Wake County school board member Chris Malone is getting the Heather Losurdo treatment from Progress NC Action in his run as the Republican candidate for the state House District 35 seat.

Progress NC Action, a liberal advocacy group, has created this website charging that Malone has "failed our schools." The website includes links to media reports about his relationship with fellow school board member Debra Goldman, the bus problems at the start of the school year and how budget cuts led to parents helping out with janitorial duties at schools.

"We need a legislator that will put kids first, not their dating life," says the website.

Nearly two years later, Wake County school board member John Tedesco is still facing fallout over having called fellow board member Debra Goldman a "prom queen" during a heated public exchange.

Richard Alexander's campaign has brought up the "prom queen" remark in its bid to defeat Tedesco in Tuesday's Republican Party runoff for state schools superintendent. The remark is an issue considering that Goldman is the GOP nominee for state auditor.

In addition to calling her a "prom queen," right after the Oct. 5, 2010 board vote in which Goldman killed the plan to divide Wake into assignment zones, Tedesco publicly told her that their their friendship was over. But Tedesco, who publicly apologized to Goldman, says they've patched things up and are friends again.

Wake County school board member John Tedesco says the Republican majority "fired" Superintendent Del Burns during a campaign speech Saturday in his run for state schools superintendent.
 
"One of the things we did in Wake County that I was very proud of," Tedesco said Saturday around the 6:00 minute mark in a Salisbury speech recorded by The Rowan Free Press. "We had a chief bureaucratic administrator, kind of like the administrators you guys have all over the place, who was the rubber stamp kind of bureaucrat, liberal. a 40-year educator, in the classroom he knew how it was.

We fired him. We ousted him and brought in a general, General Tony Tata from the 82nd Airborne Division to lead that system right now."

Cash Michaels is speculating on whether Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata will do as he's publicly stated that he'll carry out the new student assignment directive.

In an article in The Carolinian out today, Michaels notes that Tata "has had several very public nasty fights with" the school board's new Democratic majority. The liberal Michaels also calls Tata "a conservative Tea Party sympathizer who sources say has US senatorial aspirations in a few years."

"With his heart really not into establishing a base school model with aspects of choice, and elements of stability, proximity, student achievement and diversity, will Tata drag his feet in meeting the 2013-14 school year deadline, or will the retired US Army brigadier general be the “good soldier,” and follow the directive?" Michaels writes.

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.