The numbers keep rising in the most expensive race in Wake County school board history.
As noted in today's article, campaign finance reports filed Monday show that the candidates raised more than $470.000. The wild card though is the spending from the outside groups and the political parties, numbers which are already at $150,000 and rising.
Once the final numbers are in, the spending might hit $700,000 to $800,000 this year.
The Great Schools in Wake Coalition, which is the darling of area liberal groups, is getting another award tonight.
WakeUP Wake County is giving GSIW one of its 2011 Volunteer of the Year awards at tonight's annual meeting. Great Schools was formed by WakeUP Wake.
WakeUP Wake has been cheering about last fall's election takeover by the new Democratic school board majority. The group has taken credit for the change.
Wake County school board member Christine Kushner raised more than $50,000 in her bid to win the District 6 seat.
In her final 2011 report filed Wednesday, Kushner reported raising $51,343.47 and spending $37,123.21. This leaves the Democrat with $14,220.26 that she can use to donate to other groups or to prepare for a future campaign run.
Her main opponent, Republican Donna Williams, raised $48.335.96.
Wake County school board candidate Donna Williams raised close to $50,000 in her unsuccessful bid to win the District 6 seat.
In her final 2011 campaign finance report filed earlier this month, Williams reported raising $48,335.96. The Republican spent all the money and closed out the campaign committee.
Her main Democratic opponent, Christine Kushner, raised $51,343.47 and spent $37,123.21 to easily win the Raleigh seat. Combined, Williams and Kushner spent nearly $100,000.
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.
Wake County school board chairman Kevin Hill raised nearly $70,000 in his successful reelection bid this fall.
A new report filed today shows that Hill, a Democrat, raised $68,598 and spent $54,322 in the District 3 race. Heather Losurdo, a Republican, hasn't filed her final report yet. But she had reported raising $82,357 through Oct. 24.
Before this year, only one candidate had raised more than $50,000 in a Wake school board race. But at least four candidates hit that mark last fall during the high-stakes election.
Democratic members of the Wake County school board are distancing themselves from the decision to prosecute the school board protesters.
As noted in today's article, Democratic board members like Susan Evans and Keith Sutton are saying last week's decision to reject mediation shouldn't be interpreted as them wanting the protesters to go to trial. they say the prosecution question is solely up to Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby.
But Willoughby said Thursday his office will move forward with prosecution because the board didn't take the mediation offer that would have avoided the need for trials.
The liberal/progressive Great Schools in Wake Coalition is being praised for helping oust the Republican majority on the Wake County school board.
In this week's issue of the liberal Independent Weekly, GSIW received one of the publication's 2012 Citizen Awards. The article cites Great Schools' various efforts over the past two years such as its white papers, community forums and having members speak at school board meetings.
"When the 2011 elections in Wake County resulted in a stunning defeat for the Republicans, with all five school board seats on the ballot won by pro-diversity candidates, GSIW was the major factor in the outcome," according to the article by Bob Geary.
It looks like protesters were wrong if they were hoping that the new Democratic majority on the Wake County school board would be more sympathetic that the Republicans were on the issue of mediation instead of prosecution.
As noted in today's article, the school board met in closed session last week and agreed to stick with the decision made by the former majority to recommend that the protesters who disrupted board meetings in 2010 go to trial.
Since it was discussed in closed session, neither the board members or board attorney Ann Majestic are saying why the board decided not to go with mediation.
New Wake County school board member Susan Evans raised more than $40,000 in her successful bid to unseat incumbent Ron Margiotta,
In her final campaign report filed today, Evans reported raising $43,386.53 and spending $39.077.16. Margiotta hasn't filed his final report yet, but he had reported raising $52,748.31 as of Sept. 26.
But the funding gap between Evans, a Democrat, and Margiotta, a Republican, is a lot narrower considering all the outside money that was poured into the District 8 race.
