Runoff for open seat looks likely
Reelection seems certain for two incumbents, but the District 2 race is close.
An open seat seems headed for a runoff based on early returns in Tuesday’s election for the Los Angeles Board of Education, while two incumbents appeared to be on their way to reelection.
The open seat is in District 2, where Rocio Rivas was ahead of Maria Brenes. The early tallies include a portion of the votes cast prior to the final and traditional day of in-person balloting on Tuesday. If these trends hold, Brenes and Rivas would face each other in a November runoff.
District 2 covers downtown L.A. and adjacent neighborhoods while also extending north and east of downtown.
In the other races, incumbents Kelly Gonez and Nick Melvoin were well ahead in early vote tallies. They were prohibitive favorites because they already hold the office and because their challengers had limited campaign resources. If the incumbents finish with a majority of the votes cast, they can avoid a November runoff against their closest challenger.
The winners will face daunting and unusual challenges in governing the L.A. Unified School District as part of the seven-member school board. In the short term, the nation’s secondlargest school system will have unprecedented financial resources to help with the unprecedented tasks of academic and emotional recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
But declining enrollment, the end of one-time pandemic relief and a widely predicted economic downturn pose long-term threats to the stability of academic programs, expanded psychological support, highquality employee health benefits and jobs.
Despite the high stakes, the campaigns were less vitriolic than in the recent past, and one major player — the California Charter Schools Assn. — held its direct fire, relying on other donors to back favored candidates.
Charters are privately operated public schools, mostly nonunion, that compete for students with traditional, district-operated schools. For years, supporters and opponents have done battle over the rapid growth of charters as well as their legal right to claim available classroom space on district-owned campuses. This clash carried over into record spending and mudslinging in school board races fueled by charter advocates on one side and the teachers union on the other.
Such conflicts, however, receded as all public schools contended with the common enemy of the pandemic. And the reality of declining enrollment means that new charters would run the risk of taking students from existing charters.
District 2
The toned-down conflict over charters carried over into the primary. In previous elections, charter advocates and their allies were the biggest spenders, but for the open seat in District 2, the independent campaigns were marshaled by two opposing unions — that are, for the most part, friendly rivals.
United Teachers Los Angeles launched an independent campaign on behalf of Rivas, spending more than $772,000 through early Tuesday. In contrast, Rivas’ own campaign had raised $54,269.
The union putting its muscle behind Brenes is Local 99 of Service Employees International Union, which represents the greatest number of nonteaching employees, including bus drivers, teacher aides, custodians, grounds workers and cafeteria workers. Local 99 is responsible for virtually all of a nearly $900,000 independent campaign. Brenes’ own campaign had raised an additional $291,705, according to campaign reports through June 1.
In the entire field, Rivas, a senior advisor to current board member Jackie Goldberg, is the candidate who speaks most forcefully about regulating and containing charter schools. In an interview, Brenes more or less pushed aside the topic of charters, saying her focus needed to be on improving and supporting the schools under direct district management.
Brenes, the founder and director of the nonprofit InnerCity Struggle, is the candidate who identifies most closely with departing board member Monica Garcia, who could not run again because of term limits. Rivas is the candidate most critical of Garcia. Trailing in resources and votes were parent and community activist Erica Vilardi-Espinoza, who had support from law enforcement unions, and substitute teacher Miguel Angel Segura.
Districts 4 and 6
The uneven financial playing field was most apparent in District 4, which stretches to the Westside from Hollywood and up into part of the west San Fernando Valley.
Melvoin’s own campaign has raised close to $550,000. In addition, retired businessman Bill Bloomfield has joined the fray again , spending more than $1.6 million for an independent campaign on Melvoin’s behalf. Bloomfield said he considers himself an education advocate rather than a charter advocate, but the education and community leaders he relies on for political advice are either pro-charter or at least charter-friendly. Bloomfield’s spending has included negative ads targeting Melvoin’s opponents: more than $150,000 against Tracey Schroeder and more than $21,000 against Gentille Borkhadarian.
In contrast, both Schroeder and Borkhardarian report having raised no money whatsoever. Bloomfield’s spending against Melvoin’s opponents was out of apparent concern that Schroeder’s ballot designation — as a teacher — could attract votes, as could Borkhadarian’s designation as a parent.
Bloomfield has used this strategy before, paying for negative ads against a teacher with few resources who ran in District 7 two years ago. In that race, his preferred candidate, Tanya Ortiz Frankly, ultimately prevailed.
Notably missing from the District 4 contest was the teachers union, which, in effect, conceded the race to Melvoin, while not endorsing him. The one-term incumbent did win support from other major local unions.
In District 6 — in the east San Fernando Valley — school board President Gonez had the unusual advantage of being endorsed by both the teachers union and charter advocates. That put her challengers, teacher Marvin Rodriguez and school police Sgt. Jess Arana, in a tough spot from the get-go.
But Gonez did not receive as much independent support as front-runners in other races. The total of such spending was just over $48,000 — with contributions from Local 99, the teachers union and Bloomfield. Gonez’s own campaign raised more than $285,000, substantially more than her opponents.