The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is officially stepping into the Wake County school board elections with this campaign mailer that was sent this week urging people to vote in the runoff contest.

The mailer says "Do this one thing for all our children...vote in the runoff election for the District 3 school board seat!" In addition to GSIW, the mailer's other sponsors include a pair of liberal groups in Common Cause NC and the N.C. A Philip Randolph Institute, which is an arm of the AFL-CIO.

The mailer doesn't tell you who to vote for because GSIW isn't officially allowed to give endorsements. But a number of GSIW members have individually worked for and donated money to the campaigns for the Democratic school board candidates.

Additionally, the mailer points voters to WakeElections.com. As previously reported by the Civitas Review, the weblog of the conservative Civitas Institute, that website was set up by a number of liberal/left-leaning advocacy groups.

Now who are Ann and John Campbell, the people who've donated some $50,000 to help elect the new Democratic candidates to the Wake County school board?

As noted in today's article by John Frank, the Campbells aren't talking. Neither are their friends or associates.

"Their involvement is more about policy than politics," said Dan Blue III, a close friend of John Campbell who used to work him. He refused to talk more about the Campbells, calling them "private citizens" who don't want the spotlight.

Is Planned Parenthood working behind the scenes to help elect the Democratic candidates for Wake County school board?

That's the implication of this post published last week by the Civitas Review, the weblog of the conservative Civitas Institute. The blog was looking into wakeelections.com, a website listed on mailers sent to voters in District 3 and 8 by Common Cause and an arm of the AFL-CIO.

After not finding any information on the website about who's involved in the group, Civitas clicked on the Take Action button. Civitas says the contacts for an automatic message when you sign up to volunteer include WakeUP Wake County, Blueprint NC and Planned Parenthood Health Systems.

Civitas Action is entering the Wake County school board election fight by sending out mailers asking people to thank candidates Heather Losurdo, Ron Margiotta and Donna Williams.

Civitas Action, affiliated with the conservative Civitas Institute and backed by Art Pope, paid for mailers describing the three candidates as "dedicated to fighting tax increases" and a "bloated bureaucracy." It doesn't mention next week's elections, but the timing of the pieces received in mailboxes over the weekend is unmistakable.

Here's the front of piece sent in District 6. It says Donna Williams is "protecting parents, protecting taxpayers."

UPDATE

Civitas Action reported spending $6,063.99 on the mailers.

Here are two different perspectives on who is being "silent" about backing Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata's efforts to recruit more minority teachers.

In a blog post Wednesday for the conservative Civitas Institute, Bob Luebke questions why teachers who've shown up at board meetings to expound on the importance of diversity in student assignment are now "strangely quiet" in backing diversifying the teaching ranks.

But in an article in the latest issue of The Carolinian, Cash Michaels quotes from an e-mail message from school board member Keith Sutton blasting his colleagues for not speaking out in support of Tata's recruiting efforts.

Does the drawn-out vote to elect a new Wake County school board vice chair on Tuesday signal a start to restoring unity among the Republican board members?

That's the hope coming from supporters of the GOP board majority and from at least some of the board members. They're focusing on the hug that outgoing board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman gave to incoming vice chairman John Tedesco after she finally voted for him after 56 rounds of balloting.

"It took a bunch of ballots to accomplish the latter election (of vice chairman), but the pictures on the tv news told the real story as previous chair Debra Goldman and John Tedesco hugged," said Wake County GOP Chairwoman Susan Bryant in Wednesday's issue of the Elephant Express newsletter.  "It’s nice to see the united Republican team in action!  Congratulations to all the Republican School Board members!  Now we need to elect Heather Losurdo this Fall to join this distinguished group!"

There's been some fallout from a December 2009 poll on the Wake County school system that was conducted on behalf of the conservative Civitas Institute.

Facing South, the online magazine of the liberal Institute for Southern Studies, is reporting today that the Georgia pollster hired by Civitas has been fined $10,000 by the state. The pollster got in trouble for not identifying itself during the robocalls.

The problem for the firm, Rosetta Stone Communications, is that one of the people it called was Sue Sturgis, an editor for the magazine. She filed a complaint with the N.C. Department of Justice that led to the fine.

The poll, conducted shortly after the new board majority had taken office, had found opposition to mandatory year-round schools and the diversity policy.

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta issued a call for help in this fall's elections during last Thursday's Northern Wake Republican Club meeting.

Most of Margiotta's speech focused on the actions initiated by the board since December 2009. But Margiotta closed his speech by pointing to the stakes for this fall's school board elections when he will be running for re-election while also hoping to pick up at least one of the Democratic seats.

"I think it's important that we recognize that the campaign from those that will be out there again will be an attempt to return to the old practices of moving kids around for the sake of socioeconomic diversity," Margiotta said. "And we can not go back to those programs. It's important that we elect candidates that are committed and will stay with their commitments and remain committed and follow through with the programs we've been able to initiate."

In a move likely to fuel conspiracy theorists even more, Wake County school board member John Tedesco is slated to speak at another Tea Party Tax Day Rally.

Tedesco is among the list of speakers scheduled to talk at Tax Day Tea Party 2011 on April 15 in downtown Greensboro, according to YES! Weekly, a weekly in the Triad area. The event is being organized by Conservatives for Guilford County and they will be joined by groups such as AnyStreet NC, NC Right to Life, the Civitas Institute, the John Locke Foundation and the National Rifle Association.

Conservatives for Guilford is listed as a member group of the state chapter of Tea Party Patriots.

I thought I'd wrap up the week with various perspectives from the right and left on the AdvancED accreditation report on the Wake County school system.

"The bottom-line is Wake County schools remain accredited, albeit with an 'accreditation warning” status,'" writes Bob Luebke in a Thursday blog post for the conservative Civitas Institute. "The allegations of those  who filed claims were insufficient to revoke that status. Hopefully this episode will conclude in November when AdvancED officials return to WCPSS and issue a report."

"Advance Ed issued its long-awaited report yesterday that focused on wholesale policy changes aimed at re-segregating Wake County Schools," writes Jim Horn in a Thursday post on Schools Matter. "The Tea Party's Gang of Five school board majority did not fare well in a report."