat he was recalled from earlier this year, noted in an interview with The Riverside Record that President-elect Donald Trump has spoken about these issues in schools. PBS reported that Trump previously said he would cut funding to “any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.”

“So it’s not just me, and it’s not just other candidates running on traditional family values,” Komrosky said. “This is all over the nation, and now this is coming from our own presidency.”

The problem with having national conversations like this becoming part of local school board races, Reckhow said, is that it often results in driving up the cost of running for election. In Temecula, where board members receive a little under $12,500 per year, that impact is clear.

In 2020, campaign filings for four of the seven candidates who ran for the two open seats show they received and spent less than $2,000 each. Brooklyn McClure’s campaign spent $4,200, which includes a nonmonetary donation of $1,275 in signage from a family member, according to campaign filings. None of these candidates won.

Stephen Loner’s campaign spent a total of $8,990, which includes a $1,651 nonmonetary contribution from a local company, according to campaign filings. His only reported monetary contributions were $3,000 from the Riverside Firefighters Legislative Action Group and $5,316 from TVEA PAC. Loner beat out two other candidates, winning the seat with 54% of the vote.

Schwartz’s campaign spent a total of $3,900. His largest donor was TVEA PAC, which contributed a total of $3,240 in cash to the campaign. Schwartz beat out three other candidates, including McClure, with 33% of the vote.

Two years later, in 2022, there were nine candidates running for four open seats. According to campaign filings, four, including Barclay, spent less than $2,000, and one spent roughly $3,000. Of those four, only one was successful in their campaign — Barclay.

“I didn’t raise any money,” Barclay said. “The teachers union [TVEA PAC] just purchased signs for me and door hangers, and, you know, it was a very light campaign, and I won by 25 votes.”

Campaign filings show TVEA PAC made $4,100 in independent expenditures in support of Barclay’s campaign, which included signs, banners, mailers and text banking. In total, TVEA PAC spent $35,241 to support the four candidates it backed in 2022, according to campaign filings. This included $17,600 in independent expenditures for which there was no specific candidate named.

Campaigns for the other three winners of that election cycle — Gonzalez, Komrosky and current Area 3 Trustee Jen Wiersma — spent a combined total of $50,610 in cash payments. All three were backed by the IEF, which spent a total of $61,865 to support them, according to campaign filings. IEF’s expenses included $1,000 to each candidate in monetary contributions and the remainder in nonmonetary contributions — $17,521 for Wiersma, $20,330 for Komrosky and $21,014 for Gonzalez.

The one losing candidate backed by IEF, Jason Craig, reported in his campaign filings that his campaign had received less than $3,000 in cash payments as of Sept. 24, 2022. Craig failed to file any additional statements of expenses after this date, which candidates are required to file as part of the Political Reform Act.

Craig did not respond to an email with a question about the missing filings.

Filings by IEF showed the PAC spent more than $17,500 in support of Craig’s campaign, including a $1,000 monetary contribution and the remainder as nonmonetary contributions. Nearly $13,800 of that total was contributed after Sept. 24, 2022.

And, this year, the latest campaign filings available show that more than $246,000 had been spent in support of eight of the nine candidates as of Oct. 19 this year, which includes nearly $75,000 in monetary and nonmonetary contributions and another $10,300 in independent expenditures from IEF, TVEA PAC and 1TVPAC combined.

Trustee Area 2 Candidate Emil Barham

Leading the nine candidates in spending, according to the latest available filings, was Trustee Area 2 candidate Emil Barham, who had spent more than $45,000 as of Oct. 19. He ended up winning the seat with 6,890 votes.

Barham declined an interview request from The Riverside Record, stating that he wanted to “put some time in on the board and then possibly provide an interview.” On Tuesday, Barham was selected to serve as clerk of the board.

The largely self-funded campaign, which included more than $50,000 that he loaned to the effort, also included $2,000 in contributions from Temecula resident Allan Eloe and $250 from Murrieta resident Robert Kowell, according to campaign filings.

According to the California Republican Assembly’s website, Kowell is the president of MTRA, which endorsed Barham along with the Republican Party of Riverside County, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin.

“The conservative candidates, I do hope, will keep fighting the state on the issues,” Kowell said in an interview with The Record. “We want to Newsom-proof our area here so that we don’t get all these crazy mandates.”

Kowell said since his group’s membership includes Murrieta, Temecula and even has some members from San Jacinto and Hemet, the group endorses, and he donates to, a number of Republican candidates throughout the region.

Trustee Area 4 Candidate Joseph Komrosky

The same organizations, along with Temecula Councilmember Jessica Alexander and IEF among others, endorsed Komrosky.

“A lot of the progressive left like to focus on the IE Family PAC and really demonize a pastor [Tim Thompson] that cares about his community,” Komrosky said.

His Trustee Area 4 campaign has received nearly $44,000 in contributions and spent more than $41,000 this year, which includes both the recall and the special election, according to campaign filings. He won his race with 8,234 votes.

“I think, bottom line, is that we raised that much money because people care, and that’s a really good thing to see,” Milana Quezada, Komrosky’s campaign manager, said. “I think there’s a serious apathy from communities when it comes to voting in local elections, and that’s something we need to seriously consider and take action on, and we need to connect voters with local issues.”

IEF, whose principal officer is listed as Thompson, reported spending more than $10,400 in support of Komrosky in 2024, which includes efforts to oppose the recall election, according to campaign filings. Of that, $6,400 was made in independent expenditures and the remaining $4,000 was a monetary contribution to Komrosky’s campaign.

“I was especially pleased at the outcome of Dr. Komrosky’s race,” Thompson said in an emailed statement to The Record. “The very divisive group that recalled him did so with deceptive tactics and wasted a lot of time and resources. His reelection rings loud the conservative values of the Temecula Valley.”

Thompson also runs the nonprofit Our Watch and is the founding pastor of 412 Church Temecula Valley, both of which came under fire earlier this year when the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over concerns that the nonprofits were engaged in “potential illegal political campaigning and fundraising,” which is prohibited by the IRS as a condition of the organizations’ tax status.

According to an attorney for FFRF, both the California Department of Justice (DOJ) and the IRS acknowledged receipt of the complaint, but the current status was not immediately known.

“Both just reply with form responses and indicate they do not give status updates on complaints submitted,” the attorney said in an email to The Record. “And I am not aware of any enforcement action taken, so unfortunately I don’t have any further information.”

The IRS said that it was unable to confirm or deny that any complaint had been filed, and thus could not say whether or not there was an active investigation. According to the IRS’ website, both organizations are still eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions.

The California DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the complaint, though both organizations remain listed as charitable or nonprofit religious organizations.

Thompson did not respond to follow-up emails inquiring about the complaint.

Komrosky’s largest individual donors this year were Kowell, who donated $3,000; Solana Beach resident Marci Strange, who gave $2,000; and Eloe, who donated $1,500, according to campaign filings.

“I think it’s a shame,” Strange told The Record when asked about the large amount of money spent to secure a seat on the TVUSD school board this year. “But on the other hand, again, that’s union control, and if what I call independent or non-union trustees want to get their foot in the door…you gotta, you know, keep up with it.”

Strange is a real estate broker and the chairwoman of the Taxpayers Oversight for Parents and Students of San Dieguito Union High School District (SDUHSD), an organization that alleges the district is “controlled by a union-endorsed, school board majority that has promoted politics, sex [and] gender preference ideologies at schools.”

Michelle Horsley, president of the San Dieguito Faculty Association, said in an emailed statement to The Record that the union had endorsed “community-supported” candidates who demonstrated a commitment to public service for more than 30 years.

“It’s unfortunate that groups like TOPS work to bring division and uncivil discourse to San Dieguito and other districts, which not only leaves students and staff feeling unsafe but also diverts needed resources away from the classroom,” she said, citing a story from EdSource that looks at the cost of these contentious issues. “Those of us that work to make SDUHSD the best district in the state are focused on our classrooms, our students, and providing a world class education to all.”

The messaging of TOPS is similar to that of the IEF and the candidates it supports. When asked about the similarities, Strange said there was collaboration between groups advocating for policies like the parental notification policy.

“We’ve got private chat groups, and people will say, ‘Hey, Chino [Valley Unified School District] is having their parent notification policy resolution next Wednesday night. Let’s show up,’” she said. “It basically, it helps everybody for a cause.

“So yeah, we do collaborate and share ideas, documentations, resolutions, strategies, you name it,” she continued. “We definitely collaborate with one another.”

Komrosky said he ran for his former seat because he felt he was not fairly recalled, something Strange also said.

“It’s one thing if the community wants to vote me out on facts,” Komrosky said. “That’s fine, because, you know, the will of the community is we, the people. That’s our Constitutional Republic, and I’m fine with it. 

“But, it’s another thing for these two entities — [TVEA and 1TVPAC] — to lie to our community,” he continued. “And that’s why I ran again, is to expose the lies.”

Both TVEA President Edgar Diaz and 1TVPAC principal officer Jeff Pack said they had no idea what lies Komrosky was referring to, with Diaz declining to comment further on the issue.

“He says a lot of things, but his actions do not back up the claim that we’re lying about anything,” Pack said.

According to campaign filings, 1TVPAC spent more than $43,000 in direct support of the recall effort, roughly $29,000 in 2023 and nearly $14,000 in 2024. The PAC also created a committee focused on the recall effort that spent an additional $10,787 — $4,539 in 2023 and $6,428 in 2024.

“Clearly at the time, that’s what our community wanted, and a special election and a general election are two different animals,” Pack said. “And I mean, he won by 200 votes [in the general]. We won by 200 votes [in the recall], so, you know, maybe money that was spent by him was more effective this time. I don’t know.”

TVEA spent  total of $17,600 in support of the recall effort, including a $3,000 monetary contribution to 1TVPAC for its efforts and another $14,600 in independent expenditures, which Diaz said had little to do with how the PAC felt personally about Komrosky and everything to do with the decisions that were being made.

“We, as an organization, or as a PAC, got involved in the recall because the sitting board majority at the time had made decisions that infringed into our contract by either unilaterally  imposing conditions into our working environment that are governed by our contract,” Diaz said. “There has to be a notification of a change of working environment, and that didn’t happen because it was unilaterally passed by the board.”

Trustee Area 5 Candidate Jon Cobb

The MTRA, the Republican Party of Riverside County, Bianco, Alexander and IEF also endorsed Jon Cobb in his campaign for Trustee Area 5. 

“I do believe that [the endorsements] helped,” Cobb said. “It was an honor to be endorsed by Sheriff Chad Bianco and by [Councilmember] Jessica Alexander and some of the other organizations in the area.”

And while campaign filings show that Cobb received a $1,000 contribution from Kowell, the total of how much his campaign raised and spent is unknown since no other campaign finance reports have been posted. 

On Nov. 21, Cobb said they had been submitted and were “in process,” but he did not have a timeline for when they would be available for public view.

When asked if he could share those filings with The Record, he said he was “hesitat[ant] to share anything unofficial.” As of Dec. 23, the filings have still not been posted.

Cobb said he decided to run for the school board because he has three girls currently enrolled in TVUSD schools, with one still at home and another on the way, and was concerned about the future of the district.

“They’ve had excellent teachers,” he said. “But I am concerned about some of the policies that I’ve seen in other school districts, and I wanted to make sure that those weren’t passed in our schools.”

He also said that throughout the campaign he focused on connecting with people in the community to hear what they felt the board needed to focus on going forward.

“My strategy was to build as many relationships as I could and really understand what mattered most to parents, especially because, ultimately, the board members are there to serve the parents of our city and the kids of our city,” he said. “And I looked for opportunities to meet with people at different events, going door to door and just getting out there as much as I possibly could, to connect with people in a meaningful way.”

Cobb lost by 480 votes.

Trustee Area 1 Candidate Melinda Anderson

The final conservative candidate running, Dr. Melinda Anderson, a dentist, won the Trustee Area 1 race with 6,692 votes. 

According to campaign filings, Anderson had spent nearly $17,000 as of Oct. 19, though she had only received contributions of just over $5,000, which included nearly $2,600 she personally loaned to the campaign.

Anderson received endorsements from the MTRA, the Republican Party of Riverside County and Bianco. Her only listed donor, other than herself, was Dr. Mark Pledger, a dentist with a practice in Murrieta, who contributed $2,000.

Anderson did not respond to multiple requests from The Record for an interview.

Trustee Area 2 Candidate Gary Oddi

Among those backed by TVEA and 1TVPAC, Gary Oddi’s campaign for Trustee Area 2 spent the most as of Oct. 19. 

According to campaign filings, his campaign spent roughly $42,400, which included $20,000 in nonmonetary contributions, $16,400 of which came from TVEA PAC. TVEA PAC also contributed $1,000 in monetary contributions to the campaign.

Filings from 1TVPAC show it spent approximately $1,350 in support of Oddi’s campaign — $450 in independent expenditures and $900 in nonmonetary contributions.

“It’s very unfortunate that a school board campaign involves that much money,” Oddi said. “But what has happened is, I feel like, there are a lot of outside forces that contributed to the 2022 election and contributed to bringing on the three new board members…so we felt like we had to really put a lot of money into this campaign to compete.”

Oddi, who has a long career in education and continues to serve as a substitute administrator for TVUSD, said he ran for office because of what he felt was a lack of progress in the district over the last two years.

“We didn’t gain anything, you know, in those two years,” he said. “All we did was see our school board become more divided and our community become more divided because of a lot of the anger and angst that was created by how the leadership was going.”

The way Oddi sees it, there are two opposing sides: One that wants to push back against what they feel are overreaches by the state and federal government and another that sees itself as a defender of marginalized communities, both of which have fallen into a cycle of anger and angst that he says doesn’t serve TVUSD, its students or the larger community.

“I’m very passionate about a lot of things, but when you’re in a leadership position, when you’re a community member that’s involved, it’s best to keep those emotions under control and think reasonably and come up with reasonable solutions for our students and our community,” he said.

Oddi lost the race for Trustee Area 2 to Barham by 523 votes.

Trustee Area 1 Candidate Allison Barclay

For Barclay, who was appointed to the board in 2021 following her predecessor’s resignation over his refusal to get the Covid-19 vaccine and was duly elected in 2022 for the remainder of the term, running for re-election was not a choice she took lightly.

“I have never had political aspirations,” she said. “I joined the board when everything was just very calm and no controversy, so it was never really my goal to get in there and have to, like, defend what I thought was common sense education and common sense policy. 

“But, once I was there, I felt like, you know, when people asked me to run and continue that, I just felt like I couldn’t abandon, you know, the people I had really gotten to know,” she continued. “We all just had such a great working relationship together that I just felt like, you know, I can’t walk away.”

According to campaign filings, Barclay’s campaign had spent nearly $36,000 as of Oct. 19, which included $24,000 in nonmonetary contributions. 

Her largest donors were TVEA PAC, which contributed more than $16,000 to the campaign including $3,500 in monetary contributions and $12,800 in nonmonetary contributions; 1TVPAC, which contributed $1,900 including $1,000 in monetary contributions and $900 in nonmonetary contributions; and the campaigns for both Asm. Corey Jackson and Supervisor Chuck Washington, which contributed $1,500 and $1,000, respectively, in monetary contributions, campaign filings show.

1TVPAC also spent another roughly $630 in independent expenditures in support of Barclay’s campaign.

“It was a really robust campaign, all completely driven by parents and community members that really just spent probably hundreds of hours on it,” she said.

Barclay, who lost to Anderson by 1,803 votes, said that while she was disappointed in the outcome, she was truly grateful for the support she received over the last two years and was hopeful that the new board members would be able to move forward with a renewed focus on the students.

“I’m hopeful that, you know, maybe they will get in there and that they’ll really see what a great team we have at the district, and they can support the teachers and the students in the way that they need to be supported,” she said. “And I hope that teachers will, you know, stick around for the kids, and that they will just keep plugging away doing what they know is good for the kids.”

Trustee Area 4 Candidate David Sola

David Sola, who lost to Komrosky by 227 votes in the Trustee Area 4 race, said his hope was that the board members really listen to the community — especially those who disagree with them.

“I listened to people for the last four months tell me about what their major concerns are, and none of them are these crazy culture war things that these people are pushing forward,” he said. “So, I really hope that they listen, because the problems that our kids are facing are not going to go away.”

Sola, a retired Marine who has three children in the district and another who graduated from Temecula Valley High School (TVHS), said he started paying more attention to the school board when his daughter, who was a member of the Black Student Union at TVHS, said she wanted to participate in a walkout over the board’s CRT ban. 

But it wasn’t until after Komrosky announced that he would be running again for the seat he was recalled from that Sola decided to run.

“I always had this thought that if you’re standing around looking for the adult in the room, that you’re probably the adult in the room,” he said. “So, as I’m looking around and I’m going, ‘You know what, I can’t leave this up to anybody else to try to figure out. I have to try.’”

Sola’s campaign spent roughly $27,000 as of Oct. 19, which includes about $16,500 in nonmonetary contributions, according to campaign filings. His largest donors, according to campaign filings, were TVEA PAC, which has contributed nearly $20,000 to the campaign including about $16,400 in nonmonetary contributions and $3,500 in monetary contributions; and 1TVPAC, which has contributed $1,900 directly to his campaign and spent another roughly $1,500 in independent expenditures in support of his candidacy.

“I never worried about how much money we had, or how much money we raised, or how much money was being donated,” Sola said. “Because I spent the last three months being out there in the community, going out and meeting people, speaking to people, being as involved as I could, while still being a dad and doing all the things that are required of me as a father.”

Trustee Area 5 Candidate Steven Schwartz

Schwartz was the only candidate backed by TVEA and 1TVPAC who won their race. With 7,126 votes, Schwartz was reelected to the Trustee Area 5 seat, beating Cobb.

“It was a lot of knocking on doors and talking to people,” Schwartz said of his campaign. “There was a lot more one-to-one contact with people than there was in 2020.”

Schwartz’s campaign had spent about $17,800 by Oct. 19, which included roughly $12,000 of nonmonetary contributions, according to campaign filings. His largest donors were TVEA PAC, which contributed more than $13,000 to the campaign including $9,800 in nonmonetary and $3,500 in monetary contributions; and the campaign for Asm. Corey Jackson, which contributed roughly $7,600.

“I wonder why people would spend that kind of money to be on a school board,” Schwartz said of the relatively large sums of money being spent by other candidates to secure a seat on the school board. “I mean, I don’t really understand what you think you’re going to do on a school board that’s worth investing that kind of money.”

Schwartz’s campaign also received $900 from 1TVPAC in nonmonetary contributions. The PAC spent an additional $630 in independent expenditures in support of Schwartz’s campaign, as of Oct. 19, according to campaign filings.

Schwartz, who said he is not planning to seek another term following this election, said he ran this year at the encouragement of his constituents.

“My people in my area urged me to run, all the people who know me, who support me,” he said. “Our [PTA members], principals, community members all told me that they wanted me to run again, that I did a great job of representing them.”

Going forward, Schwartz said he hopes the board is able to focus on the needs of the district and not a national political agenda.

“My hope is that we work for the kids and the schools, and we keep politics out of the school board,” he said.

And even though Schwartz was the only TVUSD candidate backed by 1TVPAC, Pack said he felt good about all of the candidates’ performances.

“Considering what our district looks like, data wise, I think we outperformed what we should have, what we would have done otherwise, had we done nothing,” he said.

Trustee Area 2 Candidate Angela Talarzyk

Angela Talarzyk, who came in third in the Trustee Area 2 race, was the only candidate who did not receive any major local endorsements, though she did receive a number of regional and national endorsements.

According to campaign filings, Talarzyk’s campaign spent roughly $9,500. Her largest donors were all individuals, including William Resnick, who contributed $3,000; and Michel Beaussart, who contributed roughly $1,500. She also received a $500 contribution from the Inland Empire United Action Fund.

Talarzyk did not respond to multiple requests from The Record for an interview.

Reckhow said that candidates who lack vital endorsements can have a harder time being competitive in more polarized elections.

“It can be a little harder for candidates who are maybe not picking a side or are not getting endorsed by the groups that are raising a lot of money,” she said. “It can be harder for them to break through.”

She said it can also be harder for candidates to talk about anything other than high-conflict issues in situations like this, leaving the community less informed about more routine things like the school district’s budget and upcoming capital projects for which the board is actually responsible.

As for what’s to come in the future, Reckhow said there are no clear answers.

“I think we’re just on the precipice of a lot of questions and uncertainty about how mobilizations will continue going forward when we don’t really know what direction will be coming from the Trump administration,” she said. “It could be very galvanizing for groups.”

On the other hand, Reckhow said, it might not.

“These groups have to make strategic choices,” she said. “They’re not going to be involved everywhere all at once, and so sometimes these things kind of rise and fall.”

One thing is for sure, all three PACs will continue to play a role going forward.

“[IEF] is dedicated to parental rights in the public schools,” Thompson said in an emailed statement to The Record. “We have no intentions of getting involved in any other races, but do have plans to continue to branch out beyond Southwest Riverside County. We also have plans on starting PACs in other states to continue grassroots efforts to fundamentally change school boards across the nation.”

And while IEF is looking to expand outward, 1TVPAC is looking inward to see how the organization, which Pack said was never meant to be overtly political, can best support the greater TVUSD community.

“We’re pivoting, and we’re also forming a nonprofit that is going to support unhoused, foster and disadvantaged youth in the area, as well as teachers,” he said. “Our perspective is, looking at the school district and the school board, which has proven to have no interest in really spending any time or resources or money on students, then we’re going to try to help those kids as much as we can in the interim, and help the teachers that won’t be supported by a school board.”

As for TVEA, Diaz said the goal now is to regroup and find a way forward that’s best for the students, teachers, parents and community at large.

“How do we bring these people together to advocate for safe and effective learning conditions for all students, so that everyone has access to the education that they need and teachers have the ability to teach without being singled out for what someone thinks on local politics or something like that,” he said. “These things are just brought in to politicize people and to not have conversations, and we need to be willing to have conversations and partnerships.”

Sunlight Research Center contributed research and data analysis for this story. Freelance journalist Nick Perez also contributed data reporting to this story.