New Wake County school board member Susan Evans raised more than $40,000 in her successful bid to unseat incumbent Ron Margiotta,

In her final campaign report filed today, Evans reported raising $43,386.53 and spending $39.077.16. Margiotta hasn't filed his final report yet, but he had reported raising $52,748.31 as of Sept. 26.

But the funding gap between Evans, a Democrat, and Margiotta, a Republican, is a lot narrower considering all the outside money that was poured into the District 8 race.

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.

Wake County school board candidate Susan Evans has reported raising $37,524.69 as of Sept. 26 with $21,770.23 on hand.

Evans' newest campaign report filed Friday shows she's still trailing school board chairman Ron Margiotta, who had already raised more than $40,000 by the end of August. But the gap might not be that big a deal considering how outside groups like Common Sense Matters and the N.C. Futures Action Fund are sending out mailers aiding her cause.

The biggest donors in Evans' latest report are the $3,000 from Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon and $2,000 from Lettice Rhodes.

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 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.

There were no arrests but plenty of harsh words by critics of the Wake County school board majority on Tuesday.

For the first time since June 1, no one was arrested for disrupting a regular board meeting. Instead, most of the speakers during the public comment section lashed into the board majority over the elimination of the diversity policy and other issues.

For instance, Adrienne Lumpkin, past PTSA president of Enloe High School, blasted school board member John Tedesco for citing the 46 percent passing rate for elementary school kids living in the Southeast Raleigh/Enloe zone to blame busing for low student achievement. She said he was using one figure "to drawn an unfounded conclusion."

Members of the Wake County school board majority are getting more proof that their every word is being scrutinized by the opposition

Since the Aug. 10 board meeting, critics of the board majority have noted how school board chairman Ron Margiotta whispered "I didn't say that" into his microphone. The whisper was in response to speaker Susan Evans' claim that Margiotta had publicly said "he won't create high poverty schools."

The whisper was mentioned in a letter to the editor Saturday by Lettice Rhodes.