The Wake County Republican Party is using last fall's school board election defeat to motivate members to be active politically in this year's races.

In the latest issue of The Elephant Express on Thursday, Wake GOP Chairwoman Susan Bryant warns members not to believe the talk about the Democrats being in disarray in North Carolina. She writes that "the Democratic machine is already in high gear," pointing to last fall's Wake County school board races when Democrats won all five seats on the ballot to take the board majority.

"We had recruited the best Republican candidates we could," Bryant writes. "We ran great races in several districts. We talked about the issues and the progress made so far under the Republican majority."

Wake County school board member John Tedesco is skipping today's board meeting to attend a debate for his bid for state schools superintendent.

At the start of today's work session, school board chairman Kevin Hill said Tedesco expressed his regrets that he couldn't come because of a prior commitment. That prior commitment is a Council of State debate for Republican Primary candidates in Winston-Salem sponsored by the Forsyth County Republican Men’s Club, NC Tea Party and Wake Forest College.

"Tonight I will be at the Council of State debate. You can watch it streaming live," Tedesco posted on his Facebook page. "Unfortunately for me, our new Chairman Mr. Hill scheduled a special called meeting after I already committed to the debate, so I will be missing my first school board meeting."

UPDATE

Here's a comment posted on the debate forum Facebook page from one of Tedesco's opponents, Union County school board member David Scholl, about why he wasn't attending the forum.

"I wish I could participate, but I have a school board meeting this afternoon/evening," Scholl posted. "I have a commitment to my community that is important for me to carry out. For more info on me and my vision, please see http://on.fb.me/xsWy9O or www.scholl4schools.com."

School board member Debra Goldman said she declined her invitation as a GOP candidate for state auditor to attend the forum because her primary responsiblity is to be on the board.

"I have to do my sworn duty as a board member," Goldman said.

Goldman declined comment on Tedesco skipping the board meeting.

The latest campaign finance reports show even more how much of a role liberal activist Dean Debnam played to get a new Democratic majority elected to the Wake County school board.

This year-end report filed Friday by Wake Citizens for Good Government, which was formed by Debnam in 2009, shows the PAC donated $25,000 during the school board campaign.

The biggest chunk of $10,000 went to the N.C. Democratic Party, whose final report isn't viewable yet but is expected to show something was spent in Wake on the school board races.

Is the Wake County school system undergoing "militarization" under the tenure of Superintendent Tony Tata?

That's a charge leveled in this Dec. 16 article by Jason Langberg and Lewis Pitts from the liberal Advocates for Children's Services. The article points to Tata's military career, the requirement of Junior ROTC for the new single-sex leadership academies and Wake's recent involvement in cybersecurity competitions.

The authors start by calling the Occupy Wall Street movement an "education justice movement." The piece charges that public education has "undergone a corporate coup" with the "mega-buck mafia’s buyout of public education."

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.

We're now getting concrete evidence that national money was used in the Wake County school board races to help Democratic candidates retake the board majority.

A new campaign finance report posted today by the Wake County Board of Elections shows that N.C. Citizens for Protecting Our Schools spent $8,418.69 on get-out-to-vote calls to help Democratic school board incumbent Kevin Hill.

The calls were made possible, according to the report, by a $30,000 donation on Oct. 26 from D.C.-based America's Families First Action Fund. The national 501(c)4 group has been called a super PAC that helps Democratic candidates and is heavily backed by labor unions.

Cash Michaels is speculating on Debra Goldman becoming the new Wake County school board vice chairwoman and lists three actions that he says the new Democratic majority must do.

In this week's issue of The Carolinian, Michaels writes that the new majority must revise the student assignment plan "to ensure that no more high poverty schools are created, and that low performing students have access to high performing schools." He also says the new majority will "also have to prioritize the removal of several acts by the current GOP board."

"First, they must cancel any contract the board has with the conservative Civitas Institute, the right-wing think tank funded by conservative activist Art Pope that was hired to train new Wake School Board members," Michaels writes. "Their services are clearly not needed now."

Wake County Democratic Party Chairman Mack Paul is calling Tuesday's election results "truly a victory for all of us in Wake" and "the beginning of the end of the Tea Party movement."

In an email message today to Democrats, Paul thanks his party members for their efforts in the school board races and the municipal elections. He also touts the success of the well-funded coordinated campaign that the party used this year to boost get-out-the-vote efforts for its candidates.

"Kevin Hill's victory seals the deal on the Wake County Board of Education," Paul writes. "For the first time in two years, we will have consensus driven, sensible, pragmatic, principled and experienced leaders in the majority. They will work to deliver plans and policies that make sense for all of our children."

The Huffington Post is calling the Wake County school board election results a case of how "voters repudiated the Tea Party agenda backed by North Carolina's notorious political boss, Art Pope."

In a piece today for the liberal Huffington Post, Michael Carmichael writes that Democratic election victories across North Carolina were a "landslide." But Carmichael says "the coup de grace took place in Boss Pope's backyard." He writes that the election victory by Kevin Hill is "a major embarrassment" for Pope.

"In the run-off for the controlling seat on the Wake County School Board, progressive Democrat Kevin Hill defeated Pope's Tea Party Republican candidate, Heather Losurdo," Carmichael writes. "Hill stalwartly opposed the Pope-orchestrated re-segregation of Wake County Schools, while Losurdo supported the return to 'neighborhood schools,' a code for the end of cultural, racial and ethnic diversity."

Progress NC Action is hailing tonight's re-election victory by Wake County school board member Kevin Hill as a rejection of Tea Party extremism.

Here's the liberal advocacy group's press release:

For Immediate Release