L.A. mayor’s picks lead in schools race

Partial returns from Tuesday’s low-turnout, but free-spending, election appeared nearly certain to give Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a majority of allies on the school board. If they hold, the mayor will enjoy increased influence over the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Both of the mayor’s endorsed candidates had been favored to win, but faced spirited challenges.

The most-watched contest was in District 3 in the San Fernando Valley, where the mayor’s pick, Deputy City Atty. Tamar Galatzan, a 37-year-old mother of two preschool-age boys, surged comfortably ahead of one-term incumbent Jon M. Lauritzen, a 68-year-old retired teacher whose campaign was funded largely by the school district’s teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles.

In District 7, the Watts-to-Harbor area, retired senior school-district administrator Richard A. Vladovic led recently retired L.A. middle school principal Neal B. Kleiner. They were running to replace retiring incumbent Mike Lansing.

Galatzan and Vladovic would join two other Villaraigosa allies on the seven-member board: Yolie Flores Aguilar, who was elected in March, and Monica Garcia, elected last year.

Villaraigosa addressed a cast of city officials and well-wishers at the Galatzan victory party in Studio City. “This message is reverberating from San Pedro to the San Fernando Valley: It’s time to come together to say we want safer schools, smaller schools. Parents deserve a greater voice in their schools.”

In an earlier interview, he’d vowed to be personally assertive. “I didn’t get involved in this issue to play around the fringes,” he said. “I’m absolutely committed to this effort to turn around our schools.”

Villaraigosa’s support came with a flood of funding from a campaign committee he controlled. Vladovic outspent Kleiner by more than 13 to 1, pulling in $757,404.

The biggest spending occurred in the San Fernando Valley, where the teachers union defended Lauritzen, its closest ally on the school board. Villaraigosa’s break with Lauritzen was sealed when he joined five of six fellow board members to oppose Assembly Bill 1381, which sought to give Villaraigosa substantial authority over the school district. The school board’s subsequent lawsuit, which is working its way through the courts, has so far nullified the law on constitutional grounds.

A key provision of that law would have given Villaraigosa direct authority over three low-performing high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them. With a new board majority, he could belatedly revive that plan. His endorsed candidates have spoken favorably of it. But it’s not a done deal, especially because teachers union leaders, who once gave the concept their blessing, now appear to be opposed.

“There are enough problems in the district to go around,” Galatzan said Tuesday night. “This vote means that the way we’ll be able to tackle problems is to work with our partners -- and that includes the mayor, other electeds, the Police Department, the business community, and anyone else who wants to reform the district.”

At his West Valley gathering, Lauritzen said he’d like to see the mayor succeed in helping students graduate and find good jobs. His standing, as an incumbent, he said, suffered from repeated criticisms of L.A. Unified. And it also was hard to overcome his opponent’s money advantage.

As of Tuesday morning, the Lauritzen war chest totaled $1.3 million, while the Galatzan campaign had raised $2.83 million. Late contributions included more than $170,000 from a moderate Republican political action committee and $70,000 from the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

“A lot of money, including from the business PAC sponsored by the chamber, was invested in this election to make the point that our community is dissatisfied with the status quo,” chamber president and chief executive Gary Toebben wrote in an e-mailed newsletter.

In some parts of the city, campaign messages were simply unavoidable. And say, for example, you belonged to a demographically diverse household -- with a Republican and a Democrat, and perhaps more than one ethnicity -- you probably received 48 pieces of campaign mail and 10 rounds of calling from the Galatzan camp. And Galatzan spent some $800,000 on cable TV buys.

At Galatzan headquarters in Studio City on Monday, Van Nuys High School student volunteer caller Alex Morales encountered fatigue from a voter: “He said he was supporting Tamar, but don’t call him anymore.”

Galatzan had an edge in direct voter contact. Citing scheduling conflicts, Lauritzen appeared at only a handful of voter forums, relying instead on loyal deputies to stand in. Galatzan scheduled 16 neighborhood meet-and-greets, and showed up at such events as Sunday’s farmers market in Studio City, where she spent five hours. She stayed six hours in intermittent rain at a Sherman Oaks street fair.

Lauritzen, despite ongoing treatment for brain cancer, has shown strong stamina for all-day school board meetings, but scheduled few campaign-specific appearances. He relied instead on more than 400 teachers who spent time campaigning on his behalf.

In the end, the District 3 election came down to competing scenarios. Galatzan’s plan was to reach the population of likely voters, a bloc dominated by older residents and by those whose negative perception of the school district translated to anti-incumbent feelings.

But the union had a legitimate counter-strategy: Get teachers and other school district and union employees to the polls.

School-district employees -- their unions all endorsed Lauritzen -- live in households with at least 40,000 voters in District 3, out of about 316,000 registered voters. Only 41,000 registered voters cast ballots in March. Lauritzen had an estimated edge in this population of at least 20 percentage points.

The heart of the union campaign was about 60 visits to school sites, where union leaders reminded teachers that negotiations would soon begin on salaries and benefits. The plan was to have teachers walk precincts near their schools and to make sure they themselves voted.

Lauritzen already had pledged to maintain current benefits despite increased costs. Higher benefit costs would require budget cuts in other areas.

But as in the primary, where Galatzan finished first, it appears as though it was the older-than-55 crowd who performed.

“If the same voters turn out as last time, we will not win,” teachers union vice president Joshua Pechthalt had predicted.

Turnout figures were not available Tuesday evening, but in the March primary, about 13% of registered voters cast a ballot in District 3. Less than 10% voted in District 7, where precinct switches caused widespread problems. City officials expected similar figures Tuesday, with a large percentage having voted in advance by mail.

Tuesday’s one citywide election was a runoff for a seat on the board of the community college district. Early returns gave a slim lead to Georgia L. Mercer over challenger Roy Burns.

howard.blume@latimes.com

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Election results

*--* Board of Education District 3 26.48% precincts reporting votes percent Jon M. Lauritzen* 9,321 39.85 Tamar Galatzan 14,069 60.15 Board of Education District 7 50.22% precincts reporting votes percent Neal Kleiner 5,429 47.17 Richard Vladovic 6,081 52.83 Community College Seat 5 55.49% precincts reporting votes percent Roy Burns 44,122 49.26 Georgia L. Mercer* 45,452 50.74 State Assembly District 39 100% precincts reporting votes percent Margie Carranza (D) 558 5.22 Felipe Fuentes (D) 5,432 50.86 Eric Dwight Rothenay (D) 1,221 11.43 Felipe “Philip” Siordia (D) 1,326 12.42 Jose Bonilla Sr. (R) 2,143 20.07

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* incumbent