EL CAJON – Donors have poured more than $500,000 into two hotly contested East County school board races, according to campaign reports.
More than $250,000 has flowed into the race for three seats for the Grossmont Union High School District's Governing Board. Local unions, Republican leaders and an Indian tribe are key donors.
About $260,000 has streamed into the race for four seats on the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District's Governing Board, tens of thousands from a political action committee targeting the three incumbents.
The large amounts are raising eyebrows even among longtime incumbents.
“I've never seen the GOP pour this kind of money into a school board race,” said Priscilla Schreiber, a trustee in the Grossmont Union district who is not up for re-election.
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Donation totals
Campaign contributions totaled more than $500,000 through October in two high profile East County school board races.
GROSSMONT UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT
Ken Sobel: $75,915.78
Richard “Dick” Hoy: $57,241
Jim Kelly: $50,365.73
Shari Groce: $31,037.72
Robert Shield: $25,045.73
Andrew Sundstrom: $13,315
GROSSMONT-CUYAMACA COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT
Arkan Somo: $60,190
Shannon O'Dunn: $33,549
Mary Kay Rosinski: $5,594
Greg Barr: $3,576.50
Larry Octon: $3,220
Friends and Neighbors of Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges: $84,367.28 (supports incumbents Deanna Weeks, Bill Garrett and Rick Alexander)
Citizens for Educational Responsibility: $68,429.27 (supports challengers Rosinski, Octon, O'Dunn and Barr)
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Rick Alexander, a Grossmont-Cuyamaca board member since 1990, said the amount raised in his election is the highest he's ever seen.
At stake in Tuesday's race is control of the boards that oversee the two largest school districts in East County.
In the Grossmont Union board race, Jim Kelly has raised more than $50,000, mostly in cash donations. Kelly, the lone incumbent running, has been board president since his election in 2002 and is a target of the teachers' union.
Kelly's re-election committee has also donated $1,500 to challengers Shari Groce and Robert Shield, who have raised $31,000 and $25,000 respectively. The three have been endorsed by the San Diego County Republican Party.
The Republican Central Committee recently gave $6,446.72 to each candidate, according to a contribution report filed last week.
Each received $3,300 in nonmonetary contributions from the Lincoln Club of San Diego, a Republican donor, and $1,000 each from the Mark Wyland for Senate campaign. Wyland, a Republican, is running for a North County state Senate seat.
Kelly's campaign also received $15,000 from Merrick and Associates, a mechanical engineering design firm in San Diego that is doing construction work for the district. Two members of the Merrick family who work for the firm also contributed $5,000 each.
Republican ties run deep on the Grossmont Union board. Outgoing trustee Ron Nehring chairs the San Diego County Republican Party, and Kelly chairs the party's candidate recruitment committee.
While all five Grossmont Union board members are Republican, infighting has left them divided over Kelly's candidacy. Trustees Larry Urdahl and Priscilla Schreiber have endorsed challengers Richard “Dick” Hoy and Ken Sobel.
Sobel, Hoy and Andrew Sundstrom are receiving support from the Grossmont Education Association, which is the teachers union, and other labor associations.
Of the six candidates, Sobel has raised the most cash and non-monetary contributions, about $76,000. Hoy is next with $57,000. Sundstrom has raised about $13,000.
Sobel, Hoy and Sundstrom each reported more than $10,000 in nonmonetary contributions from the Grossmont Board Election Committee, whose La Mesa address is the same as the Grossmont Education Association's. Services included phone banking, printing and direct mailing.
Sobel and Hoy were aided recently by large donations from the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in El Cajon. Each received $7,000 in cash. The band also reported spending more than $20,000 on each candidate for mailers and phone banking.
Sobel said the band may have contributed because its members' children attend district schools. Sycuan officials could not be reached for comment.
In the Grossmont-Cuyamaca district, the election is competitive largely because of heavy fundraising by a political action committee that has targeted incumbents Deanna Weeks, Bill Garrett and Rick Alexander.
Citizens for Educational Responsibility, which formed last year, has raised more than $68,000, mostly in cash donations, and spent it on four challengers: Shannon O'Dunn, Larry Octon, Mary Kay Rosinski and Greg Barr. Its largest donation, $16,000, came from the United Faculty, which represents faculty members at both colleges in the district.
The political action committee is led by Grossmont College faculty members who have been at odds over a variety of issues with Weeks, Garrett and Alexander.
O'Dunn, Octon, Rosinski and Barr are also running individual campaigns. O'Dunn has raised a significant amount, $33,549. Octon, Rosinski and Barr have raised $3,220, $5,994 and $3,576.50 respectively.
Weeks, Garrett and Alexander are running as a slate, and their committee, Friends and Neighbors of Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges, has raised $84,367.28. Donors include business owners, professionals, local elected officials, faculty from Cuyamaca College and special care centers. Gafcon, the project manager for bond construction in the district, donated $7,170.
The three have endorsed Arkan Somo for the fourth seat, which was left vacant after the death of Wendell Cutting earlier this year.
Somo has raised more than $60,000, nearly half of it in loans and donations to himself.
Leonel Sanchez: (619) 542-4568; leonel.sanchez@uniontrib.com
