Veteran Democratic strategist Gary Pearce is offering speculation on why Republicans lost the majority on the Wake County school board.

In this talkingaboutpolitics blog post on Monday, Pearce says a Republican friend told him that school board chairman "Ron Margiotta was an unintended victim of the Republican-run school board redistricting." Pearce writes that the majority gave in to board member Debra Goldman's demand that she get three heavily Republican precincts moved from Margiotta's district into her district.

"With those three precincts in his district, my friend believes, Margiotta would have won reelection," Pearce writes. "He would still be chairman and still command a 5-4 majority."

In this other Monday blog post, Pearce writes that a different GOP friend told him that "the Republicans were doomed from the start on this election for school board." The friend cites a lack of a message and underfunding, calls school board vice chairman John Tedesco "an embarrassment" and says "there just wasn’t much of a vetting process" on candidate Heather Losurdo.

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo holds the clear fundraising lead for the District 3 seat.

New campaign reports filed this week show that Losurdo had raised $40,244.55 as of Sept. 26 with $9,522.60 on hand. School board member Kevin Hill reported raising $24,055 with $12,570.69 on hand. Jennifer Mansfield is well behind with $5,802.19 raised and $2,513.18 on hand.

Some of the disparity between Losurdo and Hill is mitigated by the spending that outside groups have put into the race attacking her.

My anonymous online friend AgentPierce has declined to identify himself. I invited him to do so recently; see his comments at the bottom of this recent column. My neighbor, whose last name is Pierce, poked his head out the front door recently to tell me that he is not AgentPierce. I knew that because I know AgentPierce's true identity; he even came by The N&O office once. Inquiring Minds across the Triangle want to know who AgentPierce is. I've been bombarded by questions but I won't reveal his identity. I will say that AgentPierce is not Gary Pearce, the former Jim Hunt aide and Democratic political consultant. I chuckled when I heard speculation that Gary Pearce was AgentPierce, as AgentPierce is a strong conservative and Gary Pearce is, uh, not a strong conservative. Or a weak one. For evidence of that, see Gary Pearce's blog at www.talkingaboutpolitics.com . Pearce's blogging partner, Republican consultant Carter Wrenn, provides the view from the right.

--John Drescher