By Dakota Antelman — [email protected]
Accusations of deliberate mischaracterizations, “bullet voting,” and a “potentially dangerous” graphic top the list of eleventh-hour developments in the race for two School Committee seats.
Committee member Andrew Herchek is drawing criticism over a letter to his supporters where he reiterated his personal endorsement of committee hopefuls Alexa Anderson and Sandeep Pisharody and criticized the third candidate, Michael Williams.
Anderson and Pisharody’s supporters have cried foul over their claims that the Williams campaign is encouraging people to vote only for Williams despite there being two seats open — a practice sometimes called bullet voting.
One group joined the chorus — but later scrubbed a graphic from their Instagram page that showed a red X over four bullets.
Separately, a candidate described profane outbursts from passersby while she and her children were holding campaign signs.
In parallel with an also-competitive Select Board race, candidates who responded to questions from The Concord Bridge said they remained focused on their campaigns.
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‘The kids are watching’
Herchek sent his email on Sunday, March 30. In that email, according to Williams, outgoing School Committee member Cynthia Rainey, and a spokesperson for the state Attorney General’s Office, Herchek misrepresented a complaint Williams made against the School Committee last year.
Misstatement or not, the episode marked the most direct public denunciation of Williams yet from a sitting member in a race where most of the committee has endorsed Williams’ opponents.
In an interview, Rainey said Herchek’s email was one of several recent incidents that left her shaking her head.
“I hear a lot of people talking about [how] it’s all about the kids,” she said. “Well, the kids are watching. Believe it or not, they can read.”
The Bridge asked Herchek about his individual campaign statement. He said he considered the Bridge’s questions a School Committee matter and deferred to committee chairs Julie Viola and Carrie Rankin, saying they were the only ones authorized to speak to the media regarding such topics. Herchek said the two would send a statement, but they had not responded as of publication.
Herchek’s letter criticizing Williams was also featured on the website of a group called Concord Community for Great Schools, which has endorsed Anderson and Pisharody. That group later posted (and then yanked) the bullet graphic.
‘Unnecessary tension’
Anderson, Pisharody, and Williams are vying for two School Committee seats. Anderson is running for re-election. Rainey is not seeking another term and has endorsed Williams.
In his letter to supporters, Herchek said he disagrees with how Williams interacts with the School Committee, “such as advocating for unnecessary ‘tension’ with the superintendent and framing the schools as failures.”
Herchek linked a letter to the editor in The Bridge that he said summarized his beliefs, inaccurately calling it an “article.” (Editor’s note: Letters to the editor reflect the opinion of the author. The Bridge neither endorses nor opposes candidates for public office in news articles and does not take an editorial position on elections.)
He pointed to Williams’ complaint and said it regarded “what he perceived as biased behavior by a student at a School Committee meeting and the subsequent response by the committee.”
Herchek said the response was meant to “protect district children from being disparaged by community members.” He also said the incident was “a great example of ‘tension’ that is a basis of [Williams’] campaign.”
Shown a copy of Herchek’s statement, Williams said Herchek “is free to make whatever decisions he wants and speak out in whatever way he wants.” But Williams pushed back on the complaint description.
October meetings
The issue arose when Williams saw students neglect to hand a gift card directly to School Committee METCO representative Ayesha Lawton during an October 8 presentation. Students handed cards to other committee members.
Williams said he spoke with a school district administrator after the October 8 meeting. He said the conversation was discreet, but schools superintendent Laurie Hunter “scolded” him for initiating it. Williams took the microphone at an October 22 School Committee meeting to publicly voice his displeasure.
He saw “innocent, courageous children unable to grant the same acknowledgement to the one person of color participating in the evening’s exercise” on October 8. He also asked, “Is it not my right and responsibility to share my perspective with those who are tasked with framing the hearts and minds of future generations?”
In an email that Williams attached to his complaint, Rankin said Williams “crossed a line by assigning motives to a student with special needs.”
Rankin sent the email after the October 22 meeting and she said she would mute Williams’ microphone if he again broke the School Committee’s policy against disparaging students and staff. Williams disagreed and said he didn’t disparage anyone.
While the October 8 situation involving students prompted his public comment, Williams said perceived bias didn’t trigger his complaint.
Rather, he said he took action solely based on Rankin’s threat.
Beyond characterizing the complaint itself, Herchek said the Attorney General’s Office “quickly dismissed” the matter.
Under open meeting law procedure, people file complaints and receive a response from the involved committee. Complainants can seek review from the AG’s office if they’re not satisfied with the committee’s response.
A spokesperson for the attorney general said Williams never filed for review and officials closed the case. For that reason, the spokesperson said it’s wrong to say the office dismissed the matter, which would imply officials made a judgment on the complaint’s validity.
Rainey said Herchek’s email followed a pattern established by people who mischaracterized Williams’ complaint “from the get-go.” She said Williams’ critics were “trying to flip it around to [say], ‘Isn’t this person damaging a child?’ which is not true.”
Superintendent’s involvement
As the Bridge reached out to committee members, Hunter sent an email to the panel saying district spokesperson Thomas Lucey was “drafting a chronology to share with [The Bridge] on behalf of the committee” regarding Williams’ open meeting law complaint. The Bridge obtained a copy of Hunter’s email.
In a phone call, Lucey confirmed he works for the district administration, not the School Committee.
He said he doesn’t get involved in politics and was focused on ensuring “the chronology and the facts that took place at these public meetings, in the school building, about the district are correct.”
Lucey declined to answer a follow-up question about Herchek’s description of the complaint process.
Pisharody said he did not interpret Herchek’s message as a misstatement. He said he appreciates Herchek’s endorsement “and his confidence in my ability to serve our schools.”
Anderson said she believed the district substantiated Herchek’s comments and that he didn’t mischaracterize anything.
Beyond Herchek’s letter, Rainey said she is most concerned about endorsements in which committee chairs cite their elected roles.
Rainey said a chair represents their entire committee; signing a letter as a chair could make readers assume other committee members agree. She said elected officials should remain non-partisan and that chairs should make endorsements only in their capacity as citizens.
‘Bullet voting’
Anderson and Pisharody have hosted joint campaign events with Select Board hopefuls Elizabeth Akehurst-Moore and Joe Laurin. Each candidate insists they’re running their own campaign, and Pisharody has also held events with Williams. But some observers say a pattern of paired lawn signs and endorsements still show a race with Williams often the odd candidate out.
In a race like this, Williams said, a one-vote tactic “is a possible strategy.”
Talk of bullet voting has featured in previous town elections, including a 2016 School Committee campaign, as reported at the time by The Concord Journal.
Bullet voting is not illegal, but Pisharody says he sees no issue with publicly opposing it. “If you have two votes and you agree to cast only one, you’re basically giving up 50% of our power,” he said.
Pisharody told The Bridge he came to feel targeted after he heard from potential supporters of himself and Williams who reported getting emails urging them to vote only for Williams.
He said he hadn’t seen emails directly and declined to say who sent them, saying “I’m not going to put people on blast.”
In some cases, though, he said people who previously hosted his campaign events were now promoting a single Williams vote.
“The emails are not going out to folks who might be supporting Alexa and Michael,” Pisharody said. “It’s going out to folks who might be supporting Michael and me.”
Controversial graphic
One Thursday Instagram post from Concord Community for Great Schools didn’t mention Williams by name but told voters, “Don’t short-change democracy” as it argued against bullet voting.
The caption ran beside an image of four bullets.
CCGS later removed that image and replaced it with one that simply included the words “Bullet Vote.” In a note on their website, CCGS members acknowledged the change.
Members said they posted the graphic “in an effort to educate about this issue” but removed it “when we got feedback.”
Pisharody said he got a call from a CCGS representative on Saturday saying they had replaced their bullet graphic. He said he didn’t see the original image but said he appreciated “the responsiveness.” Anderson also said she hadn’t seen the graphic.
CCGS has ramped up its advocacy around this year’s town election but did not provide information about its members or leadership structure on its website as of Monday.
Concord resident Jeff Suarez said the group’s members included Casey Atkins, James Cohane, Serena Crosina, Joel Gagne, Wilson Kerr, Kate Peltz, Jessica Reed, himself, and Yumi Suarez. (Editor’s Note: Kerr is the Time Outdoors columnist for The Concord Bridge. He has no role in the newspaper’s election coverage.)
Suarez said CCGS has no chair or leader and makes decisions through a collaborative process. Though Herchek recently touted it as a source of information, Rainey said the group is partisan.
In an email on Monday, Suarez said the bullet graphic “was very clearly not promoting violence.” But he said “a number of the same people that are supporting Michael Williams and the bullet voting tactic made accusatory comments” and so CCGS removed the picture.
After this article was initially published online, and after an additional inquiry from The Bridge, Suarez clarified that CCGS is separate from a group of the same name that Gagne and Rankin started in 2021.
Williams’ reaction
Anderson and Pisharody’s supporters circulated a photo of a Williams campaign flyer with a handwritten bullet voting instruction to bolster their claims. “Vote for just 1 — Michael Williams,” the annotation said. Suarez also cited letters to the editor in The Bridge by writers who said they would vote only for Williams in the contest.
Asked whether his campaign is pushing bullet voting, Williams said his campaign literature doesn’t broach the topic and that he hasn’t suggested a single-vote strategy. But, he said, “I am sure my supporters do.”
Williams said he is encouraging people to vote “in any fashion they choose.”
He said the practice of casting one vote in a multi-seat race does not seem unprecedented in Concord. And he said the practice also has precedent among marginalized communities in the South during the Jim Crow era.
Overall, Williams said, “People are free to voice their opinions and use whatever graphics they deem appropriate.” He did criticize the CCGS imagery, saying “a bullet graphic as a part of political discourse is not only inappropriate, but it is potentially dangerous.”
Missing signs
Williams said he was also aware of reports of his campaign signs going missing and at least one instance of a sign that someone appeared to have run over with a car.
2024 School Committee candidate Liz Cobbs shared photos with The Bridge showing a damaged sign in a tire track. She said she was “disheartened” by this and other incidents.
“I would imagine that this isn’t likely to be a winning strategy for either the driver or anyone the driver supports,” Williams said.
Pisharody said he saw photos of Williams’ damaged sign. “If that was an act of vandalism,” he said, “there’s no place for it.”
Pisharody said some of his own signs have gone missing or been moved. But he said, “I don’t think there is anything sinister happening,” attributing the missing signs to things such as wind and melting snow. Even when some supporters reported repeatedly losing signs, he said, “I don’t attribute that to any vandalism.”
Anderson said she condemns “any form of disrespectful or harmful behavior, including damaging campaign signs.” She said she has had to re-stake many of her signs after they were torn out or kicked over.
Anderson also flagged incidents during campaign events where, she said, several people made obscene gestures and shouted profanity at her children and their friends while they held signs with her.
“I sincerely hope we can all move forward respectfully and constructively,” Anderson said.
Concord police Capt. Brian Goldman said the department had not received any reports of stolen or damaged signs as of Monday morning.
In addition to the School Committee race, this year’s town ballot includes a contested Select Board race with Akehurst-Moore, Laurin, Paul Boehm, and current board chair Mary Hartman jockeying for two seats.
Election day is Tuesday. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. If you haven’t returned your mail-in ballot, you must do so before polls close.
Christine M. Quirk contributed reporting.
April 7, 8:01 p.m.: This article has been updated.
