We now know how much money Wake County school board candidate Venita Peyton raised before last month's election. It wasn't much.

A campaign finance report filed Friday by Peyton showed she had raised $1,280 as of Sept. 26. School board member Keith Sutton had raised $23,872 as of Sept. 26 before going on to pick up 81 percent of the District 4 vote.

The lack of funding prevented Peyton from doing much in the way of advertising. This came in the same year where overall spending by the candidates, political parties and outside groups set a new county record.

Peyton should have filed this particular pre-election report by Oct. 2. The Wake County Board of Election sent Peyton a notice on Oct. 18 telling her she was delinquent in filing the pre-election report.

Wake County Democratic Party Chairman Mack Paul is telling his members today that they "can complete the job begun October 11 when voters rejected Ron Margiotta and John Tedesco's vision for education."

In an email message today to Democrats, Paul urges District 3 voters to go to the polls to back Kevin Hill. He asks people who aren't eligible to vote "to call or email five friends who can and encourage them to head to the polls."

"Today, in North Raleigh, we can complete the job begun October 11 when voters rejected Ron Margiotta and John Tedesco's vision for education," Paul writes. "With a vote for Kevin Hill, we can finally end the division and rancor of the last two years and move our schools forward once again.

Voters will be able to say that they value 35 years of education experience, principled leadership and a real vision for our schools when they vote for Kevin Hill."

Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison made robocalls asking people to vote for Heather Losurdo in the Wake County school board runoff election.

In the Monday robocall, Harrison touted Losurdo's support of "the new bi-partisan student assignment plan." He said that incumbent Kevin Hill "wants to go back to the forced busing policy parents hated so much."

Harrison, who like Losurdo is a Republican, made a pitch to people who aren't parents of current students by noting that "72 percent of your county property taxes go to the schools." He said that "Heather will be a good steward of your tax dollars."

Will Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo be able to turn things around today thanks to the help of some outside political advice she picked up after the runoff?

After Losurdo only picked up 40 percent of the vote on Oct. 11, the campaign reached out to Jack Hawke to be a consultant for the runoff. Hawke is a longtime figure in state politics, having been the former chairman of the state Republican Party, a former president of the conservative Civitas Institute and a consultant to presumptive GOP gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory.

"I knew we had to change things," Hawke said. "She was 10 points down (as of Oct. 11). I'm proud of what she's done but we had a lot of ground to make up."

The state Republican Party is telling voters in a last-minute campaign mailer that Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo has "the right priorities for our children."

The mailer says that "Heather believes in neighborhood schools and parental choice and will use proximity as the number one priority for school assignment." The GOP also says "the new Choice Plan will be the foundation for providing parents and students with stability and provide an opportunity to improve every school."

The mailer says "Heather will listen to the people and be responsive." Referencing the Bedford reassignment controversy, the mailer also says that "in contrast, Heather's opponent responded to over 300 parents concerned about busing their children to another school by saying he intended to 'stonewall' them."

An undisputed winner of today's Wake County school board runoff will be Milton's Pizza & Pasta.

School board member Kevin Hill will hold his Election Night gathering at the Milton's location on Six Forks Road. Heather Losurdo will hold her event at the Milton's location on New Falls of Neuse Road.

The groups not affiliated with Wake County school board member Kevin Hill and challenger Heather Losurdo pumped out a lot of campaign mailers.

As noted in today's article, at least $70,000 was spent by outside groups in targeted mailers in the District 3 runoff election. Some of the mailers got pretty rough.

For instance, Dean Debnam, a local Democratic activist who advocates for progressive causes, didn't see any problems with the mailers his N.C. Futures Action Fund bankrolled for Common Sense Matters.

Civitas Action is going after Wake County school board member Kevin Hill for his support of what critics derisively called "Wacky Wednesdays."

This new campaign mailer sent late last week shows Hill’s picture on a faux-Wheaties box with the word “Wackos." Beside his image is written the words "Kevin Hill wanted to keep Wacky Wednesdays."

"Kevin Hill voted to keep Wacky Wednesdays," says the mailer from the conservative advocacy group. "A policy that caused chaos, and extra expense for families."

Can you imagine Wake County school board member Kevin Hill as a hippie?

That's the approach in this new campaign mailer sent late last week by Civitas Action that works on the theme that Hill supports failed policies of the past. The group photoshopped an image of Hill wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and making a peace symbol. It also shows a drawing of a VW bus.

"Just like shag carpet and leisure suits, Kevin Hill's policies were bad, and belong in the past," says the mailer from the conservative advocacy group.

On the eve of Tuesday's election, Wake County Republican Party chairwoman Susan Bryant is railing against the "racist" News & Observer and saying that Daniels Middle School should be renamed,

In an issue of The Elephant Express this evening, Bryant explains that she's decided not to renew her subscription to the newspaper. But Bryant writes that's it not because "of the biased political reporting" of the Wake County school board runoff.

Bryant writes that the reason she's cancelling is that she learned "the other day" about the role of former N&O publisher Josephus Daniels in the 1898 Wilmington Race Riots. (I guess she didn't read the "Ghosts of 1898" series that ran in the N&O in 2006 about how Daniels worked with white supremacists to overthrow Wilmington's fusion government.)