One school board candidate has raised about $19,000 more than his only challenger in the Nov. 8 election, with most of the funds coming from an organization based more than 2,400 miles away. Another school board hopeful owes nearly $8,000 in unpaid bills to a Gilroy-based campaign consulting firm in a race in which she is running unopposed.
Welcome to the world of local education politics as these scenarios are being played out in all three of the trustee area elections up on Morgan Hill Unified School District’s headline-churning board of education.
In Trustee Area 5, incumbent Tom Arnett (who was elected by voters in June to finish out the remaining months of former trustee Amy Porter-Jensen’s seat) tipped the campaign finance scales at a hefty $20,355, according to his Fair Political Practices Commission filings with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.
In Trustee Area 7, where incumbent Bob Benevento did not seek re-election, lone candidate Teresa Murillo is a shoo-in. But Murillo has accumulated $7,629.97 in unpaid bills to a company called “In Support,” according to her campaign finances.
Murillo said as a first-time candidate for any office she thought she needed a campaign manager and hired In Support and is thankful for their initial services. However, she no longer needed them once there were no other candidates and she is currently negotiating down the cost.
“It took me by surprise… I thought somebody else would be running against me,” Murillo said.
Trustee Area 6 incumbent Rick Badillo, who used the same services (he has a $3,780.95 tab with the company), described In Support as a campaign support group. However, In Support is not listed with the City of Gilroy’s Chamber of Commerce and could not be found on various Google searches conducted by the Times.The company is listed as based in Gilroy, according to Badillo and Murillo’s campaign finance disclosures.
“In Support is helping my campaign,” said Badillo, a construction project manager and military veteran seeking a second four-year term. “In my last campaign, I didn’t need any help. But since moving to the trustee area election, I needed all the support I could get.”
Outside money tipping scales in TA5 race?
While Arnett has attracted nearly two dozen individual donors from a cluster of family, friends and colleagues, the Senior Education Research Fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute received $17,000 in contributions from an organization known as Leadership for Educational Equity. He took in a similar amount to help fuel his June victory over opponent Pamela Torrisi—who questioned the source of those contributions prior to voters hitting the polls.
Arnett is by far the biggest breadwinner among the six November school board candidates, and has accepted more than $38,000 in campaign contributions over his two election cycles in the 2016 calendar year.
Arnett’s opponent in Area 5, challenger Angelica Diaz, reported one contribution of $684.32 coming from Torrisi’s Campaign Committee, left over from the previous election. Diaz and Arnett are both Live Oak High School graduates.
“I don’t see it entirely as a disadvantage,” said Diaz when asked about the huge discrepancy in campaign finances between herself and Arnett. “For me, as long as I gather enough money to hold meet-and-greets and have materials to go door-to-door, then getting out to the voters that’s what is most important.”
Diaz, however, was skeptical of why Arnett needed so much money in a small-town trustee area election where candidates need to reach about 5,900 potential voters in their district rather than throughout MHUSD like in the previous at-large election.
Diaz was not as critical as Arnett’s former adversary (Torrisi) was prior to the June election, but still was leery of Arnett’s five-figure support from Leadership for Educational Equity.
“I think it becomes an issue when we don’t know what the underlying interests are (from the funding source),” said Diaz, who garnered the TA5 endorsement from the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers.
Like he did in May, Arnett explained that LEE’s purpose is to support Teach For America alumni, such as himself, to help them make a difference in their local communities. He was comfortable accepting LEE’s donations because “they are a nonpartisan organization and they don’t have a policy or political agenda.”
“LEE is an organization I’m lucky to be be a part of because of my education background,” said Arnett. He joined the Teach For America program in 2009 and has since completed his two-year commitment.
“I’ve worked in education across the country (with Teach For America), I was a teacher in Kansas City, and now I am in education policy and research across the country,” Arnett added. “So I have a fairly strong network within education.”
Arnett said the funds raised have been used for sending out fliers and mailers to people in the community so they know his face and name when they go vote. He also placed huge value on getting out and knocking on resident doors.
“I feel fortunate to have (LEE’s support)…but I really think the biggest impact is going out and meeting the voters face to face,” Arnett said.
When asked about his campaign funding at the Sept. 29 candidates forum, Arnett stressed the many smaller donations he received from family, friends and colleagues rather than the big haul from LEE. He has received local support (between $50 to $250) from individuals such as Darryl Fry, a manager with U.S. Home Ownership; Erick Tuttle, a mechanical engineer with Google; Mark Evans, a technology licensing manager with Apple; and Michelle Helvey, Head of School at Oakwood.
Trustee Areas 6, 7 have outside funding
When it came to Arnett’s major donor, Trustee Area 6 candidate Mary Patterson had similar sentiments as Diaz. Patterson insisted she would have to share the same values of the donating group before even considering accepting their money.
“In terms of campaign donations, I don’t have a huge concern about the amounts. What I do have a concern about is who is giving it,” said Patterson, the Director of Strategic Partnerships at The Health Trust.
Patterson has raised $3,114 for her campaign with eight individual donors, including a pair of $500 contributions from her mother Joan Patterson of Modesto and friend Ed Swanson, an attorney in Mill Valley. Locally, she received $100 apiece from Julie Zintsmaster, former executive secretary and one-time board member with MHUSD; Roger Knopf and Larry McElvain.
Another TA6 challenger, internal education auditor Albert Beltran, has accepted a few hundred dollars in donations from family and friends, but is financing the majority of his own campaign. He said his focus remains on reaching out to voters as much as possible rather than raising more funds.
“For me, it’s not so much about money. It’s ‘what does your public profile say about you?,” said Beltran, who believes voters need to educate themselves. “As much as it’s our responsibility as trustees and candidates to go out and meet folks, I would hope other folks do outreach and look us up and find out who we are.”
Arnett is not alone with attracting huge sums from out-of-the-area organizations. Murillo ($1,000 donation) and Badillo ($1,500) both received funds from Sacramento-based Grow Elect, an organization that supports Latino Republican candidates running for office. Unlike In Support, Grow Elect is visible online at growelect.com, which states: “We believe political competition within the Latino community leads to more effective and honest government and more accountability for elected officials.”
Badillo, who raised a total of $4,280.95, according to his FPPC filings with the county, said Grow Elect representatives reached out to him and asked if he would consider their endorsement.
“They recognized my accomplishments as a MHUSD trustee for the last four years and felt someone like myself should be re-elected to continue the great work for our school district,” Badillo said.
Today is the opening of the early voting period for the Nov. 8 election. Approximately 585,000 ballots have been mailed out to voters throughout the county, according to the registrar’s office.
