The Red Queen in LA offers a brief tutorial on the meaning of the astonishing electoral victory of Monica Ratliff—and before that, the remarkable upset win of Steve Zimmer.
Both ran against a barrage of out-of-state millions. Zimmer had the support of UTLA, Ratliff did not.
No one thought that either had a chance. Ratliff raised about $50,000 in small donations. Her opponent had millions.
Both won by the same 52-48 margin.
What does it mean?
It means the board has a majority that will rein in John Deasy. It may mean the board will slow down or stop the wildfire growth of unaccountable charters. It may mean a careful review of teacher evaluation methods.
It certainly means that the board will slow down the rush to privatize public education in LA.
That’s great news.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The reality is that UTLA did not put Zimmer over the top. Jeneen Robinson’s 8,000 votes did. She decided it was better to have Zimmer as a board member rather than Kate Anderson and asked her 8,000 followers who would have voted for her as a write in to vote for Zimmer to prevent Kate Anderson, the super devil, from obtaining that board seat. As a result Zimmers vote was the vote that put over the top the limitation of board president to 2 years. Monica Garcia will never be board president again. She served for 6 years and I have the documented proof of how far down LAUSD has gone during her tenure.
Monica Ratliff also won by the same margin. I do not know exactly what put her over the top but obviously there was blowback to buying the LAUSD board and it did not hurt that finally Diane Ravich and others came on board at the end. It still equaled a win. Amazingly enough UTLA backed both candidates and their true feelings were shown election night as the top UTLA leaders were at the Sanchez function on election night not with Monica Ratliff which I find good as she now owes them nothing. She is not independent as her base is the people not organizations. This is refreshing. She won on PEOPLE POWER. I think this signals the end of buying of boards of education nationwide. At least I hope so. If we can do it here without big financing in these races and in stopping the $90 billion Measure J it can be done again and must be replicated so as to tell them “Enough is enough!” It is time for the people to speak before it is too late. Politics is a twisted world and it is the world of “The Art of the Possible.” You must be able to think outside of the box. This is how these elections were won without big money in at least two of them and that which put them over the top was with PEOPLE POWER not BIG MONEY.
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That wouldn’t be bad at all if, as in most countries, that time were professional–working with colleagues, reviewing films, lessons, etc.
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