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UTLA-PACE Spends Undisclosed Amount for Zimmer
LA School Report has learned that the teachers union’s political arm, UTLA-PACE, has sent a direct mail piece on behalf of a Westside District 4 candidate, Steve Zimmer, in what appears to be its first election expenditure. The mailer is notable because UTLA-PACE is expected to spend big on behalf of UTLA-backed school board candidates, but...
By Samantha Oltman | February 8, 2013
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Coalition, SEIU, County Fed Spend on Candidates
With the March 5 election day now less than a month away, the Coalition for School Reform, the LA County Federation of Labor, and the Local 99 branch of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have each kicked their LAUSD School Board spending up a notch, but UTLA-PACE — a major player in past elections...
By Samantha Oltman | February 6, 2013
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Campaign Coffers: What’s UTLA Going to Do With Its Money?
According to new documents unearthed by LA School Report (but not otherwise available online), the political action arm of United Teachers Los Angeles, called UTLA-PACE, has amassed a war chest of $671,000 and begun spending funds on polling and consulting. However, UTLA-PACE has yet to deem any of its campaign spending as “independent expenditures,” which must be...
By Samantha Oltman | February 1, 2013
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Different Rules for UTLA-PACE
The latest campaign and independent expenditure (IE) committee disclosures are being released today, January 24th, but you won’t find anything there from one of the city’s most powerful IE committees, UTLA-PACE. Why not? It’s because there are two different types of IE committees functioning in city-wide and LAUSD Board races — ‘general purpose committees,’ and...
By Samantha Oltman | January 24, 2013
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Contributions / Spending Calendar*
Wondering how to track all the money flowing into and out of the different campaigns for School Board and the independent expenditure (IE) committees that support them? It’s still not as easy to figure out as it might be — but we’re here to help. The most up-to-date filing schedule can be found here, on...
By Samantha Oltman | January 23, 2013
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Update: Outside Money Pouring In
Semi-annual financial disclosure forms for independent expenditure (IE) committees aren’t due to the City Ethics Commission until January 31. However, some information can be obtained from the City Ethics Commission in between these reports. For example, the Coalition for School Reform — a group of advocates including (but not limited to) charter school proponents — raised...
By Hillel Aron | January 14, 2013
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UTLA-PACE’s Robust Campaign Chest
As the 2013 race for three LAUSD School Board seats heats up, so will the political fundraising that pays for the candidates’ campaigns. Just as they have in recent elections, independent expenditure (IE) committees are again likely to eclipse direct donations to candidates’ campaigns. At least one IE committee is ahead of the game: UTLA-PACE,...
By Samantha Oltman | December 5, 2012
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Election ’13: Undisclosed Donors?
Independent expenditure (IE) committees are poised to once again spend millions in the upcoming March 2013 LAUSD Board election, but despite city disclosure laws, the information available to the public is limited and uneven. One of the main reasons is that while the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission requires IE committees to disclose all contributions,...
By Samantha Oltman | November 16, 2012
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Dark Money Dominates LAUSD Elections
Until recently, millions of dollars of special interest money flowed directly to candidates for their own campaigns (shown in red). However, the March election for three LAUSD Board seats promises to be dominated by a torrent of outside money from independent expenditure committees (IEs) – much the way super PACs have eclipsed campaign contributions at the...
By Samantha Oltman | October 3, 2012