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A new feature in the LA Weekly claims Board member-elect Monica Ratliff “may be the most powerful woman in Los Angeles” (given the dearth of elected officials on the City Council) and compares LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy to former police chief William Bratton.

Written by LA School Report contributor HIllel Aron, The Woman Who May Change L.A. notes that Coalition for School Reform campaign veterans charged with defeating Ratliff in last month’s runoff may have been limited by “wildly naive” Coalition donors who didn’t want to attack Ratliff. They also believed erroneous poll projections putting Sanchez safely in the lead and ignored Ratliff’s controversial positions on teacher dismissal.

Of particular note are some juicy quotes from former Mayor Richard Riordan, who’s quoted saying the Coalition picked a political hack as its candidate (in large part because of SEIU opposition to another candidate, Iris Zuniga), “had the wrong people running our campaign” (a reference to losing campaign consultants SCN’s Ace Smith and Sean Clegg), and failed to focus on making losing candidate Antonio Sanchez more likable.

*Correction:  The original version of this post mis-identified the District 6 candidate who was opposed by SEIU as Nury Martinez.  See the corrected sentence above.

Previous posts: Board Member-Elect Highlights Vocational Training; Campaign 2013: What Next for the Coalition for School Reform?; Endorsements, Garcetti — and Race