Political action committees donate thousands in Lake Travis school board races

Candidates and political action committees have spent more than $56,000 on two Lake Travis school board races between Jan. 1 and March 25, according to campaign finance data.

The races pit incumbents against challengers at a time when the Lake Travis community is grappling with rapid growth, a tight budget and discussions about book challenge policies.

Campaign spending on local school board races has grown in Texas since the pandemic, when the once hyperlocal elections became battlegrounds for COVID-19 policies and statewide education policy such as book challenges.

In Lake Travis, all four candidates have said they remain focused on the students.

Place 1 incumbent Phillip Davis, a Texas State University professor, is running to keep his seat against challenger Craig Cancienne, an executive at a software technology company.

In the Place 2 race, substitute teacher Christy Comfort is challenging incumbent Lauren White, a former teacher.

The school district is facing challenges related to growth and budget deficits. District voters in 2022 approved a $609.2 million bond package to build a second high school and last year passed a $143 million bond measure to build athletic facilities at the new school.

All four candidates, however, have noted that getting more school funding from the state is key. Lake Travis is facing an almost $6.7 million deficit this year, one of many districts statewide predicting that expenses will outweigh revenue.

Lake Travis Families PAC, which has been active since 2021, has endorsed Cancienne and Comfort, the challengers.

As of March 25, the latest date for which campaign finance data is available, the PAC had raised $18,824.41 and spent $27,431.92 to support Cancienne and Comfort, according to finance records.

The two candidates align with the PAC’s values of safe schools, academic excellence and maintaining age-appropriate materials in the classroom, said Krystle Alvarado, a committee co-founder.

The PAC emerged from the pandemic when some parents became frustrated with masking and school closure policies, she said. Since then, the PAC has been a vehicle to support school board candidates, she said.

“That's the only way to legally take funds from the community and also engage in telling people who to vote for and who to support,” Alvarado said.

The Families PAC’s spending is mirrored by another PAC that endorsed Davis and White, the incumbents.

The Lake Travis Voices for Progress PAC formed in 2023 but has existed as an LLC since 2016, president Jennifer Montgomery said.

This election is important to the Voices PAC because if both challengers prevail, every sitting board member will have been endorsed by the Families PAC, she said.

“We definitely understand that and feel it’s very important for the community as well as local democracy that we have multiple viewpoints on the school board,” Montgomery said.

All four candidates have insisted that they’re keeping their campaigns separate from those of the PACs.

To Comfort, the Lake Travis Families PAC provides a support system.

“To me, it’s just a group of motivated moms that want to do best for their community,” Comfort said.

Cancienne said he doesn’t find it particularly unusual anymore for local PACs to take part in funding school board campaigns.

“It’s about getting out the vote and about getting a network of people to understand what we stand for,” Cancienne said.

The two incumbents, however, said they're concerned that the PACs have become involved in the races.

Some of the PAC-driven ads that lean into messaging around conservative values stray toward politics, White said.

“What’s coming out lately has been a lot more partisan,” White said. “It’s unfortunate because the work is really not partisan.”

Davis said he hopes voters will think more about the candidates' expertise instead of political leanings. National or state issues, such as age-appropriateness of curriculum, draw attention away from specific local issues in Lake Travis, he said.

“When we’re talking about public schools and we’re talking about kids, the emphasis should be on the kids,” Davis said.

Early voting will end April 30. Election day is May 4.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: PACs donate thousands in Lake Travis school board races