Ref Rodriguez

The battle of the political action committees is heating up.

A new mailer sent to voters in LA Unified District 5 accuses one of Bennett Kayser’s opponents in the March 3 board election, Ref Rodriguez, of failing to disclose personal financial information as required by law.

The mailer, paid for by the PAC for the teachers union, UTLA, comes two weeks after an anti-Kayser flyer paid for by a PAC for the California Charter Schools Association accused Kayser of taking positions on issues that were harmful to Latino students. Kayser supporters branded the accusation as “racist.”

The charter PAC responded to the new mailer in kind late today with a statement charging the teachers PAC with using “racial undertones” in its mailer by referring to Rodriguez by his full first name, Refugio.

“Dr. Ref Rodriguez has for decades used ‘Ref’ professionally,” the charter PAC said in a statement. “And while he is undoubtedly proud of his full given name, we are concerned that Kayser and his allies are using it as a campaign tactic in the same way President Barack Obama’s conservative opposition insisted on using his full name, ‘Barack Hussein Obama,’ as an attack in 2008.”

The charter group called on Kayser to denounce the mailer.

It’s all pretty routine stuff in a school board election with so much at stake. A victory by Kayser, who is seeking a second term, would keep in place the teachers union’s strongest ally on the board. A victory by Rodriguez, a charter school executive, would diminish UTLA’s influence on key policy initiatives.

A third candidate in the race, Andrew Thomas, has managed to stay above it all, defining himself as someone who with strong ties to neither side.

The anti-Rodriguez mailer says he “lied & violated the law” while he “lined his pockets” with more than $800,000 since 2009, an average of $133,333 a year. It also says one of the groups he heads has been “Delinquent” in required filings.

A tagline in big red letters says, “Refugio Rodriguez: The more you search, the worse he looks for School Board.”

While the charter PAC statement repeated the assertion that Kayser has acted against the best interests of Latino students and charged his allies of “a history of nasty attacks against his opponents,” it does not refute the allegations that Rodriguez failed to file proper financial paperwork.

A message left for Rodriguez was not returned.

The mailer includes citations that purportedly confirm the allegations although it is misleading in suggesting how the PAC found the information. The top of the mailer shows what appears to be a Google search address that include the words “refugio+rodriguez+financial+disclosures.” But there is no such internet address. 

It appears, too, that the teachers PAC may have skirted a law. According to the City Ethics Commission, a PAC must file independent expenditures within 24 hours of being made or incurred.

As of late today, the commission said the teachers PAC had not done so with its new mailer. 

In terms of direct campaign fundraising, Ratliff hasn’t raised any money at all since the primary election, and Sanchez has raised just $15,000 since early March.

As for the IE committees, the latest financial reports from the LA City Ethics Commission cover a time period between mid-February and April 6:

*UTLA-PACE, the teachers union’s political arm, received $237,000 in contributions, as well as $628,000 in “miscellaneous cash increases” but only has $73,000 left for the runoff because the union spent heavily in the weeks leading up to the primary. (See report here.)

*The Coalition for School Reform received $712,000 in contributions during the same time period. But it also spent heavily on the primary, so the Coalition has $230,000 in its account to spend on the District 6 election. (See report here.)

*And the Local 99 branch of the Service Employees International Union collected $398,000 between February and April. It has $261,000 to spend on the runoff. (See report here.)

In terms of spending, outside groups including the Coalition for School Reform and the LA County Federation of Labor spent almost $1.3 million to support Sanchez in the primary, but they have spent only $66,000 on him since then.

However, it may be awhile. The Coalition for School Reform and UTLA-PACE won’t have to report contributions or expenditures again until April 11, when the next round of pre-election reports will be due at the LA City Ethics Commission. UTLA-PACE, which is a longstanding general purpose committee that is active throughout different election cycles, doesn’t have to provide updates until it begins spending, so we may have to wait until after April 11 to see its reports.

Previous posts: Union Schedules Special Session To Reconsider Endorsements; School Board Primary Averaged $55 Per Vote

Grand View Elementary teacher Irene Perez making calls at Carrow’s

About 20 teachers sat down in the back room of a Carrow’s restaurant in Santa Monica last night making phone calls reminding registered voters to vote for UTLA-backed District 4 incumbent Steve Zimmer.

Volunteers were given cell phones, a list of phone numbers and were allowed to order a meal for up to $10 plus a drink (no alcohol though). The goal: call voters to remind them to vote.

“I wanted to see if you’ll join us in helping to elect Steve Zimmer tomorrow,” a tentative Grand View Elementary teacher Irene Perez said into the phone, as her son Kingston ate from a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

Westside teachers — both active and retired — have been phone banking for Zimmer nearly every night for the past two weeks, in places like Carrow’s or Fu’s Palace or a bar and grill in Playa Del Rey called The Outlaws.

While it’s low-tech compared to the Coalition for School Reform’s smartphone-based field campaign, gathering groups of teachers together like this is a tried and true way to get teachers and others to vote for union candidates in low-turnout elections.

Most of the people on the volunteers’ list had already told a UTLA volunteer that they planned on voting for Steve Zimmer. For those that hadn’t, the teachers read from a script, which according to election law must be posted on the City Ethics Commission website.

Cecilia Powell, a 4th grade teacher at Windsor Hills, had barely heard of Steve Zimmer — she kept wanting to call him Zimmerman. But, she said, “I really support the union.”

Other teachers, like Michael Giarin, a teacher at Daniel Webster Middle School, were alarmed at the prospect of Zimmer’s opponent, Kate Anderson. “It scares me that someone with no experience can come in and buy the election.”

Mike Dreebin, a retired teacher and former UTLA Vice President, said he knows both candidates and was generally complimentary of both of them. Anderson is his neighbor, and he actually volunteered for her failed State Assembly campaign. While he likes Anderson, he is suspicious of the efforts by the Coalition for School Reform on her behalf.

“I believe in conspiracies,” he said. ” I believe there is a right-wing conspiracy to privatize schools, to make them into factories that make a profit.”

“I want to help Zimmer beat this Kate Anderson lady,” Perez told LA School Report in between phone calls. Zimmer had helped Grand View fight charter school co-location, she said.

Previous posts: Coalition Fields Effort to Avoid Runoffs, Opinion: “Outsiders” vs. Special Interests, Zimmer Irate Over Reform Coalition Attacks, Analysis: Air War Vs. Boots On the Ground

As you can see below, big money has been flowing out from independent expenditure committees and campaigns to consultants who specialize in mailers, TV ads, and field work — as well as pollsters who tell the campaigns how they’re doing.

Meanwhile, there’s more money coming in all the time. Yesterday, Michelle Rhee announced a $250,000 contribution to the Coalition.  Union sources tell LA School Report that the two state teachers unions and the American Federation of Teachers will announce contributions to UTLA-PACE today or tomorrow.

On the reform side, the Coalition for School Reform has paid Ace Smith and Sean Clegg’s SCN Strategies $461,000 for mailers and advertising. The Coalition has also spent almost $600,000 with Sadler Strategic Media, a firm that places TV ads.  Some of these mailers and ads have attacked District 4 incumbent Steve Zimmer.

The Coalition has also spent $330,000 on its field operation, two-thirds of which went to 50+1 Strategies, run by political operative and former Obama organizer, Adisu Demisse.

On the polling front, the Feldman Group, headed by long-time pollster Diane Feldman, did $186,000 worth of polling for both the Coalition and SEIU on behalf of the reform candidates in District 2 and the East Valley’s District 6. In District 4, where SEIU and Coalition parted ways on candidate endorsements, SEIU is using pollsters to Peter D. Hart Research. (SEIU also perhaps earns the award for most novel spending: the SEIU PAC paid $92,000 to itself for “phone banking and expenses, literature, incentive awards”).

Previous posts: Labor Groups Spend for Garcia & Sanchez; Coalition, SEIU, County Fed Spend on Candidates; UTLA-PACE Spends, Bloomberg Donates; Mike Antonucci: Follow the Money

Kate Anderson

As we reported here last week, the union independent expenditure committee called UTLA-PACE has sent out a campaign mailer to attack LAUSD Board candidate Kate Anderson, who is challenging incumbent Steve Zimmer in the Westside/Hollywood’s District 4.

But according to Anderson, the claims being made are “completely misleading:”

The mailer scrutinizes Anderson’s attendance record while she served on the LA County Child Care Planning Committee and accuses her of running for the School Board simply because she’s angling for a higher political office.

According to Anderson, however, her husband Peter often showed up at the meetings in her stead – a common practice. The mailer also neglects to mention that the attendance of other members at Committee’s meetings was similarly inconsistent. “For me, it was a volunteer work. I was serving on the committee as a parent, while also working at my law firm,” Anderson said.

As for the claim that she’s not dedicated to education issues? “The idea that I’m not committed to kids to ludicrous,” Anderson said.

Previous posts: UTLA-PACE Attacks District 4 Challenger Anderson; Outside Spending Tops $2 Million, Grows Negative; Attack on Zimmer Wasn’t from Anderson Campaign

That number is sure to grow in the next two weeks before the March 5 primary election date.

District 2: This is a key school board race, as the teachers union is determined to oust incumbent school board President Monica Garcia, who has been a major supporter of reform efforts.

But in an unorthodox approach, the political arm of the teacher’s union has spent $20,500 sending out a mailer with the headline, “Anyone but Monica Garcia” (view here), featuring all three UTLA-endorsed challengers (Robert Skeels, Annamarie Montanez, and Abelardo Diaz) rather than identifying any particular candidate it supports.

That isn’t even the negative spending: according to City Ethics, UTLA-PACE has spent an additional $88,700 to oppose Garcia with unspecified negative messaging.

The groups spending in support of Garcia have stepped up: the Coalition for School Reform has almost doubled its spending last week to $412,600; SEIU Local 99 has spent $98,500; and the LA County Federation of Labor has spent $44,300 on her behalf.

Candidate Isabel Vazquez, who has not been endorsed by the teachers union or the Coalition, hasn’t received any outside spending at this point.

District 4: This Westside race between incumbent School Board member Steve Zimmer and his challenger Kate Anderson is also a contentious race. According to City Ethics, UTLA-PACE has spent $207,000 to help Zimmer win his reelection bid, and it has spent an additional $125,000 to directly oppose Anderson.

Zimmer is also getting support from SEIU Local 99, which has spent $119,700, and the LA County Federation of Labor, which has spent $46,100 on his behalf.

While Anderson may not have union backing, she’s been getting serious support from the Coalition for School Reform, which has spent a total of $501,000 to boost her race.

District 6: Perhaps because all three candidates are endorsed UTLA, this race has not gone negative, and only one candidate, Antonio Sanchez, has benefited from IE money.

To support Sanchez’s bid, the Coalition has spent $487,000; SEIU Local 99 has spent $91,500; and the LA County Federation has thrown in $44,300 on his behalf. Sanchez and his two opponents, Monica Cano and Maria Ratliff, have all been endorsed by UTLA, but so far, the City Ethics website has not reported any spending on their behalf.

Previous posts: UTLA-PACE Attacks District 4 Challenger Anderson; East LA Forum: District 2 Candidates, Issue By Issue; Here Come the Misleading / Attack Mailers

Image of Kate Anderson from UTLA-PACE mailer

UTLA-PACE’s new mailer targets candidate Kate Anderson, who is running against LAUSD Board incumbent Steve Zimmer for a seat representing the Westside and Hollywood’s District 4.

Among other things, the mailer accuses Anderson of wanting “to use school board as a path to higher office,” and criticizes her for missing a high number of meetings when she served for three years on the LA County Child Care Planning Committee. Click here to see the front and back of the mailer.

The 2013 LAUSD Board races are getting ever-closer to breaking $4.5 million school board election spending records. As LA School Report has noted, negative ads have already begun and could increase in the next two weeks. The Coalition for School Reform launched a television ad that accuses Zimmer of being unsupportive of the arts. The UTLA-PACE website blames District 2 incumbent Monica Garcia for budget cuts and layoffs.

Previous posts: Coalition TV Ad Attacks Zimmer over Robert Kennedy School; UTLA-PACE Spends, Bloomberg Donates; Attack on Zimmer Wasn’t from Anderson Campaign

In the meantime, the Coalition for School Reform has just announced a $1 million contribution from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “Mayor Bloomberg is the most important voice in education reform today,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in a Coalition press release. “It is an honor to have his support, and we deeply appreciate his willingness to invest in our students’ futures here.”

District 2: This race in downtown LA could top records when all is said and done. So far, City Ethics reports that UTLA-PACE has spent $51,000 against LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia. Garcia herself has lots of outside help: the Coalition for School Reform has spent $251,000; SEIU has spent $71,000, and the LA County Federation of Labor spent $44,000, for a total of $366,000 on her behalf.

District 4: The biggest combined spending is in this Westside race, where incumbent School Board member Steve Zimmer faces an expensive challenge by Kate Anderson. According to City Ethics, UTLA-PACE has spent $86,000 on direct mailers and phone banking to support his reelection bid. He’s the only candidate who is getting combined union backing: in addition to UTLA, SEIU Local 99 has spent $87,000, and the LA County Federation of Labor has spent $42,000, for a total of $215,000 of outside money on his behalf. His opponent, Kate Anderson, is also getting big help from the outside: the Coalition for School Reform has spent a total of $269,000 to boost her race.

District 6: Outside money in the East San Fernando Valley race centers on one candidate, Antonio Sanchez, who has gotten help from the Coalition for School Reform to the tune of $280,000, with SEIU kicking in $69,000 and the LA County Federation spending $44,000 for a total of $393,000 on his behalf. Sanchez and his two opponents, Monica Cano and Maria Ratliff, have all been endorsed by UTLA, but so far, the City Ethics website has not reported any spending by UTLA-PACE in this race.

Previous posts: District 4 Candidates Air YouTube Ads, Schedule Appearances; Coalition, SEIU, County Fed Spend on Candidates; UTLA Focus: Defend Zimmer, Defeat Garcia

Late today, a city official from the Ethics Commission called LA School Report to say that UTLA-PACE had in fact disclosed its IE spending to the Commission on time, but due to a clerical error, the paperwork was not filed properly at the Commission.

According to election disclosure laws an independent expenditure committee must report spending made on behalf of candidates within 24 hours, and requires the information is made public on the City Ethics website.

How much money has UTLA-PACE spent to help candidates? All we know for sure is that the numbers reported today by the LA Times (read here), and reported on our site (read here) last week are rendered inaccurate. Beyond that, we’ll have to wait and see.

*Update: An earlier version of this post directly quoted the Ethics Commission when it should have been a paraphrase; the post has been corrected.

To comply with city election law, committees that make independent expenditures (IEs) on behalf of candidates must file disclosure papers within 24 hours if an expenditure meets or exceeds a cumulative total of $1,000. This mailer may not have pushed UTLA-PACE to its spending threshold, though according to Ethics Commission records, mailers like this one are usually costly.

UTLA-PACE has not yet responded for comment. We’ll let you know.

Click to view the front and back of the mailer.

The announcement says that the ad will begin airing immediately.  This is the Coalition’s second TV ad. No word yet on exactly how much it’s spending on the media buy.

Previous posts:  Reform Coalition Launches TV Ads; UTLA Focus: Defend Zimmer, Defeat Garcia

“To our knowledge PACE has reported expenditures in a timely and proper manner. If there have been any oversights, PACE will correct those.”

Previous posts:  What’s UTLA Going to Do With Its Money?, UTLA-PACE: Website Now, Disclosure Later? Teachers Endorse Garcetti for Mayor, Union Head Decries “Media Witch Hunt”

However, UTLA-PACE has yet to deem any of its campaign spending as “independent expenditures,” which must be disclosed and posted online within 24 hours if they exceed $1,000, according to the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission.

UTLA-PACE launched a new website with a page that specifically advocates the defeat of contested School Board President Monica Garcia.

But, according to the Ethics Commission, the UTLA site isn’t officially considered a “communication” under the disclosure law.

Spending that doesn’t meet the definition or exceed the cumulative $1,000 mark in IE spending escapes the 24-hour online disclosures required by the LA City Ethics Commission website.

So the money PACE spent to build and maintain it isn’t held to the same 24 hour IE disclosure rules as a political mailer or phone call would be — and apparently neither has anything else that UTLA-PACE has done thus far.

You can see the most current UTLA-PACE contributions form here (PDF).

Previous posts: Update: Outside Money Pouring In, Election ’13: Undisclosed Donors?, Reform Coalition Reports $1.2 Million Raised

Why not? It’s because there are two different types of IE committees functioning in city-wide and LAUSD Board races —  ‘general purpose committees,’ and ‘primarily formed committees’ — each operating under a different set of disclosure rules.

UTLA-PACE is an example of the ‘general purpose” committee and as a result there’s much less information about its fundraising and who’s supporting its efforts.

A ‘general purpose committee,’ which is an ongoing operation like UTLA-PACE, is required to report about its contributions received twice a year, but beyond that, it must report only when it becomes active in an election, usually triggered by any expenditure.

Another trigger is when an IE committee active in a Board election receives a donation of $1,000 or more. But because UTLA-PACE collects small amounts, usually less than $100, from thousands of teachers, that is a rarity.

In contrast, ‘primarily formed committees,’ such as the Coalition for School Reform, are formed for a specific election, so they must follow a more rigorous disclosure schedule that includes quarterly and semi-annual reporting. See more details at the City Ethics website.

UTLA-PACE is also is able to avoid disclosing donor information on its semi-annual reports because IE committees are only required to provide the information for contributions of $100 or more. So the union Super-PAC, which spent $1.4 million in the last school board race, can play it close to the vest — a tactical advantage.

Previous posts: Election ’13: Undisclosed Donors?, Dark Money Dominates LAUSD Elections, UTLA-PACE’s Robust Campaign Chest

For example, the Coalition for School Reform  — a group of advocates including (but not limited to) charter school proponents — raised $150,000 in the last few days, according to two late contribution reports (see reports here and here).

That leaves the Coalition with just under $300,000 cash on hand, since they ended last year with about $145,000 in the bank (see last semi-annual report here).

For comparison, the teachers union’s IE committee, UTLA-PACE, already had $634,901 in its campaign chest as of June.

This is just the latest reminder that, thanks to strong interest in the outcome of the race and no-limit contribution rules, IEs on both sides can raise and spend gobs of money for publicity, organizing, and  other campaign activities — likely eclipsing direct contributions to individual campaigns.

Additional reporting by Samantha Oltman

The endorsement isn’t a huge surprise since Sanchez, a former employee of the LA County Federation of Labor, was always expected to be a union-friendly candidate. In addition to Sanchez, the three other candidates who have qualified for the March ballot in District 6 are Maria Cano, Monica Ratliff, and Ernie Cardenas, brother of the newly elected Congressman Tony Cardenas.

Meanwhile, UTLA is expected endorse all four District 6 candidates tonight at the House of Representatives meeting. The union’s split-endorsement strategy is likely a response two the most recent school board elections, in which the union was forced to withdraw support from two candidates after damaging information came to light about them (see LA Times: L.A. teachers union withdraws support for two school board candidates).

*Update: SEIU Local 99 spokeswoman Blanca Gallegos called to tell us that the union hasn’t formally endorsed anyone yet, and that last night’s vote was simply “another step in the process” in which rank-and-file members vote on recommendations. The union leadership will make the final decision on Friday. Gallegos declined to say who the union membership voted to endorse.

Previous posts: UTLA Board Keeps Options Open, Signatures Due Tomorrow, Meet Maria Cano, Candidates To Watch

As the 2013 race for three LAUSD School Board seats heats up, so will the political fundraising that pays for the candidates’ campaigns. Just as they have in recent elections, independent expenditure (IE) committees are again likely to eclipse direct donations to candidates’ campaigns.

At least one IE committee is ahead of the game: UTLA-PACE, the political action council of the teachers union. While the latest number won’t be available until the next filing deadline in January, as of June 30th, UTLA-PACE already showed $634,901 in its account.

The report, available by request form the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, shows that the committee added $324,000 in the six-month period. That number is sure to rise for the July-December filing period.

UTLA-PACE’s IE has consistently been the biggest spender in recent board elections, outpacing the Coalition for School Reform and an IE run by the local branch of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

It’s no secret that UTLA wants to have union-endorsed candidates control a majority of the board. The latest edition of the UTLA newsletter urges members to envision its candidates winning control over the board:

“It will take four votes on the LAUSD School Board for UTLA and its members to change the dynamics of the Board of Education… All UTLA members will have to be part of [the campaign] from January on if we are to elect a truly pro-educator School Board.”

Previous posts: Election ’13: Undisclosed Donors?, Attack Ads on the Horizon, Dark Money Dominates LAUSD Elections