Here’s how money influenced school board and bond measure races in Sacramento County
Candidates for school board seats in Sacramento County raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund their campaigns in 2024.
In six of the 11 races for school board seats, the better-funded candidate pulled ahead. In three of the races where they did not, an incumbent or existing office holder won.
Collectively, 25 candidates raised a total of around $830,000.
Spending is also associated with the success of local school bond measures, although several measures did not have funded support or opposition campaigns.
Teachers union spends big in Sacramento City Unified
The district whose candidates raised the most money was by far Sacramento City Unified School District, where five candidates raised more than $266,000. Jose Navarro and April Ybarra, winners of Trustee Area 3 and Area 7 seats respectively, were the top earners in their races thanks to support by Sacramento City Teachers Association.
SCTA spent a total of $217,000 in independent expenditures on their two favored candidates. The majority of the money went to fund mailers and to canvasser salaries.
Despite being the single top campaign contributor in Sacramento school races, the teachers association PAC spent less than half as much as it did to elect its endorsed candidates in the last election. In 2022, SCTA spent $515,540 to elect board members Tara Jeane, Jasjit Singh and Taylor Kayatta.
In 2020, SCTA spent $450,865 to support candidates in four trustee areas. Two of these candidates, Lavinia Phillips and Chinua Rhodes, won.
Ybarra and Navarro will take their oaths of office at the end of the year, alongside Michael Benjamin II, who ran unopposed for Area 7, replacing Phillips. Once the three new trustees take their oath of office, every member of the Sacramento City Unified school board will have been endorsed by SCTA.
Spending in other districts
Teachers unions also played a prominent role in Elk Grove Unified and Natomas Unified School District races, although to lesser degrees of success.
In Elk Grove, Susan Davis defeated incumbent Tony Perez, who did not raise or spend any money campaigning, for the Area 1 seat. Davis received around $26,000 in support from the Elk Grove Education Association.
In Area 6, EGEA-supported Jennifer Ballerini won over Jacqueline Ortiz. Ballerini narrowly outearned her opponent with $41,000 to Ortiz’s $36,000.
Area 7 is one race where the candidate with cash was not successful. Heidi Moore, a parents rights activist with backing from a committee that has supported the Sacramento County Republican Party called the Citizens for Accountable Local Government, won her three-way race with 44% of the vote. The remaining votes were split between EGEA-supported Rehana Rehman, who outearned Moore by $7,000, and incumbent Carmine Forcina, who reported no campaign contributions.
Lower spenders also proved successful in the two races for seats on the Natomas Unified School District board. Area 3 incumbent Micah Grant prevailed over challengers Jonathan Cook and Sally Trevino Gobea despite raising about half of the funds that Cook did ($28,500 to $57,850). Cook earned significant support from the district teachers union while Grant money largely came from individual donations, plus $1,000 from WECA Good Government PAC, a group representing electric contractors which aims to fight the influence of labor unions in California.
In a close race in Area 5, Sumiti Mehta beat Monique Langer despite heavy last minute investment in Langer by the district teachers union. Mehta, who raised around $43,000, surpassed Langer, who raised around $53,000, with 50.8% of the vote.
No teachers union spending
Teachers unions in Folsom Cordova Unified and San Juan Unified School Districts did not publicly endorse or financially support any candidates. Overall campaign contributions were the two lowest among the five large districts with school board races in Sacramento County, $77,000 for the two Folsom Cordova Unified races and $96,000 for the two in San Juan Unified.
Despite raising under one-fifth of the funding that his opponent did, current Folsom City Councilmember YK Chalamcherla pulled ahead of Dianna Laney for the Area 2 seat. Laney gained nearly $37,000 in campaign contributions, largely from loans she made herself to the campaign. She also received support from the Citizens for Accountable Local Government PAC.
In San Juan Unified’s Area 2 race, incumbent and top-earner Pam Costa succeeded over Jennifer Morgan, who raised $10,000, and Sharif, who reported no campaign contributions.
Nick Bloise, whose campaign finances largely came from the Citizens for Accountable Local Government, both outearned and defeated his two opponents for San Juan Unified’s Area 4 race.
How campaign money affected school bond measures
School board race funding pales in comparison to the millions local teachers unions, labor management committees, architects, investment groups and contractors spent to pass bond measures in 2024. Highly-funded support campaigns were associated with school bond measures passing in the Sacramento region.
Sacramento City Unified’s Measure D received the most financial support, totaling $415,000. The measure flew past the approval threshold of 55% with 74% yes votes.
Measure P, which would fund schools in San Juan Unified, trailed just behind in terms of funding, raising $392,000. It won with 60% of the vote.
The Yes on N campaign in support of Elk Grove Unified’s bond measure also received a considerable amount of support, totaling $300,000. One of the biggest single donations ($49,000) came from ICU Technologies, a company that creates security systems for K12 schools. It won with 60% of the vote.
Measures R and S, which covered one area of Folsom Cordova Unified, raised $290,000 in campaign contributions. Each measure won with around 67% of the vote.
Measures M, J and H, for small districts Arcohe Union, Elverta Joint Elementary and Galt Joint Union Elementary respectively, did not receive any financial support. Measure M failed, while Measures H and J narrowly passed with 55.1% and 57% of the vote, respectively.
This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 7:00 AM.
CORRECTION: Candidate Monique Langer received $53,000 in support of her campaign for Natomas Unified School District’s Area 5. And the total amount Sacramento County school board candidates raised was around $830,000. The amount of Langer’s campaign contributions was incorrect in an earlier version.
