{"id":6657,"date":"2011-04-28T12:21:13","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T16:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=6657"},"modified":"2011-04-29T09:34:28","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T13:34:28","slug":"wake-republicans-look-to-boost-majority-on-school-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2011\/04\/28\/wake-republicans-look-to-boost-majority-on-school-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake Republicans Look to Boost Majority on School Board"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORRECTION APPENDED: An editing error attributed a quote to school board candidate Heather Losurdo when Wake Republican Party Chair Susan Bryant actually said the quote below that begins: \u201cHaving been treated pretty badly by Democrats in the past.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Wake County Republican Party isn\u2019t pulling any punches as the local election season ramps up.<\/p>\n

From recent inflammatory comments by conservative school board member John Tedesco to the first Republican school board candidacy announcement, Wake Republicans are coming out swinging.<\/p>\n

Much is at stake on the Wake County Board of Education<\/a>. Of the five seats up for grabs Oct. 11 \u2014 a majority of the nine-member board \u2014 Democratic incumbents hold four.<\/p>\n

Chair Ron Margiotta is the only Republican on the board up for re-election.<\/p>\n

Susan Bryant, Wake Republicans\u2019 party chair, expressed measured confidence in the party\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never count votes before the election,\u201d she said. \u201cWe anticipate in all districts candidates running as Republicans. The race has become very partisan. We\u2019re not going to do anything but elect our candidates to be the strongest school board members as they can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Republican challenger\u2019s hat is already in the ring.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Heather Losurdo stepped down as chair of the Northern Wake Republican Club<\/a> and announced her intention to run in District 3 against incumbent Kevin Hill.<\/p>\n

Losurdo made her announcement at a Northern Wake Republicans event attended by Republican board members Tedesco, Margiotta, Chris Malone and Deborah Prickett. Of the conservative board majority, only Debra Goldman, who has voted against the majority in its attempts to move to neighborhood school assignments, was not invited.<\/p>\n

Each board member had a chance to speak to the Northern Wake group. Tedesco took the opportunity to lambaste liberal groups such as the NAACP and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, lumping them in with the anarchist group NC Fist as an \u201cunholy trinity\u201d of \u201ccowards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Tedesco\u2019s comments have been widely criticized, including in an editorial in The News & Observer, Bryant doesn\u2019t foresee them negatively impacting Republican campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s John\u2019s opinion,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cHe has a strong base of supporters. I\u2019m certainly one of them. Sometimes it\u2019s better to say what\u2019s going on. If we don\u2019t speak up nobody else will on those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

One issue Republicans have control over now is the school board redistricting plan created by Shanahan Law Group. As of now, prior to a public hearing and possible revision, all incumbents remain in their districts, as does Losurdo.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving been treated pretty badly by Democrats in the past, we\u2019re going to keep [the redistricting process] as fair and open as possible. We know what it means to be isolated. It\u2019s a lonely feeling,\u201d Bryant said.<\/p>\n

Redistricting and popular support aside, money is often a deciding factor in elections. In 2009, a huge influx of money from Tea Party-affiliated groups helped sweep the current conservative school board majority into office.<\/p>\n

Whether Republicans can keep up with Democratic fundraising this year is an open question.<\/p>\n

In the first three months of this year, the Wake County Democratic Party raised more than $41,000, up from about $37,000 in January-March of 2010 and $38,000 in the same period of 2009.<\/p>\n

Official tallies for Wake Republican contributions were not available at the time of this story\u2019s publication, but Bryant estimated that they reached about $25,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we can compete money-wise, but we can with voter opinion, and that\u2019s the important thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As of April 18, Hill\u2019s campaign had raised $8,000. As of April 19, Losurdo had raised $2,155.<\/p>\n

Read more about the Democrats\u2019 organizing<\/a> ahead of the Oct. 11 school board election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From recent inflammatory comments by conservative school board member John Tedesco to the first Republican school board candidacy announcement, Wake Republicans are coming out swinging. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,55],"tags":[199,64,66],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}