Former Springfield Mayor Bob Stephens called Truth in Politics a “horribly mismanaged group” and said its leader should remove an attack ad from local airwaves that targets Charles Taylor, a Springfield Public Schools board member who is running for re-election on April 5.
Stephens said the ad plays on two “ultra-conservative dog whistles” — critical race theory and test scores — to tarnish Taylor’s reputation and to support board candidates Steve Makoski and Kelly Byrne. Taylor has said he does not support teaching CRT in Springfield’s public school system.
“The ad is not where Springfield needs to be on a political level,” Stephens said. “It's not a good look for any campaign, but especially a local race, where we all have to live together and work together and try to solve problems together.”
Stephens, who served as mayor from 2009 to 2017, spoke as a member of the Vote417 political PAC. The group was created last year to support candidates and causes that advocate for voting rights and against voter suppression in southwest Missouri. In calling for the ad to be removed, Stephens singled out Curtis Jared, the local developer listed as president and a director of Truth in Politics in Missouri Secretary of State filings.
“President Reagan famously said, ‘Mr. Gorbachev take down this wall,'” Stephens said at a press event. “Today I'm saying, ‘Mr. Jared, take down this ad.’ I further call on both Kelly Byrne and Steve Makoski to condemn and repudiate this ad and request that the Truth in Politics group stop funding this misleading commercial.”
Byrne and Makoski have both distanced themselves from the ad, saying that they had no involvement with its creation. A post on Makoski’s campaign Facebook page reminds supporters that the ad “does NOT include ‘Paid For By Makoski For SPS, Treasurer Steve Helms,’ has not been approved by me and is not associated with my campaign.” Byrne has said he wished the ad had not used an image of his family.
Byrne emailed the Daily Citizen to say that he wouldn’t comment on the press conference, since he did not attend it. But he pointed to a statement he made to the Springfield News Leader article in which he said that the creators of the commercial should pull it.
“I believe that was a clear statement that should be reported on in contrast to anyone claiming I have failed to do so,” Byrne wrote in the email. “I don't know if they are uninformed or just asking the same question which has already been answered. This is not my commercial. I was not consulted. I have no control over it.”
Vote417 members announced that they were endorsing Taylor during the press conference. The nonpartisan school board election had not been on Vote417’s radar, the group treasurer Jacob Brower said, but two things happened that led Vote417 to make an endorsement. One was the attack ad. The other was Taylor’s response to a Springfield News-Leader question about banning books in schools: “I will say, in the broadest possible sense, that our democracy has more to fear from too few ideas than from too many and when I hear of discussions of restricting ideas or restricting literature from our classrooms, I get very, very nervous.”
Brower said he echoed Stephens’ call to take down the ad. He added that if Truth and Politics wanted to participate in the local race, it should run ads that explain why the group is in favor of candidates it supports, and not “make up lies and smears about somebody that you oppose.”
Truth in Politics stands by the ad, according to a statement the group sent to the News-Leader on Tuesday afternoon. The Daily Citizen has requested comment from Truth in Politics.
Reached by phone after the event, Taylor said he wasn’t aware that the group would be endorsing him, and added that he welcomes support from groups and people “who believe that my positions align with theirs, or my values align with theirs.” While he said he will have to wait until election day to see if the negative campaigning impacts his chances one way or another, Taylor said he’s experienced an uptick in people he didn’t know asking him for campaign yard signs or texting him to offer support. He said, “I honestly have been heartened by the response in the wake of the negative ads.”
