When it comes to running for School Board, it’s good to be a teacher. No less than five out of 11 candidates  — Annamarie Montanez, current Board Member Steve Zimmer, Isabel Vazquez, Abelardo Diaz, and Monica Ratliff — are listed on the ballot as “teacher” (whether they’re currently in the classroom or not). Two other candidates list their jobs...

The Coalition for School Reform reported over $1.2 million raised during the first 19 days of the year, according to campaign disclosure statements obtained from the City Ethics Commission (download document here). The Coalition is, which is supporting School Board candidates Monica Garcia, Kate Anderson and Antonio Sanchez, was also major force in the 2011 School...

Late on Friday, the Coalition for School Reform, an Independent Expenditure (IE) committee, filed paperwork indicating that it had spent its first money:  $45,457 for District 4 candidate Kate Anderson, $33,431 for District 6 candidate Antonio Sanchez and $29,238 for District 2 incumbent Monica Garcia. Most of the money went to The Feldman Group, which has...

A day later, the rest of those campaign contribution reports are in covering the first 19 days of the new year.  You’ll see some interesting ups and downs, but as we’ve told you before the big money is going to be coming in through independent expenditure (IE) committees, which are reported separately. In the Eastside’s...

School Board Steve Zimmer’s campaign fundraising has been less than stellar in terms of direct contributions, but it got a big boost this week courtesy of an Independent Expenditure (IE) from SEIU Local 99, which represents classified LAUSD employees. According to the latest expenditure reports, SEIU Local 99 has thrown down $68,688 to support Zimmer,...

There were roughly 100 audience members at Thursday night’s School Board candidate forum in District 4, which featured incumbent Steve Zimmer and challenger Kate Anderson. Over all, the event was polite and informative, showing off both candidates’ strengths, stylistic and substantive differences, and their support for Superintendent John Deasy. Anderson, with her twin daughters sitting...

Today’s just-arriving round of campaign contribution statements covers just the first 19 days of the year. (You can see a full list of city-wide candidates and their campaign contributions here.) Based on the reports that have been uploaded thus far, we can tell you that sitting School Board President and District 2 Board Member Monica...

Tomorrow night’s School Board candidate forum for the Westside’s District 4 could be a fascinating event, if for no other reason than it will feature just two candidates — challenger Kate Anderson and incumbent Steve Zimmer — going head to head.  (Jeneen Robinson is registered as a write-in candidate, and was not invited to participate)....

Iris Zuniga, who was running to replace School Board member Nury Martinez in the East Valley’s Distrct 6, has dropped out. She made the announcement on her campaign’s Facebook page earlier today: “Over the past several months, many of you have encouraged me to run for the Los Angeles school board to represent the school children...

We listed notable contributions to the Garcia campaign yesterday and updated contribution reports are due tomorrow, but while we’re waiting let’s take a look at the contributions to candidates from earlier this month: •District 6 School Board member Steve Zimmer has raised $27,688 from notable donors including former State Assemblymember Betsy Butler (who lost her bid for...