The two teachers’ union choices for school board spots got boosts to their campaign finance accounts as challenger candidates Angelica Diaz (Trustee Area 5) and Albert Beltran Jr. (Trustee Area 6) received monetary contributions from the California Federation of Teachers, its local members and other education-based sources.
Additionally, they got identical contributions from International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union 332 Education Fund ($250), the South County Democratic Club ($150), and the largest amount ($500) from the Santa Clara and San Benito Building and Construction Trades Council Political Action Committee.
Diaz previously reported less than $700 total from one donor (former classified union boss Pamela Torrisi’s leftovers from her June election) in her previous Fair Political Practices Commission filings with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. The mother of two, who welcomed $1,450 additional funds in her most recent filing, works as a director of a countywide health care consortium.
Diaz is running against short-term incumbent Tom Arnett, who has raised the most funds of any candidate with $16,000 of his $20,355 nest egg generated from Washington, D.C.-based Leadership for Educational Equity. Arnett, a father of two, is an education researcher and alumnus of the Teach For America program, which LEE values highly. Arnett and Diaz are Live Oak High School graduates.
Beltran is in a three-candidate race against incumbent Rick Badillo (who recently received an endorsement and $5,000 donation from the California Charter Schools Association) and first-time challenger Mary Patterson, who has garnered support from Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate and State Senator Jim Bell.
Beltran, an internal auditor specialist with San Jose Unified School District, also received $200 apiece from the MHFT and the California Federation of Teachers COPE, according to his most recent filing with the county. Along with his owns loans, Beltran is up to $5,423.84 in donations in which he has spent $4,951.64.
This is the first year that Morgan Hill Unified School District’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.
The CFT (of which the MHFT are the local chapter) issued a $200 contribution to Diaz’s campaign, while MHFT President Gemma Abels offered $100. Two Morgan Hill retirees Dolores Alvarado ($100) and Anne Rosenzweig ($150) contributed as well.
Patterson, the Director of Strategic Partnerships at The Health Trust and parent of two students in the district, is up to $5,806.30 in contributions and has spent $2,373.43 on her campaign so far, according to her FPPC filing with the county. Patterson’s funding does not come from any one organization. Instead, she has stockpiled donations from a wide variety of professionals, including $400 from Nell O’Donnell, a San Jose attorney with Brocade, and $200 from Ann Porteus, a professor at Stanford University.
Badillo, a construction manager seeking his second four-year term on the Morgan Hill Unified School District’s board of education, has $6,500 in campaign funding from two sources (CCSA and Sacramento-based Grow Elect, an organization that supports Latino Republican candidates running for office), according to his filings. Badillo has paid back $1,000 of his $3,780.95 tab with Gilroy campaign consultant In Support, which is also on the books with lone Trustee Area 7 candidate Teresa Murillo.
