In Hillsborough, a school board campaign takes a spiteful turn

With the candidate qualifying deadline fast approaching, a school board contest in Hillsborough County progressed this month from low simmer to rapid boil.

Bonnie Lambert — a career educator with moderate views on issues such as spending and library books — is challenging District 3 incumbent Jessica Vaughn, whose positions are more progressive.

Lambert and Vaughn are Democrats. Their party has a slender board majority, even though the seats are officially nonpartisan.

But instead of congeniality in the interest of party unity, the two have spent the last nine months taking jabs at each other on social media. Things reached a low point on Thursday, when Lambert brandished an enlarged arrest photo of Vaughn from two decades ago at a political forum in Seminole Heights.

Both candidates contend they are the aggrieved parties. Both say they have shown restraint when baited by the other. Both have spoken, at times, of withdrawing from the race.

They filed to run on the same day: Aug. 9, 2023. Lambert said that, before she filed, she asked Vaughn to make her plans clear after Vaughn expressed indecision about serving a second term.

Vaughn said she struggled with the decision. Diagnosed with chronic leukemia, she worried about her health, her safety in a volatile political environment, and her ability to balance her duties on the board, a campaign and caring for her school-age child.

After both filed, she says Lambert started telling people that Vaughn was not committed to running.

Vaughn’s Facebook post on Aug. 13: “If you’re going to run against a beloved incumbent, don’t start your campaign off with dishonesty, misinformation, slander” and “gaslighting.”

Vaughn did not mention Lambert by name, which is usually the case. Both candidates generally use phrases such as “my opponent” in their messages. Sometimes a hashtag is included, such as Vaughn’s “#imlookingatyouBL.”

The picture Lambert displayed on Thursday shows Vaughn in 2000 after she was arrested in a bad check case. Records show Vaughn pleaded guilty and adjudication was withheld, avoiding a formal conviction. She blamed the incident on a troubled marriage that has since ended.

Lambert has made indirect references to the bad check case in the past. Throughout the campaign, she urged all candidates to submit to background checks.

Lambert’s own background includes a bankruptcy case and two foreclosures. She told the Tampa Bay Times that her financial problems were related to a domestic violence situation.

Her story is not parallel to Vaughn’s, she said, because “I was not arrested.”

To which Vaughn responded: “That’s privilege.”

At stake is a chance to represent Carrollwood and Lutz, New Tampa, and parts of East Hillsborough. The field includes one other Democrat, retired educator Angela Fullwood, and one Republican, Myosha Powell.

It is not the only Hillsborough race that is fraught with conflict. In northwest Hillsborough’s District 1, one of two Republican candidates has alleged attempted “bribery” to get her to step aside.

Vaughn and Lambert have spent time as teachers. Vaughn worked briefly in private and public schools but spent most of her career as a substitute teacher. She said she chose that path to accommodate the needs of her child, who is on the autism spectrum.

Lambert has held teaching, counseling and district-level jobs in a career spanning more than three decades. She won awards for her work in Hillsborough and Miami-Dade counties, she said. In a clear snub aimed at Vaughn, she described herself at the Seminole Heights event as “a real teacher.”

The two have accused each other of exaggerating their work experience.

But that’s not where the mudslinging ends.

At the event last Thursday, Lambert said she had considered leaving the race because of bullying and harassment. In a later conversation with the Times, she described being pushed, followed and approached in a lewd manner by people she described as Vaughn supporters.

Vaughn said that if anyone has pushed or followed Lambert, she has neither knowledge nor control of that activity.

There also was a dust-up after the event concerning audience members who wore Lambert campaign T-shirts. The group cheered so loudly and so often that incumbent panelist Lynn Gray said, “Remind me to get a cheering squad next time I do this.”

Later in the evening, a teacher told Vaughn she overheard one supporter say they were paid to wear the Lambert shirts. Vaughn, the following morning, posted: “If you’re going to actually pay people to show up in your campaign shirts and pretend to be supporters, ask them not to openly talk about it during the event. It’s a bad look.”

Lambert, on her page, said of Vaughn’s accusation, “How sick is that?” Then one of Lambert’s supporters chimed in that she had a group of “mentees” with her who were wearing the shirts.

Vaughn said Lambert’s reaction to the T-shirt wearers was typical and that Lambert is guilty of much of the behavior she attributes to Vaughn. “You can’t say you’re being bullied, and then call me a liar and a fraud and a sick person for just saying what’s true,” Vaughn said.

As for displaying the arrest photo, Lambert said, “I did that on purpose because they asked me what I’m going to do to protect children against bullying, and we have a board member who’s openly bullying. How much can a human being take? How much can you push me before I show your freaking mug shot?”

Vaughn responded to the display with a quip about information that she said is missing from Lambert’s campaign finance forms.

Vaughn and Lambert say the feud is taxing and distressing. Both say they do not deserve this treatment as they work to serve the community and its children.

Mused Vaughn: “I don’t even have the Republicans going after me like this.”