Los Angeles’ most expensive local elections this year are not for city council — they’re the races for L.A. Unified School Board.
In fact, two weeks ago we forecasted the school board election coming up next week could wind up being the most expensive LAUSD primary … ever.
That forecast has come true. As of Sunday, outside political groups have spent more than $6.2 million on three competitive races for LAUSD board seats.
Purchases of negative advertising make up about one-third of this year's "independent expenditures" so far. Today, we published this piece fact-checking a few common lines of attack featured in these ads.
The vast majority of that spending has come from advocates for charter schools, who’ve spent $4.6 million so far. That’s triple the amount their rivals, United Teachers Los Angeles, have spent.
Pro-charter philanthropist Bill Bloomfield has been the single largest source of independent expenditures this cycle, spending $2.6 million. The California Charter Schools Association has spent a little more than $2 million so far.
That total already surpassed the previous record for an LAUSD primary — $5.7 million in March 2017 — and there’s still a week to go in this year’s election.
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