Following up on a comment made at the September Board meeting, LAUSD Board Member Bennett Kayser plans on introducing a resolution at Tuesday’s upcoming board meeting that would force board members to “automatically recuse themselves from voting on a charter contract if they have received campaign contributions six months prior to the vote.” Also on...

A slightly deeper look into last week’s campaign fundraising filings for Board President Monica Garcia reveals not more only the charter school support that we’ve reported previously but also at least two members of the Hollywood elite: David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, each of whom gave the $1,000 maximum. Over all, Garcia brought in just over $75,000 during the...

You’ve probably never heard of Mike Antonucci, but you might be glad — or angry — that there’s someone like him around. Described by Education Week as “the nation’s leading observer — and critic — of the two national teachers’ unions and their affiliates,” Antonucci writes an insider blog called Education Intelligence Agency that tracks teachers union revenues, membership, campaign spending,...

As we told you yesterday, the quarterly fundraising reports for city elections including LAUSD board members just came in. Monica Garcia, the sitting Board president, raised just over $75,000 in the last three months, bringing her fundraising total to $174,288. Of that, she’s spent $43,959, over half of which went to her campaign consultant, Charlotte Dobbs....

The rise of outside money in LAUSD board elections has coincided with a spate of negative campaign advertising in recent elections. It’s a tactic that nobody claims to enjoy, but it seems to work. So it’s likely the upcoming campaigns leading to the March LAUSD election will continue the trend. “Welcome to the brave new...

Today is the latest deadline for Board candidates to file campaign finance documents with the City Ethics Commission.  The quarterly reports will tell us how much money candidates for city offices raised between July 1 and September 30. As you may recall, there are three spots being contested — currently held by Board members Steve...

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...

Yesterday, the CTA dropped another $6.9 million into the fight against Proposition 32, which would, among other things, prohibit unions from taking money automatically deducted from their members’ paychecks and spending it on political activity. (See LA Times:  Teachers union gives another $6.9 million to Prop. 32 fight.) “This is a huge priority for us,...