ROCHESTER — A political action committee that supported several winning candidates in last year’s town election is once again putting its weight behind — and against — candidates running for local and regional school committee seats in Rochester. 

Rochester Citizens for Responsible Government, an independent expenditure political action committee founded in 2023 by Rochester resident Jacqueline Eckert, has spent $11,364.16 to send six direct mailers to Rochester voters since May 6, according to documents filed with the town. 

Payments were made to KAP Strategies, a Texas-based campaign consulting firm that employs partners who have backgrounds working with Republican candidates for local, state and national office. 

Two mailers opposed Matthew Monteiro, running for reelection to the Old Rochester Regional School Committee; Jason Chisholm, running for reelection to Rochester Memorial School Committee; and Robin Rounseville, running for reelection to Rochester Memorial School Committee.

One mailer gave the Old Rochester Regional School District a failing report card claiming the district had low enrollment, “out of control” spending and “misplaced” academic priorities. The mailer attributed these issues to the incumbent candidates.

The other mailer included attacks against Monteiro, Chisholm and Rounseville.

Monteiro said the mailer’s claim that he voted to raise Rochester residents’ taxes through a proposition 2 1/2 override that would cost voters $19 million was “misleading.”

According to Monteiro, he did vote to ask Town Meeting voters in Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester to authorize that the School Department use $12 million of debt for facilities improvements. He later voted to rescind that Town Meeting item in an Old Rochester Regional School Committee meeting, he said. 

Monteiro added that he seconded a vote to indefinitely table the ask at Rochester’s Town Meeting. 

“I don’t think it’s about me,” said Monteiro. “I think it's about them trying to push a particular agenda and get candidates who will follow that agenda and do their bidding.”

He claimed that information about the district’s enrollment, spending and academic performance is also misleading or out of context. 

“Have more students decided to leave [Old Rochester] and go to other schools proportionally to the number of students in town? … I don’t think that’s true at all,” said Monteiro. “That’s not what I’ve heard from any principals when we talk about student enrollment.”

Four mailers supported Matthew Bache, running for Rochester Memorial School Committee; Stacie Noble Shriver, running for Old Rochester Regional School Committee; and Joshua Trombly, running for Rochester Memorial School Committee. 

For Bache, who said he is running as an independent, the mailers brought mixed feelings. 

“I thought, ‘Wow, someone heard what I had to say and wrote stuff and spent their own money,’” he said. “But then when I thought about it … I don’t really know how I feel about it.”

But according to Bache, he “did not appreciate” the negative ads directed toward some of his opponents. 

Independent expenditure political action committees, also known as Super PACs, exist “for the purpose of making … expenditures to support or oppose a candidate without coordinating with that candidate or campaign,” said Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance spokesperson Jason Tait in a 2023 interview.

According to Bache, he has had no interactions with anyone from Rochester Citizens for Responsible Government. 

“I don’t know what they stand for … and I can’t talk to them, because if I talk to them I’ll get in trouble,” he said.

Rochester Citizens for Responsible Government was formed with the purpose of participating in the “electoral process in Rochester, MA and surrounding communities,” according to the group’s statement of organization.

Eckert serves as chair and treasurer of the political action committee, according to documents filed with the town. 

Last year, the committee saw two $10,000 donations from Eckert herself. This year, the committee saw one $20,000 donation from Eckert. There have been no reported contributions to Rochester Citizens for Responsible Government from anyone but Eckert.

Last year, the committee spent nearly $10,000 supporting Rochester Select Board candidate Adam Murphy, Rochester Memorial School committee candidate Greg Hardy and incumbent Anne Fernandes, and Old Rochester Regional School Committee incumbent Joe Pires.

It also spent around $2,000 opposing former Rochester Select Board member Greenwood Hartley’s reelection bid. 

Pires and Fernandes both retained their seats and Murphy defeated Hartley.

Rochester voters go to the polls at the Rochester Council on Aging on Wednesday, May 22 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. For Rochester election results, visit sippicanweektoday.com after the polls close.