Now They’re Dragging Abortion into It

UPDATE: A TFN Insider reader recorded the robocall noted in this post. Great work! See below. The calls apparently were paid for by Texas Alliance for Life PAC. Because of the late date, it won’t be possible to know before election day tomorrow how much this political action committee has suddenly poured into State Board of Education races. The PAC reported more than $42,000 in cash on hand on Feb. 22.

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We have a report that Joe Pojman of the far-right Texas Alliance for Life is robocalling voters in the District 10 Texas State Board of Education race today. Pojman is letting voters know that Brian Russell, one of the candidates in tomorrow’s Republican primary for the board seat, is “pro-life.”

What in blazes does the State Board of Education have to do with abortion politics? Nothing — except for religious-right pressure groups and activists, for whom the “culture wars” are all-consuming. Telling voters about Russell’s opposition to abortion is Pojman’s way of letting religious-right voters know who should get their vote in the race for the state board seat currently held by the departing Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond. (Dunbar recruited Russell, an Austin attorney who homeschools his children, to run for the seat.)

We don’t know what Russell’s Republican opponents, Marsha Farney and Rebecca Osborne, think about abortion. But now you know the priorities of Russell and his supporters on the far-right: they have every intention of continuing to drag our children’s schools into senseless and divisive “culture war” battles even on issues that have nothing to do with public education.

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Republican SBOE Candidates Duke It Out

Republican candidates for Cynthia Dunbar’s District 10 Texas State Board of Education seat met over the weekend at a public forum in Georgetown. It appears that evolution and sex education were among the hottest topics of discussion, according to the online Williamson County Conservative Examiner. (Hat tip to TFN Insider reader abb3w for calling this to our attention.)

What Does He Really Think?

It seems that Brian Russell, anointed by Cynthia Dunbar as her desired replacement on the Texas State Board of Education, doesn’t much like the Texas Freedom Network. And we’re such nice folks. Go figure. Anyway, just a few days before word got out that Russell is seeking Dunbar’s board seat, the Austin attorney and his fellow State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) members passed a resolution attacking TFN as a “far left-wing fringe group.”

Well, we’re fascinated that SREC members spend their time worrying about TFN. But more than anything, the resolution itself also offers a roadmap of sorts for the political agenda Russell wants to promote on the State Board of Education.

Dunbar May Be Bowing Out of SBOE Race

Stunning news: Cynthia Dunbar may not be running for re-election to her seat on the Texas State Board of Education.

Quorum Report, an online political news site (subscription required) based in Austin, is reporting that State Republican Executive Committee member Brian Russell, an Austin attorney, is seeking Dunbar’s seat. According to QR, Russell says Dunbar recruited him to run.

TFN has exposed and documented Dunbar’s extremism in the past. In her 2008 book, One Nation Under God, Dunbar called public education a “subtle tool of perversion,” “tyrannical” and unconstitutional. During the 2008 president election, Dunbar attacked then-candidate Barack Obama as a Marxist and a terrorist sympathizer who wanted another attack on America so that he could declare martial law and throw out the Constitution. Dunbar has also been a leader of efforts by the State Board of Education’s far-right faction to politicize our children’s social studies classrooms and to promote creationist arguments against evolution in science classrooms.

Unfortunately, Russell would hardly be an improvement. He successfully persuaded the State Republican Executive Committee in March to pass a resolution demanding that all Republican state board members support creationist arguments attacking evolution. Read the resolution here. He also has served as treasurer of Legacy PAC, a Christian-right political action committee.

We will have more on Russell soon.

UPDATE: TFN just sent out the following press release: