Clean sweep for school board incumbents in Los Angeles and Kansas primaries
March 4, 2014
By Abbey Smith
All the incumbents running in school board primary elections in California and Kansas on March 3, 2015, either advanced to the general election or won re-election to their seats outright. In the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education election, incumbents Tamar Galatzan, Bennett Kayser and Richard A. Vladovic from Districts 3, 5 and 7, respectively, won a spot in the general election on May 19, 2015. Challengers Scott Mark Schmerelson, Ref Rodriguez and Lydia Gutierrez also advanced to the general election. District 1 incumbent George J. McKenna III ran unopposed in the primary and won re-election to his seat.[1]
In Kansas, an incumbent and a former officeholder will be advancing to the Lawrence Public Schools general election on April 7, 2015. Incumbent Marcel Harmon and Mary Loveland, who has held a seat on the board twice before, defeated Kelly Spurgeon and Norine Spears in the race for the two-year term.[2]
No incumbents ran in the primary election for the at-large Position 7 seat on the Olathe Public Schools Board of Education. Candidates Joe Beveridge and Robyn Essex defeated Scott Enge and Elizabeth Howerton to move on to the general election on April 7, 2015.[3]
All three districts with seats up for primary election on March 3, 2015, could see changes to their future elections. A ballot measure to line up school board elections with state elections in even-numbered years was approved by Los Angeles voters in this primary election. Rather than being up for re-election in the spring of 2019, the winners of the general election for the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education will now be up for re-election in the fall of 2020.[1][4][5]
In Kansas, Senate Bill 171 was introduced to the Ethics, Elections and Local Government Committee in February 2015. If passed, the bill would move school board elections in the state to be held in November of even-numbered years. The bill would also require school board candidates to declare party affiliations.[6]
Spotlight: Los Angeles Unified School District
The weeks leading up to the primary election have been contentious for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Outside of the election, the district has been fighting a repeal of its teacher evaluation system, unable to agree on a new contract with United Teachers Los Angeles and under a federal grand jury investigation due to a canceled iPad program. The election has set a teachers PAC against a charter schools PAC in District 5, and in District 3, multiple ethics complaints were filed against incumbent Tamar Galatzan.
District 3 challengers Filiberto Gonzalez and Carl J. Petersen both filed ethics complaints against Galatzan in the week before the election. Gonzalez filed a complaint with the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission charging that Galatzan improperly used her role as a school board member in her campaign. Petersen filed the same charges but with the Los Angeles Unified’s Office of the Inspector General. Petersen filed another complaint with the City Ethics Commission, charging that Galatzan did not disclose her campaign finances in a timely manner. No action on the complaints was made before the primary election. Neither Gonzalez nor Petersen garnered enough votes to move on to the general election. They were defeated by Galatzan and challenger Scott Mark Schmerelson.[1][7][8]
Winners of the District 5 primary election, incumbent Bennett Kayser and challenger Ref Rodriguez, were both the targets of negative campaign fliers. Though neither candidate attacked the other through such means, the political action committees (PACs) that endorsed them did. A PAC associated with the California Charter Schools Association released a campaign flier in January 2015 saying that Kayser had not acted in the best interests of Latino children during his time on the board. A PAC associated with United Teachers Los Angeles then released a campaign flier alleging that Rodriguez had not disclosed financial information as he was required to by law in February 2015. Those fliers were then followed up by a 30-second television ad that attacked Kayser. All the candidates endorsed by the California Charter Schools Association renounced the initial flier, and the television ad garnered criticism nationwide.[9][10][11]
Candidates
Note: An (i) next to a candidate's name indicates incumbent status.
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Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Los Angeles City Clerk, “Election Night Results (Unofficial), March 3, 2015,” accessed March 4, 2015
- ↑ Douglas County, Kansas, “Online Election Results (unofficial),” accessed March 3, 2015
- ↑ Johnson County Election Office, “Election Summary Report 2015 Spring Primary,” accessed March 3, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "MEASURES APPEARING ON THE BALLOT," accessed February 20, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles Daily News, "Los Angeles ballot measures have benefits for City Hall politicians," February 14, 2015
- ↑ Lawrence Journal-World, "Lawrence school board opposes moving local elections to November," February 9, 2015
- ↑ LA School Report, "Gonzalez files complaint with City Ethics against Galatzan campaign," February 24, 2015
- ↑ LA School Report, “Candidate files complaints with LAUSD, city ethics against Galatzan,” March 2, 2015
- ↑ LA School Report, "Charter group drawing more fire for ‘racist’ flier on Kayser," February 2, 2015
- ↑ LA School Report, "PAC attack: New mailer hits Kayser challenger for missing paperwork," February 11, 2015
- ↑ LA School Report, "In District 5 board race, the Kayser hits just keep on coming," February 17, 2015
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