Reno, Nevada – When Beth Smith joined the Washoe County School Board, she expected a rigorous debate. But he did not anticipate the level of vitriol and toxicity more commonly associated with it higher office in Washingtoninstead of his hometown in Nevada.
“What you don’t expect is harassment and intimidation and attacks on you, constant screaming, swearing messages, that people know where you live, where your kids go to school,” Smith told CBS News in an interview for “Eyes on America.” “I need to talk to my kids… no one is coming in the door, the front door is still locked.”
And Smith is not alone. A new study from Princeton University found harassment and threats against local officials increased by 55% in the past two years. The study found that Democrats and Republicans reported similar amounts of hostility, but women and people of color typically bore the brunt of the hostility.
have federal offices like senators and members of Congress, for better or worse, are used to disruption, and often have the security infrastructure to deal with it. But local officials, who are often closest to the communities and constituents they serve, are more vulnerable.
“They’re closer … They shop at the same grocery store, their kids go to the same school, and that makes them part of the front lines of this democracy, but it also puts them at a higher risk,” Shannon Hiller said. , executive director of the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University who conducted the study.
Hiller describes much of the hostility at the local level as “legal but evil,” noting that harassment — like doxing, stalking or general threats — isn’t necessarily illegal, but can have a negative impact on how local officials can engage. democracy.
“Only a small percentage of this behavior will actually have law enforcement or legal solutions,” said Hiller, “but it can be effective in pushing people out of public service, closing the space for engagement and dialogue and really. disrupting the democratic process at the most local level.”
The data can also be a warning. “This persistent and rising level of threats and harassment may be an early warning sign that there is a risk of more serious violence, including physical violence,” Hiller said.
But it can also be successful on its own – not disincentivizing public meetings, posting on social media, or even running for office. Nearly 40% of officials surveyed said they could not vote again.
A CBS News investigation gathered video evidence of harassment against local officials across the country, from city managers and mayors, to clerks and county commissioners. For example, in Taylor County, Texas, last year, a man protested in front of the city manager’s house with a gun in the back of a truck pointed at the house. According to a video posted on Facebook, the man said: “These are the people who are bothering us as citizens,” before police asked him to point the gun at the officer’s house.
In 2022, the county clerk in Erie, Pennsylvania, reported that an unknown person had thrown a partial pipe bomb into his family’s home while they were sleeping, along with a message saying that the next pipe bomb would go off, according to local reports.
Earlier this year, the Texas mayor received a threatening package containing a noose and a note that read, “get out of the race now.” These are just a few examples of more than 900 incidents reported in the two years between 2022 and 2024 analyzed by the Bridging Divides Initiative.
And in Washoe County, recent elections have seen a spike in harassment of local officials. In 2022, two candidates for county commission and mayor of Reno found GPS trackers in their cars. CBS News obtained a video of police questioning a private investigator who wouldn’t say who hired him but admitted the device was placed for “political” reasons.
Allegations have centered on Robert Beadles, a wealthy local political activist. Beadles and the PAC spent thousands of dollars on private investigators and investigative services during the time the politicians were under surveillance. He also wrote a blog post, now taken down, that said, “We chose to use professional services to dig up the allegations of many people across the county and state.”
When reached for comment, Beadles denied any involvement in monitoring local politicians. Beadles, who says he made his money in cryptocurrency and real estate, has become a known agitator in Washoe. In 2021, he attended a school board meeting and announced that he would use his financial resources to drive board members out of office.
“God bless me. I have as ***-ton of money,” he said. “And I will do everything in my power to get rid of you all.”
Beadles has focused his anger on Smith, a school board member. He wrote a blog post detailing his painful divorce, and posted a photo of himself dressed as the grim reaper — an image, Smith said, meant to fuel his new battle with cancer.
“Recently, I was faced with mortality when I had cancer, and I had to look at my children and tell them there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to see them grow up,” Smith said. “So, when I saw the messaging with the image of death…, I knew it was part of their attack so I stopped doing this work.”
When asked about this and other claims of harassment, Beadles mocked those who made the complaints and said they were “like little sissies.”
“If they’re running for office, and they can’t take the truth about them in any light, … maybe they shouldn’t be running for office,” he told CBS News.
In Washoe, the school board has become a center of political discontent, as it has in other parts of the state. Washoe County GOP Chairman Bruce Parks said the party is prioritizing school board races because “that has a ripple effect on our entire community.”
When asked about the tactics used by Beadles, who serves on the Washoe GOP executive committee, Parks suggested they were effective.
“If you want to bring light to something, do you just whisper information to people or do you want to get their attention?
Even as the political climate in Washoe continues to heat up, Smith says he’s staying put: “I beat cancer and I’m definitely not going to stop because of this.”
Caitlin Huey-Burns
