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Torrance Unified School District elections (2015)
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Two seats on the Torrance Unified School District Board of Education were up for general election on November 3, 2015.[1][2] The seats held by incumbents Don Lee and Terry Ragins were on the ballot.[3] The two incumbents defeated challengers G. Rick Marshall and Clint Andrew Paulson.[4][5]
See how this race compared to past school board elections in both the district and the state in the "Election trends" section. Challengers Paulson and Marshall participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. To read their responses, check out the "Ballotpedia survey responses" section.
About the district
Torrance Unified School District is located in Los Angeles County in southwestern California. The county seat is Los Angeles.[6] Los Angeles County was home to 10,116,705 residents in 2014, according to the United States Census Bureau.[7] During the 2012-2013 school year, Torrance Unified School District was the 52nd-largest school district by enrollment in California and served 24,324 students.[8]
Demographics
Los Angeles County underperformed compared to the rest of California in terms of higher education achievement in 2013. The United States Census Bureau found that 29.7 percent of county residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree, compared to 30.7 percent for California as a whole. The median household income for Los Angeles County was $55,909, compared to $61,094 for the entire state. The percentage of people below poverty level was 17.8 percent, compared to 15.9 percent statewide.[7]
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Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.
Voter and candidate information
The Torrance Unified Board of Education consists of five members elected at-large to four-year terms. Board members are elected on a staggered basis every November of odd-numbered years. There are no primary elections. Three seats were up for election on November 5, 2013, and two seats were on the ballot on November 3, 2015.[1][3]
School board candidates had to be at least 18 years old, residents of the school district and qualified voters. They could not be employees of the school district while in office.[10] To get on the ballot, candidates had to file their declaration of candidacy with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk by August 7, 2015.[11]
To vote in this election, residents of the district had to register by October 19, 2015. Voters could cast vote-by-mail ballots from October 24, 2015, through Election Day.[11] Photo identification was not required to vote in California.
Elections
2015
Candidates
At-large
Don Lee 
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Terry Ragins
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| G. Rick Marshall | Clint Andrew Paulson | ||
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Election results
| Torrance Unified School District, At-large, General Election, 2015 | ||
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| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Don Lee Incumbent |
33.3% | 5,846 |
| Terry Ragins Incumbent |
31.5% | 5,534 |
| G. Rick Marshall | 19.7% | 3,458 |
| Clint Andrew Paulson | 15.5% | 2,720 |
| Total Votes | 17,558 | |
| Source: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "NOVEMBER 03, 2015 - LOCAL AND MUNICIPAL CONSOLIDATED ELECTIONS: Final Official Election Returns," accessed November 24, 2015 | ||
Endorsements
Incumbent Terry Ragins received endorsements from the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, the Torrance Democratic Club, SEIU Local 99 and the Torrance Teachers Association.[12][13][14][15][16] Challengers G. Rick Marshall and Clint Andrew Paulson were endorsed by The Huey Report.[17]
Ragins and fellow incumbent Don Lee received endorsements from all of the members of the Torrance City Council and all of the members of the Torrance Unified School Board.[16][18]
Campaign finance
At the time of this election, the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk did not publish school board candidate campaign finance reports online. Ballotpedia staffers requested this information, but the only free method of viewing the files was at their office.
The Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk targeted the end of 2018 to make school board candidate campaign finance reports available online for free. From that point forward, Ballotpedia began including campaign finance data for Los Angeles County school board candidates.[19][20][21]
Campaign finance reporting requirements in California vary depending on how much money candidates spend or raise. For candidates planning to raise or spend less than $1,000, an Officeholder and Candidate Campaign Statement Short Form (Form 470) must be filed with their county or city elections office. If candidates plan to spend up to $1,000, including their own funds, they must also file a Candidate Intention Statement (Form 501). "If a candidate does not raise any money and personal funds are used only to pay filing or ballot statement fees, the candidate is not required to file the Form 501," according to the Fair Political Practices Commission. If candidates raise money outside of their own funds, a separate campaign bank account must be established.[22]
Candidates raising or spending more than $1,000, including their personal funds, must file a Candidate Intention Statement (Form 501), file a Statement of Organization (Form 410) and establish a separate bank account for campaign funds. They must then file Recipient Committee Campaign Statements (Form 460) to disclose their contributions and expenditures throughout their campaigns. If they receive more than $1,000 from a single source within 90 days of the election, they must file a 24-hour Contribution Report (Form 497).[22]
If you have any information regarding the campaign finance disclosures in this race, please contact the school board elections team at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Past elections
Information about earlier elections can be found by clicking [show] at the right. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2013
2011On November 8, 2011, two seats on the Torrance Unified School District Board of Education were up for election. Don Lee and Terry Ragins were the only two candidates that filed to run and won the uncontested election by default.[23] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What was at stake?
2015
Election trends
- See also: 2013 school board elections
With two seats on the ballot on November 3, 2015, nearly half of the Torrance Unified Board of Education had the potential to change hands. Both incumbents sought re-election. They faced two challengers, bringing the average to two candidates running per seat. Both incumbents won re-election.
Torrance Unified's 2013 school board election had fewer candidates per seat than 2015. There were three seats on the ballot, and all three incumbents ran to retain their seats. They faced only one challenger, which made the average 1.33 candidates per seat. All three incumbents won re-election to their seats that year as well.
The 2014 state average of 1.91 candidates per seat up for election in California's largest school districts was higher than the 2013 school board election in the Torrance Unified School District, but lower than the district's 2015 election. In 2014, just over 25 percent of board seats up for election statewide were unopposed, and 37.65 percent of seats went to newcomers.
Ballotpedia survey responses
Two of the four candidates in this race participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display the responses to the survey questions from challengers Clint Andrew Paulson and G. Rick Marshall.
Top priorities
When asked what his top priority would be if elected, Paulson provided the link below:[24]
http://torrancecitycouncil.com/?page_id=1063
When asked what his top priority would be if elected, Marshall stated:
| “ | Keeping the commitment to the community to open the Aquatic center to the public. Ensure that all school modernization is awarded on a competitively bid basis and not to a single source contractor. Strengthen hiring and screening and review process for employees that work with children to keep the children safe from sexual predators.[25] | ” |
| —G. Rick Marshall (2015)[26] | ||
Ranking the issues
The candidates were asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays their rankings:
| Issue importance ranking | ||
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| Issue | Paulson's ranking | Marshall's ranking |
| Expanding arts education | ||
| Expanding career-technical education | ||
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | ||
| Improving college readiness | ||
| Closing the achievement gap | ||
| Improving education for special needs students | ||
| Expanding school choice options | ||
Positions on the issues
The candidates were asked to answer 10 multiple choice and short answer questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. A link to their responses can be found below.
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for the Torrance Unified School District election in 2015:[11][27]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| June 8, 2015 - August 7, 2015 | Candidate filing period |
| July 31, 2015 | Semi-annual campaign finance report due |
| August 5, 2015 - November 2, 2015 | 24-hour campaign contribution reporting period |
| September 7, 2015 - October 20, 2015 | Write-in candidate filing period |
| September 24, 2015 | Pre-election campaign finance report due |
| October 19, 2015 | Voter registration deadline |
| October 22, 2015 | Pre-election campaign finance report due |
| October 24, 2015 | First day voters can cast vote-by-mail ballots |
| November 3, 2015 | Election Day |
| February 1, 2016 | Semi-annual campaign finance report due |
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: California elections, 2015
No elections shared the ballot with the Torrance Unified School District. A number of other school districts in Los Angeles County, however, also held school board elections on November 3, 2015.[28]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Torrance Unified School District California. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Torrance Unified School District | California | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, “2015 Scheduled Elections,” accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, “Running for Office,” accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Torrance Unified School District, "Board Member, "accessed January 28, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Candidate List Local And Municipal Consolidated Elections - 11/3/2015," accessed August 10, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County, CA, "Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "TORRANCE UNIFIED SCHOOL GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER," accessed November 4, 2015
- ↑ Geology.com, "California County Map with County Seat Cities," accessed July 1, 2014
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 United States Census Bureau, "Los Angeles County, California," accessed September 29, 2015
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "ELSI Table Generator," accessed April 29, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Past Election Results," accessed July 1, 2014
- ↑ Torrance Unified School District, "Board Policy & Administrative Rules," accessed August 7, 2015
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Calendar of Events," accessed July 29, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County Democratic Party, "Endorsements," accessed October 27, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, "Endorsements," accessed October 27, 2015
- ↑ Torrance Democratic Club, "Home," accessed October 30, 2015
- ↑ SEIU Local 99, "Making Politics Work for Us: School Board Endorsements for Nov 3 Election," accessed October 27, 2015
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Smart Voter, "Terry L. Ragins: Candidate for Governing Board Member; Torrance Unified School District," accessed October 30, 2015
- ↑ The Huey Report, "Ratings and Recommendations," accessed October 27, 2015
- ↑ Smart Voter, "Don Lee: Candidate for Governing Board Member; Torrance Unified School District," accessed October 30, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Campaign Finance Reports," accessed July 2, 2014
- ↑ Daniel Anderson, “Email communication with Brenda Duran, Los Angeles County Public Information Officer," October 7, 2016
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Brenda Duran, Los Angeles County Public Information Officer," January 2, 2018
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Fair Political Practices Commission, "Local Candidates, Superior Court Judges, Their Controlled Committees, and Primarily Formed Committees for Local Candidates: Campaign Disclosure Manual 2," accessed August 5, 2015
- ↑ SmartVoter.org, "School Contests for Los Angeles County, CA," accessed October 23, 2013
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Clint Andrew Paulson responses," September 30, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "G. Rick Marshall responses," October 21, 2015
- ↑ Fair Political Practices Commission, "Filing Schedule for Candidates and Controlled Committees for Local Office Being Voted on November 3, 2015," accessed August 5, 2015
- ↑ Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, "Local And Municipal Consolidated Elections - 11/3/2015," accessed July 29, 2015
| 2015 Torrance Unified School District Elections | |
| Los Angeles County, California | |
| Election date: | November 3, 2015 |
| Candidates: | At-large: • Incumbent, Don Lee • Incumbent, Terry Ragins • G. Rick Marshall • Clint Andrew Paulson |
| Important information: | What was at stake? • Key deadlines • Additional elections on the ballot |
