Union-backed Goldberg ahead in school board race

In early results Tuesday night, Jackie Goldberg had a comfortable lead in her bid to remain on the Los Angeles Board of Education. Results in two other competitive contests were tighter, following campaigns marked by big spending from outside interests and negative, frequently inaccurate mailers against some of the candidates.

The early tallies in all races were too small to be conclusive.

Four of seven board seats were on the ballot in contests that are expected to determine whether the teachers union or charter school supporters will have greater influence in the nation’s second-largest school system. Headed into the election, all four seats were held by board members who leaned pro-union, and the shift of even one seat could result in a more pro-charter

Board of Education.

District 1, parts of south and southwest L.A.

The easiest race was in District 1. One-term incumbent George McKenna was opposed only by write-in candidate Michael Batie, whose name does not appear on the ballot.

District 5, parts of east and north L.A., southeast cities

In District 5, Goldberg has been the presumed favorite. But that did not stop businessman Bill Bloomfield from swamping the race with positive mailers about opponent Christina Martinez Duran and negative mailers about Goldberg.

Goldberg had a comfortable majority in early returns.

Bloomfield spent more than $600,000 in support of Duran and more than $744,000 on negative mailers that distorted Goldberg’s record of pushing for increased funding for schools and supporting gun control. Unions spent about $232,000 on behalf of Goldberg, who already was well-known in areas of her district north and northeast of downtown. She’s less well-known in the cities of southeast L.A. County.

Goldberg first served on the board in the 1980s and later on the L.A. City Council and in the state Assembly. She returned to the Board of Education last May in a special election to complete the term of Ref Rodriguez, who resigned after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations.

The switch from Rodriguez, co-founder of a group of charter schools, to Goldberg, a union ally and charter critic, altered the board’s ideological balance. Charters are privately operated public schools that compete with district operated schools for students. Most charters are non-union.

In her first year, Goldberg has suggested that she would look with some skepticism at petitions for new charters, but also insisted she would not target existing charters — more than 200 — for shutdown.

District 3, West San Fernando Valley

To tilt the board toward supporting charter growth, backers needed only one win, and they pushed hard in District 3. In this race, oneterm incumbent Scott Schmerelson — a retired principal backed by the district’s employee unions — was opposed by charterbacked Marilyn Koziatek, a district parent who has led community outreach efforts at a local charter school.

Schmerelson was ahead in early returns, but the race was far from settled.

Charter backers spent more than $1.6 million to boost Koziatek and more than $1 million against

Schmerelson. Unions spent more than $671,000 in support of Schmerelson and also tried to flood neighborhoods with teachers who volunteered to walk precincts.

The other candidate, Elizabeth Bartels-Badger, was third in early returns, suggesting that she may pull in enough votes to keep the other two candidates from winning an outright majority. If no candidate wins a majority of votes, the top two finishers will face off in November.

District 7, South L.A. and Harbor area

This competitive seat opened up because term limits prevented incumbent Richard Vladovic from running again.

In early returns, the leading vote-getters included the three candidates who benefited most from outside campaigns: Mike Lansing, Tanya Ortiz Franklin and

Patricia Castellanos. But Lydia Gutiérrez, who had no significant funding support, was in that tight grouping.

As in District 5, the campaign spending pitted charter ally Bloomfield against the teachers union and its allies. And, as in District 5, his dollars swamped what either the unions or individual candidates were able to do on their own.

In this race, Bloomfield backed two candidates: former two-term school board member Lansing and education-program administrator Franklin. Bloomfield’s apparent goal was to keep edge out union-backed candidate Castellanos from making a runoff.

Bloomfield also funded negative campaigns against Gutiérrez, a teacher, and Castellanos, a veteran labor organizer and district parent.

Also running in District 7 was Silke M. Bradford, a school district administrator who evaluates the performance of charter schools.