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The filing deadline for candidates seeking office in the LA teachers union has closed, and it now appears that the number of challengers to the incumbent president, Warren Fletcher, has increased by one, to nine, all of them men.

The latest to join the race for a three-year term is Innocent O. Osunwa, a labor lawyer and English teacher at Stevenson Middle School. He joins a field that also includes Gregg Solkovits, Alex Caputo-Pearl, David R. Garcia, Marcos Ortega II, Leonard Segal, Saul Lankster, Kevin Mottus and Bill Gaffney.

The complete list of UTLA candidates for all offices can be found here. The elections are a three-round voting process that ends in July.

Osunwa has previous political experience although his last run for office was probably less successful than he intended. As a write-in candidate for the 32nd Congressional District in California, he lost to Democrat Hilda Solis, 130,042 to 8.

“There was a mistake,” he told LA School Report. “I am a Republican. They listed me as an independent.”

One of his major campaign issues, he said, is the union’s labor contract with LA Unified. “It has too many loopholes in the way it is worded,” he said. “It has teacher protections, but on the other hand, teacher protections are taken away.”

Also, he said, the system of teacher evaluation is “too subjective.”

Previous posts: The LA teachers union explains why it’s demanding a salary increase; UTLA calls for a do-over in union elections over unpaid dues; Fletcher is facing 8 in reelection bid for LA teacher union presidency.