She’s a dangerous hypocrite, but Moms for Liberty co-founder shouldn’t have to leave school board | Opinion

Being a hypocrite and preaching family values while having sexual threesomes aren’t necessarily disqualifiers from holding elected office.

Bridget Ziegler helped turn Florida against LGBTQ kids and transform schools into battlegrounds for culture wars. As a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, she’s done a lot of harm as a standard bearer for laws Florida Republicans have pushed to silence teachers on what they can say about race, sexual orientation and gender identity. She’s gleefully joined the so-called “parental rights” movement that accuses schools of teaching an “anti-American curriculum” and scares voters with boogeyman terms like “critical race theory.”

Husband accused

Ziegler is not entitled to any empathy now that she’s been roped into a sex scandal after a woman accused her husband, the chair of the Republican Party of Florida, of rape.

Ziegler, a vocal supporter of the parental-rights law known as “Don’t say gay,” has told investigators that she and her husband had sex with the alleged victim over a year ago. She has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Her husband, who said the encounter with the woman was consensual, has been under investigation since October, but has not been charged.

On Tuesday, the Sarasota County School Board, where Ziegler has served since 2014, voted to ask her to resign — she was the only one who voted in opposition. The resolution requested her to voluntarily leave office to avoid an “irreparably harmful distraction to the School Board’s ability to fulfill its critical constitutional mission of operating, controlling and supervising the various Sarasota County public schools.”

That puts us in the awkward position to say that pressuring Ziegler to step down — when she has not been accused of any crimes — goes against democratic principles. Indeed, the allegation of rape against her husband and the apparent insincerity of her purported moral values are big distractions for the Sarasota School Board. Democracy is often messy, but that does not entitle those who are appalled by the Zieglers’ conduct — or the policies she’s promoted — to demand she abdicate an elected position. Ziegler has responded that she plans to stay put. Voters are the ones who should hold her accountable.

Preaching morality

The School Board has no authority to remove her. Under the law, only the governor can suspend elected officials for “malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, habitual drunkenness, incompetence or permanent inability to perform official duties.” That is not Ziegler’s case. Her misdeeds fall in the category of hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness, which is not uncommon for politicians who like to preach about morality. Unless Ziegler is implicated in the ongoing criminal investigation, she should not have to take the fall for her husband’s alleged actions and should resign based on her own volition.

The salaciousness of this scandal makes it easy to ask for someone’s head. Gov. Ron DeSantis has made the reasonable case that Christian Ziegler should step down from the Republican Party — he, is, after all, the target of a criminal investigation involving a heinous alleged crime. But Democrats who are rejoicing is Bridget Ziegler’s downfall, and conservatives who are hoping she will fade away into obscurity, should know that calling for her resignation is a double-edged sword that might swing their way one day.

Editor’s note: This editorial has been updated to reflect the Sarasota County School Board’s vote.

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This story was originally published December 12, 2023 at 1:45 PM.