Wake County school board candidate Jennifer Mansfield raised more than $7,500 during her unsuccessful run for the District 3 seat.

In Mansfield's year-end report filed Monday, she reported raising $7,543.33 and spending $6,324.56. Mansfield wasn't able to compete against her main opponents, who were heavily backed by their respective political parties.

Republican challenger Heather Losurdo raised $99,207.29 and spent $98,207.83. Democrat incumbent Kevin Hill raised $68,598 and spent $54,322.

Overall, Mansfield's husband, Shane O'Donnell, was the largest donor with $3,647.14. After finishing third in October, Mansfield did not give an endorsement in the runoff election.

The numbers keep rising in the most expensive race in Wake County school board history.

As noted in today's article, campaign finance reports filed Monday show that the candidates raised more than $470.000. The wild card though is the spending from the outside groups and the political parties, numbers which are already at $150,000 and rising.

Once the final numbers are in, the spending might hit $700,000 to $800,000 this year.

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo raised nearly $100,000 in her unsuccessful campaign bid.

In her final campaign report filed Monday, Losurdo reported raising $99,207.29 and spending $98,207.83 It was a record amount for a Wake school board race.

The Republican outspent her main District 3 opponent, Democrat Kevin Hill, who raised $68,598 and spent $54,322. But the numbers look to be more in Hill's favor when you factor in the outside spending.

Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill raised nearly $70,000 in his successful reelection bid this fall.

A new report filed today shows that Hill, a Democrat, raised $68,598 and spent $54,322 in the District 3 race. Heather Losurdo, a Republican, hasn't filed her final report yet. But she had reported raising $82,357 through Oct. 24.

Before this year, only one candidate had raised more than $50,000 in a Wake school board race. But at least four candidates hit that mark last fall during the high-stakes election.

Wake County school board member Kevin Hill says he wants to correct "misinformation" about Baileywick Elementary School that was spread by Heather Losurdo during her unsuccessful bid to unseat him.

Under the words "Rock Bottom," Losurdo had put out a campaign mailer saying "Baileywick Elementary School is a high needs declining enrollment school in Raleigh that deserves Federal funding under the needs-based formula instead of being funded on a per-pupil basis." She charged that "Hill has refused to advocate for them, so they have been unable to get the funds and resources they need."

During Tuesday's board meeting, Hill said it was "really important to give Baileywick a good shout out," as he pointed to the school's academic accomplishments.

Pat McCrory, the former mayor of Charlotte and presumptive GOP gubernatorial candidate, is praising Heather Losurdo for her campaign run for Wake County school board.

As noted in The Under the Dome blog, McCrory told Losurdo that “I want to thank you for having the courage to run for public office." He made the remarks to Losurdo as she stood to ask a question at a fundraiser for McCrory at the North Raleigh Hilton on Tuesday.

“I just think unwarranted personal attacks against you hurt our democratic system,” McCrory added. “I feel for your and your family for what you had to go through. I commend you for the courage to stand up to it. Regardless of whether you are democrat or Republican, it doesn't make any difference to me. no one deserves some of the personal attacks you went through.”

McCrory may find the robocall he made for Losurdo used against him in next year's gubernatorial race by those who try to label him as a Tea Partier.

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.

Common Sense Matters targeted Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo with more than $27,000 in attack mailers the week before the election, part of more than $80,000 the liberal advocacy group spent against her during the campaign.

A new campaign finance report released Monday by the Wake County Board of Elections shows that Common Sense Matters targeted Losurdo with $27,154 in mailers on Nov. 2-3. Based on this and earlier filings, the group spent at least $82,258.18 attacking Losurdo.

The actual number Common Sense Matters spent against Losurdo is higher because it doesn't include an unknown portion of $10,431.06 on postage for mailers targeting both Losurdo and school board chairman Ron Margiotta. All together, the reports show that Common Sense Maters spent $111,701.75 in mailers throughout the school board campaign.

The last-minute mailers from Common Sense Matters were made possible by a Nov. 4 infusion of $28,500 from the N.C. Futures Action Fund, led by Democratic activist Dean Debnam. All together, Debnam's group gave Common Sense Matters $133,500 during the campaign.

Wake County Republican Party Chairwoman Susan Bryant is putting the best face forward on election results that cost the GOP control of the school board.

In the Elephant Express on Friday, Bryant writes that "Election Night was not the wholesale sweep for the Democrats you may be reading about in the N & O." She writes that "the municipal candidates we endorsed did very well," adding that "we have won 12 out of 20 races for sure, and are leading in the only undecided race in Morrisville."

Whether those wins in the smaller towns are enough to counterbalance the results for school board and municipal races in Cary and Raleigh is something that Republicans will be considering.

Also in the newsletter, Bryant urges people to cancel their N&O subscriptions. Bryant and school board candidate Heather Losurdo have opted to take a blame the N&O approach to account for the electoral results.

Bill LuMaye is warning that the Wake County school board election results means more prison cells will be needed and school board candidate Heather Losurdo wants you to cancel your subscription to The News & Observer.

"Hey congratulations Wake County," LuMaye said on his show today on WPTF. "You've decided on a jobs program. That's right. As you know, the Department of Corrections looks at fourth-grade reading scores in order to build prison cells.

So in the future, based on your voting this past month or so, more Correction officers are going to be needed so you may want to apply right now. Do I sound bitter? No, I'm really not."