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 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.

Wake County school board candidate Jim Martin has a more than 4-to-1 fundraising edge over Cynthia Matson in the District 5 race.

According to Martin's latest campaign report posted today, he's raised $26,688.18 as of Aug. 30 and has $23,623.61 on hand. Matson''s latest report showed she had raised $6,027.10 as of Aug. 30 with $3,112.20 on hand.

The biggest donor in Martin's new report is Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, who has contributed $1,100. Meeker's wife, Wake school board member Anne McLaurin, has donated $600. He also got $500 from Ron McFarlane, the husband of Raleigh mayoral candidate Nancy McFarlane.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The first of the 35-day pre-election campaign finance reports is now in and  it looks like Wake County school board candidate Cynthia Matson is still far behind Jim Martin financially in District 5.

The new report from Matson shows that she had raised $6,027.10 as of Aug. 30 with $3,112.20 on hand. Martin's 35-day report isn't in yet but he had already raised $11,245.21 as of June 30 with $10,967.56 at hand.

It's likely that Martin's new report will show an even wider funding disparity between him and Matson.

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.

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.

Businessmen Art Pope and Jim Goodmon are out in the financial forefront when it comes to backing candidates for Wake County Board of Commissioners.

As noted in today's article, the latest round of campaign reports show that  Pope and his family have given at least $32,000 to Republican candidates for commissioner. Campaign reports also show that Goodmon and his wife have given at least $13,000 to Democratic candidates for commissioner.

“It’s a contributor referendum on the school board,” said Democratic candidate Jack Nichols.

Despite the Great Schools in Wake Coalition's call to "overflow the room on Tuesday and fill the halls," turnout was light at the Wake County school board meeting.

As noted in today's article, there were only 16 speakers for the first reading of the changes to the student assignment policy. There were plenty of empty seats in the board room.

As to what the low turnout means, it depends on who you ask.

Chris Malone, Lois Nixon and Cathy Truitt have filed their 2009 final Wake County school board campaign reports.

In Malone's final report, he reported raising $18,186 and spending $18,056.12 in his successful bid for the District 1 seat. He reported contributions from Take Wake Schools Back, the N.C. Indian-American Political Action Committee and the Northern Wake Republican Club.

Some school board candidates definitely want it known that they're getting money from the N.C. Association of Educators.

The NCAE's PAC has given $2,000 apiece to Rita Rakestraw, Horace Tart, Karen Simon and Lois Nixon, But the donations weren't listed on the original finance reports filed last week by Rakestraw and Simon.

Both Rakestraw and Simon say they mistakenly left out the the page in their respective reports that would have showed the NCAE donation. It definitely was an accident in Simon's case as she called after Friday's article about campaign donations to question why her NCAE contribution had been omitted.