Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo has raised more than $30,000 in her bid to win the District 3 seat.

The new campaign finance report filed today shows that Losurdo had raised $30,529.55 as of Aug. 30 with $11,801.85 on hand. No updated reports are in yet for school board member Kevin Hill or challenger Jennifer Mansfield. Eric Squires doesn't have to file one because he's spending less than $1,000.

Losurdo's biggest donors in the new report are the $4,000 apiece from Art Pope, Katherine Pope and Bob Luddy.

There's no question this election cycle about conservative businessman Art Pope's direct financial involvement in the Wake County school board elections.

Campaign finance reports filed last week by school board candidate Donna Williams showed she had raised $22,456.33. That includes $4,000 from Pope, $4,000 from his wife and $4,000 from conservative businessman Bob Luddy.

Pope's role in the 2009 school board elections has been hotly debated. Pope has repeatedly pointed to how he only gave money to the Wake County Republican Party in 2009 and not to any individual school board candidates.

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich wasn't the only one to receive a standing ovation when he appeared at the Wake County Republican Party convention Thursday night.

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta also felt the love when he was introduced to lead the 900-plus in attendance in the Pledge of Allegiance. The other four GOP school board members also received applause at the convention.

Also Thursday night, Susan Bryant was elected to a two-year term as party chairwoman. She's held the job since November, when she took over after Claude Pope announced his resignation.

Claude Pope, chairman of the Wake County Republican Party, is stepping down from his post to pursue business opportunities.

In a press release late Monday announcing the news, Pope pointed to various accomplishments since he became chairman in March 2009. For instance, Pope notes "we elected a majority on the School Board in 2009" and "a majority on the County Commission this year."

The spinning of Tuesday night's Wake County Board of Commissioner election results will likely last for a while.

But as noted in today's article, Wake GOP Chairman Claude Pope said Democrats made a mistake by trying to turn the election into a referendum on the school board's student assignment decisions. While the GOP considered the election to be more about financial issues, Pope said you can't overlook how the Democrats asked voters to "send the school board a message."

"This shows very clearly the people of Wake County support neighborhood schools," Pope said.

UPDATE

See end of post for Wake GOP press release on election results.

You can chat with all five Wake County school board majority members today at a school, but they're not there on board business.

Ron Margiotta, Debra Goldman, Chris Malone, Deborah Prickett and John Tedesco have all committed to attending today's Wake County Republican Party "Race to the Polls" kickoff event at 5:30 p.m. at Broughton High School in Raleigh.

Last month, Tony Gurley, chairman of the board of commissioners, left a Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce meeting because a majority of his board was present. They were hearing Michael Alves talked about controlled choice.

State legislators will be focusing on the issue of diversity in public schools in light of the controversy taking place in Wake County.

As noted in today's article, the General Assembly approved the creation of a legislative study commission on diversity in public schools. The commission could recommend school districts adopt diversity policies and maybe even suggest changing the way the state funds schools to encourage those kind of busing efforts.

The reason for the state attention, backers acknowledge, is all the talk about the Wake school board scrapping the socioeconomic diversity policy.

The Wake County Republican Party is really making hay about Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker's recent verbal slam of the Wake County school board majority.

Wake GOP Chairman Claude Pope lashed into Meeker last week in a press release. Now the GOP is conducting an online survey about Meeker's remarks in which he said the members of the board majority "are not from the area" and "don't share our values."

The recent dustup over Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker's comments is raising questions again about a potential conflict of interest with his wife, Wake County school board member Anne McLaurin.

School board member Deborah Prickett, a lifelong Raleigh resident, called Meeker's comments "inappropriate" that the board majority are not from this area. She added that she's concerned now about Meeker's opposition to building a new high school in Rolesville instead of the Forest Ridge site in Northeast Raleigh.

Prickett raised concerns about how McLaurin receives confidential information about the H6 site during closed sessions. Prickett said she'd like to review the conflict of interest guidelines involving McLaurin and Meeker.

Here's a look at how the Wake County Republican Party put together the press release Thursday criticizing Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker for his remarks about the Wake County school board majority.

The press release was formulated after a series of e-mail messages between Wake GOP Chairman Claude Pope and Jay Bryant, a GOP spokesman. The messages are public because copies were also sent to Cary Town Councilwoman Jennifer Robinson, a Republican.

The messages show the GOP strategy for responding to Meeker's comments that the majority board members are "people who are not from the area, who don't share our values."