Christine Kushner has become only the second person to have raised more than $50,000 in a Wake County school board race.

Kushner's latest finance report filed Friday shows she had raised $50,406.93 as of Sept. 26. She has $31,383.11 on hand in the District 6 race.

School board candidates are required to file a "pre-election" report, postmarked no later than this upcoming Monday, showing their finances as of Sept. 26. Aside from reporting any new contributions of greater than $1,000 between Sept. 26 and Election Day, they don't have to file any additional reports until the end of the year or unless they're in a run-off.

Wake County school board member Kevin Hill and challenger Jennifer Mansfield lag far behind Heather Losurdo in the amount of cash raised so far in District.

The new report filed today by Hill shows he had raised $15,245 as of Aug. 30 with $12,123.69 at hand. Mansfield's new report has her with $3,582.19 raised as of Aug. 30 with $1,826.86 on hand.

Well out in front financially is Losurdo, who's raised $30,529.55 as of Aug. 30 with $11,801.85 on hand.

Wake County school board member Keith Sutton has raised nearly $20,000 in his bid to keep the District 4 seat.

The new campaign report filed today shows Sutton having raised $19,892 as of Aug. 30 with $12,272.86 on hand. No report has been filed yet by opponent Venita Peyton.

Sutton's biggest individual donor in the new report is Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon, who gave $1,000. It's Goodmon's first recorded school board contribution this season, but he is one of the hosts for a Wake County Democratic Party fundraiser being held next week.

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta and Susan Evans are both pulling in substantial amounts of cash in the District 8 race, including money from the Popes, Bob Luddy and the Campbells.

The new campaign report filed today by Margiotta shows he had raised $40,367.33 as of Aug. 30 with $34,111.23 on hand. The new report for Evans shows she had raised $26,406.43 as of Aug. 30 with $21,405.30 on hand.

The biggest donors for Margiotta in his new report are the $4,000 apiece from conservative businessman Art Pope, his wife Katherine Pope and conservative businessman Bob Luddy.

The Wake Citizens for Good Government PAC is looking like it could be a big player in this fall's Wake County school board elections.

As noted in today's article, the PAC has reported raising $27,803.28 with $25,671.54 on hand. In contrast, the Wake Schools Community Alliance has reported raising $268.92 an having only $1 on hand.

There's a strong connection between Wake Citizens for Good Government, the five Democratic school board candidates and the Wake County Democratic Party. A number of people are giving money to all three groups, similar to how some of the 2009 donors gave money to the four winning school board candidates, the WSCA and the Wake County Republican Party.

The latest round of campaign finance reports show that Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta and school board hopeful Jim Martin are off to a good financial start.

According to a report filed July 15, Margiotta reported having raised $8,985 in his bid to win re-election in District 8. His biggest donor at $4,000 was Dr. James Fulghum III, a member of the John Locke Foundation board of directors and a frequent contributor to Republican causes.

Margiotta's next largest donors were retired CPA Harry Eberly at $1,745 and lobbyist/former state GOP House member Connie Wilson at $500.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR INFO ON JIM MARTIN'S DONORS

Supporters of the old diversity policy are giving plenty of cash to Wake County school board candidate Christine Kushner.

Kushner's latest campaign report filed this week shows she's raised $12,061.24 so far in her bid to win the District 6 seat. Many of the donors should be familiar as they've spoken out at school board meetings and other forums against the change in student assignment.

Donors include former school board member Beverley Clark, former school board candidate Lois Nixon, Wake County PTA Council President Diane Dulaney, Amy Womble, Adrienne Lumpkin, Brenda Berg, Swain Wood, Anne Cooper and Colethia Evans.

Jim Martin officially announced today that he will seek the District 5 seat on the Wake County school board.

Martin has been vocal over the past year in criticizing the elimination of the diversity policy and accusing the school board of engaging in racial discrimination. But the N.C. State chemistry professor and parent of two magnet students, including one at Enloe High, doesn't bring up the diversity issue in his press release.

Instead, Martin lays out goals such as not being politically partisan, pushing for a comprehensive education, lobbying for more school funding and reducing bureaucracy on teachers.

Supporters of Wake County's old school diversity policy are going on the offensive in attacking the latest response to federal investigators justifying the change made by the school board majority.

During Tuesday's school board meeting, multiple speakers criticized the board majority's assertions that the diversity policy may have hurt academic achievement. Often to cheers, words like "B.S.," "cherry picking," "misleading" "treacherous" and "dishonesty" were used by speakers, especially when it came to attacking the district's linkage of long bus rides with lower achievement.

"The governance of this board majority has reached a new low with the release of your response to the Office of Civil Rights last week," said Susan Evans. "And I really thought you didn't have any lower to go."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

You've got 29 people lined up to speak at today's Wake County school board meeting.

It looks like people are citing the discussion of the facilities utilization report, which is item 14 on the agenda, to get around the ban about talking about student assignment. Among the people citing this section on the signup sheet are Anne Sherron, Adrienne Lumpkin, Susan Evans, Monserrat Alvarez (of N.C. HEAT) and Jim Martin.

On the list of 15 speakers for off-agenda topic items, you've got more supporters of the diversity policy who likely are using other ways to bring up student assignment. This list includes:

UPDATE

School board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman said the restriction on comment on student assignment was meant for discussion on specific moves in the plan.