Gershman Tops Foe in Fund Raising for School Board Race

Going into the final 10 days of a potentially pivotal campaign, incumbent Los Angeles school board member Alan Gershman is ahead in political fund raising, despite the backing his challenger is receiving from the district’s large teachers’ union.

Gershman, a two-term Westside representative targeted for defeat by the union, has raised nearly $91,000 since the first of the year, new campaign finance reports showed Friday. That is more than twice the $44,000 total of his chief opponent, Mark Slavkin, who has been drawing money and manpower from the 22,000-member United Teachers-Los Angeles.

This year’s election is significant in that the union is seeking to unseat Gershman as part of an effort to tilt the political balance of the board its way. The district is engulfed in a fierce, long-running battle over teacher pay raises as well as increasing teacher say in how to run neighborhood schools. The union currently has three close allies on the seven-member board, but Gershman has been among those who have resisted pay increases that he says would require deep cuts in instructional programs.

The gap in available cash between Gershman and Slavkin is more than two to one in the incumbent’s favor, the reports show. That could spell trouble for Slavkin this late in the race. In low-turnout school board races, several political consultants said, many voters make up their minds about candidates at the last minute and can be influenced by who is best able to pay to push their message through the mailbox.

Also, campaign contribution limits approved by California voters last year restrict the ability of groups such as the teachers’ union to dump large, last-minute sums of money into campaigns, as the union did two years ago. Under the new limits, the union can give only $5,000 directly, and has had to appeal to its members to make individual contributions.

Of the $37,000 Slavkin reported collecting during the last month, about $10,000 came from the union and several other teacher groups. A Slavkin campaign spokesman said several thousand dollars in individual contributions from teachers has been collected in the last several days and will be recorded in the next reporting period.

The teachers’ union still has valuable resources, including an ability to muster campaign volunteers. Because of the new contribution limits, “we’re going to have to increase the number of (teachers) who are going to be walking” precincts, said Marv Katz, a union vice president.

Gershman, meanwhile, appeared to have among his many contributors the school police union and a number of school district administrators. One of his largest donations, $1,000, came from the school district’s law firm, O’Melveny & Myers.

Incumbents in two other races also were well ahead in the fund-raising derby.

In the West San Fernando Valley, board member Julie Korenstein, who is seeking her first full term with strong teacher union backing, had collected a total of $74,584, more than three times that raised by any challenger. Katz of the teachers’ union said he believed much of Korenstein’s $32,000 in small contributions from unidentified donors had come from teachers. “I think there is more passion for Korenstein than Slavkin because she has” proven she is sympathetic to teachers, Katz said.

In the East Valley race, where the union is neutral, veteran board member Roberta Weintraub has collected more than $85,000 and still has most of it available. She has a broad array of donors, including district contractors, businessmen, non-teaching unions and Republican activists. Her chief opponent, physician-screenwriter Barry Pollack, has raised a total of about $30,000 this year, the majority of it in personal loans he made to his campaign.