Pay To Play Has No Place In Local Elections

We are writing to you today as four of the 2020 School Board campaigns who were not endorsed by the two Beverly Hills-based newspapers – Beverly Hills Courier and Beverly Hills Weekly. We are each running as individual candidates with independent campaigns from one another, but are together speaking out about an election issue of utmost importance to our community

One of the many tasks a candidate must take on when campaigning is to seek out endorsements from influential community members and prominent community organizations. Over the past several months of campaigning, each of us has sought out and earned dozens of endorsements across a wide spectrum, including from elected officials, top community leaders, and leading local organizations. These endorsements serve as one of the most important ways to vet the veracity and substance of candidates and, in turn, inform voters. Unfortunately, our city’s only two sources of local print news have failed to meet the basic ethical and professional standards of political endorsements.

In recent weeks, the Beverly Hills Courier and the Beverly Hills Weekly published their endorsements for the 2020 Beverly Hills School Board election. They both chose the same two candidates, while also both choosing to abstain from endorsing a third. This is unusual, given that voters are faced with deciding which candidates should fill a total of three open seats on the School Board in this election. Even more unusual is the two endorsed candidates were also the papers’ two highest-spending political advertisers of the 2020 School Board race.

Most importantly, neither local paper conducted a comprehensive vetting process before making endorsement decisions. They did not conduct interviews with each candidate, they did not communicate their selection process to the candidates or the public and they did not disclose the close social and financial ties they have to the 2 campaigns they endorsed. In fact, the only explanation given by the papers is that the two endorsed candidates possess ‘construction' and ‘legal’ backgrounds. Among the other candidates this year is a financial services executive and actuary, a Harvard-educated educational psychologist, an experienced governing board member with a background as a public-school teacher and a licensed contractor, a college student and private instructor with his finger on the pulse of change in education and a technology expert/professor. We are not saying that one is better than the other, but in the course of a board member’s duties, any of these skills would be valuable assets. The fact that two candidates exclusively found their way into the prized endorsements of supposedly independent papers under such improper circumstances should shake our community to its core. If we cannot protect the integrity of our local School Board elections, how can we provide the quality leadership that our students and teachers deserve?

So where does that leave you, the voter? If you are still undecided please research the candidates. Check out the two candidate debates, produced and moderated by some of our best and brightest high school students and available on the KBEV youtube feed. Hold us all accountable for our platforms and how we would execute our ideas. Listen to our answers and make informed decisions.

Respectfully,

Frank Chechel
Benjamin Liker
Noah Margo
Amanda Stern