Sacramento teachers union drops tens of thousands of dollars on school board races
The Sacramento City Unified teachers’ union has given two candidates for school board huge donations in the final stretch of their campaigns against incumbent trustees.
The Sacramento City Teachers Association’s political action committee gave Jasjit Singh $38,000 on Oct. 20 and gave $52,000 to Taylor Kayatta on Oct. 22, campaign finance disclosures show.
As of Sept. 24, they had given only $10,000 to each candidate, and an additional $10,000 to teacher Tara Jeane, who is running for an open seat in Area 1, which represents Land Park and midtown.
The union is backing nonprofit director Singh over Trustee Leticia Garcia in the Sacramento City Unified School District’s Area 2, which covers East Sacramento and Tahoe Park. In Area 6, covering Pocket/Greenhaven, the teachers’ organization is supporting Kayatta, a state attorney, over Trustee Darrel Woo.
The election follows an eight-day strike that shut down the school district last spring. It led to a labor agreement that boosted salaries for teachers, provided bonuses to them and addressed a number of issues related to spending on COVID-19 precautions. It was the union’s fourth vote to strike over five years and its second actual walkout over that period.
In total, the teachers’ union has given $73,799.27 to Kayatta, including in-kind contributions.
The results are showing up in voters’ mailboxes: Kayatta spent $24,365.68 on postage between Sept. 25 and Oct. 22.
The union is sending post cards on behalf of Kayatta and Singh. Each card features a teacher expressing support for a candidate.
In 2020, the teachers union spent even more money on a single candidate, giving over $100,000 to Lavinia Grace Phillips for her ultimately successful campaign to unseat then-school board president Jessie Ryan. Campaign finance disclosures show that Ryan raised nearly $27,000 more than Phillips.
This year, Service Employees International Union Local 1021 has also given $10,000 each to Kayatta, Singh and Jeane.
Neither Woo nor Garcia has received such significant support from organized labor.
Since Sept. 25, at least seven candidates from other races have given significant donations to Garcia. Democratic Assemblyman Kevin McCarty’s reelection campaign gave her $25,000. McCarty is Garcia’s husband.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s campaign gave Garcia $1,500, while a committee controlled by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia gave $1,000 on Oct. 17.
This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 6:30 AM.
