Over the weekend, we spent time reviewing the campaign finance forms for both slates of candidates for five seats on the Colonial School Board. You can view the complete analysis here.

One donation jumped out at us and not for the usual reason (seeking influence).

As the slate of endorsed Democrats running under the Colonial Democrats for School Board banner pointed out in a mailer, one of the members of the other slate, Protecting Colonial’s Future, is tangled up in the almost decade long Wawa drama in Conshohocken.

Incumbent Susan Moore, one of the members of the Protecting Colonial’s Future slate of candidates, is married to one of two brothers who own the former Moore Chevrolet property where a developer is trying to build a Wawa.

The Wawa issue has been contentious and there are at least three lawsuits currently filed surrounding it. There are two appeals filed by the developer contesting decisions by Conshohocken’s Borough Council (a previous council) and the Zoning Hearing Board. An additional appeal was filed when the current Borough Council passed an ordinance that would allow the Wawa. That appeal resulted in the Zoning Hearing Board declaring the ordinance invalid and the developer and Borough Council appealed that decision. While the Moores do have an agreement of sale with the developer who hopes to build a Wawa, no lawsuits directly involve the Moores.

One of the neighboring property owners is Julian Miraglia, who has spoken out against the Wawa during several meetings/hearings and was a party to the successful appeal of the ordinance adopted by Borough Council.

The donation that I referred to at the beginning of the article was $500 from Miraglia to Protecting Colonial’s Future. That is Susan Moore’s campaign.

How nice is that! Someone can disagree with someone on an issue and still support that person’s political campaign.

That is exactly the spirit that is supposed to guide school board elections. Disagreement, politics, etc, are supposed to be set aside for the good of the children. That is why all candidates have the opportunity to qualify to appear on the ballots of both parties.

You know what happens if you are a local elected official in the Democratic Party and disagree with the party on an issue? You get blackballed and they run someone against you.

The election is tomorrow (Tuesday, May 21st). MoreThanTheCurve.com’s election guide can be found here.