Orange Unified Teachers’ Slate Far Ahead in Funding

Four candidates vying to solidify a new majority on the Orange Unified School District’s board of trustees have raised more than $125,000 in campaign contributions for the Nov. 6 election, according to records filed with the county’s registrar of voters.

Less than five months after a bitterly fought recall campaign, the troubled district is readying for another high-stakes election that could shift the balance of power once more.

The big difference this time is money.

The four candidates backed by the local teachers union have raised about six times more money than their opponents, according to campaign records filed this week.

Teachers’ unrest over salaries and benefits and dissatisfaction among many parents led to a recall campaign in June that unseated three members of the previous board majority. Two of them--Martin Jacobson and Linda Davis--are running again in November for the seats they lost to Melissa Smith and Kathy Moffat.

Orange Unified Education Assn., the teachers’ union, is backing Smith and Moffat for reelection and Rick Ledesma and Kimberlee Nichols to unseat the remaining members of the old board majority: Kathy Ward and Terri Sargeant, who were not targets of the recall.

Smith, Moffat, Ledesma and Nichols combined raised $125,000, compared with about $21,000 raised by their respective opponents: Jacobson, Davis, Ward and Sargeant.

Ten candidates are running for four seats on the seven-member board. The other candidates, Al Irish and Edward Priegel, have not raised campaign funds.

During the June recall campaign, the sides were more evenly matched in funds. The recall side raised more than $85,000 and counted on the grass-roots energy of many teachers and parents to get out the vote. The anti-recall forces raised nearly $120,000, thanks in part to conservative groups such as the Lincoln Club and the efforts of local Republican leaders, who saw the election as a battle between conservative values and union interests.

District teachers had long criticized the old board for focusing on ideological and political battles, such as gay student clubs and bilingual education, rather than on teacher salaries, which are among the lowest in Orange County.

The unions continue to back their slate of candidates with money. The California Teachers Assn. contributed $6,500 each to Smith, Moffat, Ledesma and Nichols. The rest of the contributions have come from residents and in-kind contributions from the Orange Unified Citizens for Quality Education, whose volunteers have stuffed envelopes and staffed phone banks.

“If money can buy an election, then the union will buy this election,” Sargeant said. She has raised $5,395 with the help of $3,500 in personal loans she made to her campaign.

Similarly, Ward has raised a mere $324 in contributions, which she supplemented with $3,100 in personal loans. Jacobson has raised $3,650 and Davis $8,350.

In contrast, Smith has raised more than $30,000, Moffat close to $29,000, Ledesma $28,400 and Nichols $37,700.

“The community is saying we have no confidence in the old board,” Ledesma said of the disparity in campaign funds. The other side “will say the unions are bankrolling our campaigns . . . but this is a grass-roots effort.”