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Until recently, only one group had gone negative in the campaign between Alex Johnson and George McKenna for the open LA Unified school board seat.

The African American Voter Registration, Education and Participation Project (AARVEP), which supports Johnson, sponsored three mailers, calling into question McKenna’s background as a school administrator, prompting the McKenna campaign to call the attack “shameful.” The Johnson campaign also paid for one.

Now there are two outside groups: A pro-McKenna group has gone negative on Johnson.

A political action committee that represents teachers unions, including UTLA, is circulating a flyer that uses a baseball motif to question Johnson’s lack of experience as a teacher or school administrator.

A headline says: “Alex Johnson: Unproven, Untested and Not Ready for the LAUSD School Board.” It shows his face on an ersatz baseball card under the word “Rookie.”

Marco Flores, chairman of the UTLA political action committee, denies that the union flyer is an attack.

“Alex Johnson’s lack of experience has simply been pointed out while not waging the smear campaign like the one utilized against Dr. McKenna,” he told LA School Report.

Any outside group spending on behalf of candidates must be file with the LA City Ethics Commission. By midday today, however, commission records had no record of the anti-Johnson flyer. 

Asked about that, Flores said, “Reporting requirements have been complied with.”

 Previous Posts: Johnson campaign goes negative, citing the ‘myth’ of McKenna; Attack mailers for Johnson draw ire of two important backers