I've got nothing but love (or like) for KPCC, and even give them money, but they sometimes screw up, and Adolfo Guzman Lopez got the sides wrong in the school board race.

"By election day, more than $5.8 million dollars had poured into the races, $4.8 million of it in the form of independent expenditures made to benefit candidates by outside groups. In this case, the [charter school] coalition on one side and UTLA, SEIU 99 and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor on the other. The coalition vastly outspent the labor groups."

That dynamic only applied in the Zimmer vs. Anderson race. Zimmer had the advantage because he's got boots on the ground, and is liked locally. Labor spending helped prevent the massacre that massive funding for Anderson could have wrought.

But beyond that, KPCC has it wrong. Someone needs to fact-check.

If you look at the City Ethics Commission website, you'll see that not only were Garcia and Sanchez supported by the charter coalition, they were also supported by the LA County Federation of Labor, and SEIU. The only opponent to this charter-favoring juggernaut was the UTLA, and only against Garcia. UTLA supported Sanchez.

http://ethics.lacity.org/disclosure/campaign/search/public_ie_search_results.cfm?showall=yes&elec_seat_id=184&include=IE&viewtype=pf#

http://ethics.lacity.org/disclosure/campaign/search/public_ie_search_results.cfm?showall=yes&elec_seat_id=186&include=IE&viewtype=pf

WOW, huh?

So the real surprise in this race is Monica Ratliff, who got 34% of the vote with basically no campaign funding, and no labor or charter-coalition support, but a solid LA Times endorsement. She and Cano and Zuniga prevented Sanchez from sweeping vote, and he's now forced into a runoff election. This is the real story hidden in the battle. Who voted for her, and why?