Morgan Hill Unified School District incumbent candidates Rick Badillo and Tom Arnett received endorsements in the November 2016 election from the California Charter School Association Advocates, which announced its support to those running for offices in various races throughout the state.
Badillo, who is challenged in the Nov. 8 election for his board of education seat by newcomers Mary Patterson and Albert Beltran Jr. in Trustee Area 6, also accepted a $5,000 donation from CCSA Advocates to his campaign efforts, according to his latest California Fair Political Practices Commission filing with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Office.
This is the first year that MHUSD’s board of education seats are broken up into trustee areas rather than holding an at-large election. Therefore, candidates must reside in specific trustee areas to run for office. Voters must also live in those areas to partake.
Arnett, who has raised more than $20,000 for his second campaign of the calendar year with most coming from Washington, D.C.-based Leadership for Equity, is running against challenger Angelica Diaz in Trustee Area 5. Arnett did not receive any campaign funding from CCSA Advocates.
Beltran and Diaz were endorsed by the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers.
CCSA Advocates also endorsed Santa Clara County Board of Education incumbent candidates Grace Mah (Trustee Area 1), Rosemary Kamei (Trustee Area 3) and Joseph DiSalvo (Trustee Area 4).
“CCSA Advocates is proud to endorse candidates around the state who share our vision of reinventing California public education,” according to a posting by Steven Levin on the ccsaadvocates.org website.
“CCSA Advocates is dedicated to increasing the involvement of the charter school community in the political process, creating a pipeline of charter school supporters and activists, electing public officials who support California charter schools, and growing the political influence of the California charter school movement,” he continued.
