The race for State Superintendent of Instruction in California is the most expensive in history for a top state education
job. California-based Capital & Main predicts the spending will top $50 million, with Marshall Tuck outspending Tony Thurmond by 2-1.
All the usual billionaires have clustered behind Tuck—the Waltons, Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, Reed Hastings, etc.
The Republican Party has embraced Tuck. Its gubernatorial candidate John H. Cox endorsed Tuck on Saturday on Twitter.
But that’s not all.
The billionaires want this job, and they want it bad. Tuck is their man. He is also the Republican party’s man.
Capitol & Main writes:
One problem with having the Walmart Waltons foot a candidate’s bills is the presumptive link to the far-right agenda of Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos. Carrie Walton Penner’s support for DeVos included a board seat on her pet pro-voucher organization, Alliance for School Choice. Tuck’s moneyed backers are also betting big on neoliberal neophyte Buffy Wicks (and against progressive firebrand Jovanka Beckles) to fill Thurmond’s Assembly District 15 seat. If successful, Wicks could help dilute any legislative fixes of charters before they reach the desk of Gavin Newsom, the gubernatorial bête noir of the California Charter School Association.
One advantage to having Walmart-sized buying power is traction. In mid-October, EdVoice’s $8.55 million “thermonuclear” media response to a $3 million pro-Thurmond ad buy had Tuck squeaking ahead in the polls by October 24.
That lead widened in last Wednesday’s University of California, Berkeley IGS Poll, with Tuck polling 48 percent to Thurmond’s 36 (although a self-survey on iSideWith.com has Thurmond at 46 and Tuck at 34). The poll noted that 64 percent of Republicans favored Tuck, compared to 14 percent for Thurmond.
Tuck’s appeal to the right is no accident. Last week, members of California’s congressional delegation called on Tuck to disavow the $233,000 EdVoice has spent to plaster his face on Republican slate mailers around the state. During the primary, Tuck appeared on reelection mailers for key Trump allies Devin Nunes (R-CA 22) and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA 23). This time out, Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA 13) complained, he’s effectively helping Republicans in districts key to Democratic hopes to flip Congress in Tuesday’s hoped-for blue wave. They include the 25th District, where 31-year-old Katie Hill appears poised to knock out Republican Steve Knight, and the 45th District, where UC Irvine law professor Katie Porter hopes to retire Orange County Trump loyalist Mimi Walters. And on Saturday, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox tweeted his endorsement of Tuck, alongside that of Republican EdVoice cofounder Steve Poizner for state insurance commissioner.
Tuck is also taking heat for EdVoice attack ads tarring Thurmond with racially tinged falsehoods. On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California objected to its name being used on a Tuck slate mailer that doubled down on debunked claims in an EdVoice TV spot that the Obama White House “reprimanded” Thurmond over mishandling of Title IX claims when he was a school board member. That ad earned Tuck an angry censure by state Democratic Party Women’s Caucus Chair Christine Pelosi and Southern Chair Carolyn Fowler, along with NAACP Hawaii president Alice Huffman, over the ad’s alleged use of racist “dog whistles” and for “being willing to weaponize children’s trauma.”
The record-shattering spending on Tuck ultimately mirrors the threat level that a Sacramento without Jerry Brown represents to EdVoice executive director Bill Lucia. With Gavin Newsom ahead of his Republican opponent, John Cox, by 18 points in Wednesday’s poll, Newsom’s pledges for greater accountability and a moratorium on further expansion in charter-heavy districts are the stuff that keeps California school privatizers turning in their sleep. Of the supe candidates, Tuck alone has flatly rejected a “pause” in favor of limited financial help to those districts for orderly downsizing through school closures and mass teacher layoffs. For the laissez-faire ed-reform faithful, “disruption” is proof that deregulated markets and robust competition are working.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ask an ed reformer this question.
If teachers unions donating to a candidate mean that a candidate will be wholly controlled by teachers unions, then why doesn’t this same logic apply to ed reform candidates who are backed by the Walton heirs?
They can’t have it both ways. If their claim is teachers unions buy elections and candidates then that is also true of the 5 billionaires who run ed reform.
They were able to cripple the influence of labor unions with that supreme court case they all backed- now how do we limit the influence of the Walton heirs?
All they did was clear the field so there’s no pushback at all to the 5 billionaires who run this “movement”. There’s LESS speech as a result of their efforts. Now we get the Walton heirs opinions on educational policy and that’s ALL we get.
I read that 90% of California students attend public schools. Ninety per cent. Why in God’s name would anyone elect someone who is ideologically opposed to the existence of the schools ninety per cent of families in California use?
That’s ludicrous. Don’t hire people who want to eradicate public schools to run public schools. That doesn’t make any sense and it won’t go well for your public school student.
We learned that in Ohio. It took 15 years, but we finally figured it out “why are our public schools taking a hit every year? Because we hired a bunch of public employees who oppose their very existence?” Yes. That was the answer.
Billionaire Bob Bloomfield paid for a 2-page “wrapper” around the LA Times yesterday, touting Tuck.
Think how great “the debate” will be when ed reformers succeed in their goal of eradicating labor unions. Then we’ll have a “debate” that consists of 5 billionaires and their employees.
A real free speech victory. Good job. Like “the movement” wasn’t lock step and cliquish enough- now we get to hear from the Waltons and the Zuckerbergs and the Gates and the Arnold with zero pushback.
You could conduct an ed reform “debate” in my living room and have empty chairs. All the big decisions have been made. They quibble over the details. Can they do “charter lite” or is that for ideological squishes and the best approach is to just to buy school systems outright? This is the extent of the “debate”.
The only way they could fill a room larger than your living room is by sending in paid staff.
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
Marshall Tuck is an extremist Republican pretending to be a Democrat. Tuck has been endorsed by the Republican Party. Tuck’s campaign funds and support come from conservative billionaires in and out of the state. Tuck has been endorsed by the GOP candidate for governor of California. Tuck’s and his campaign supporters are spreading lies to tarnish the real Democrat who is Tony Thurmond. A vote for Tuck is a vote for extremist, conservative autocratic billionaires and their nightmare agenda for the United States.
Tuck calling himself a Democrat should be considered fraud.
Agree. “he’s effectively helping Republicans in districts key to Democratic hopes to flip Congress in Tuesday’s hoped-for blue wave.”