CTA pours extra money into Torlakson-Tuck race

Polls have shown the race between Superintendent of Public Schools Tom Torlakson and fellow Democrat Marshall Tuck to be within the margin of error, but I’m hearing there was a big infusion of CTA funds to run attack ads Monday night. That suggests internal polls have the Torlakson camp worried.
But a Field Poll from last week may worry Tuck’s camp. This is from the Contra Costa Times:
Torlakson leads by 7 percentage points among white voters — who the poll finds account for 70 percent of the likely electorate — but Tuck leads by 13 points among Latino voters and by a whopping 38 points among African-American voters.
Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley education professor, said “working-class Latinos and blacks are not at all happy with their neighborhood schools, so it appears they’re backing the insurgent candidate.”
In the long run, this is gigantic bad news for Democrats — a split between minority voters and teachers unions, two of the party’s most essential blocs. But this election, this dynamic may haunt Tuck, because turnout is expected to be much lower among Latinos and blacks.
Here are more basic election numbers from the California Secretary of State’s Office:
17,803,823 Californians registered to vote in the November 4 general election
(17,285,883 Californians registered to vote in the November 2010 general election (last comparable election))
24,435 Precincts throughout the state’s 58 counties
9.1 million Vote-by-mail ballots issued, as reported by county elections officials
(7.7 million vote-by-mail ballots issued in November 2010, as reported by county elections officials)
4,147,359 Voters registered with no political party preference (23.3% of registered voters)
5,005,422 Voters registered with Republican Party preference (28.1% of registered voters)
7,708,683 Voters registered with Democratic Party preference (43.3% of registered voters)
153 Legislative and congressional seats up for election: 20 State Senate (all even-numbered districts), 80 State Assembly, 53 U.S. House of Representatives
79.5% Highest turnout percentage of registered voters in a non-presidential general election (1958)
50.6% Lowest turnout percentage of registered voters in a non-presidential general election (2002)
28 Days county elections officials have to complete vote-tallying and auditing after election day
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The last thing the CTA wants is a reformer who would challenge them and pull Calif. up from the bottom of the states in school scores. They prefer to stay at the bottom and keep their pension payments flowing.
Yawn. Pension articles so boring. Too bad doomers are so envious….coveting is a sin…..and give to Ceasar what is Cesar’s……
If white voters account for 70% of the electorate why does the media always go on rants about the importance of the black or hispanic votes? If I were a politician who was serious about getting elected I would spend most of my time catering to the white people, given that 70% figure. In my spare time I would mingle with the blacks and the hispanics. Why doesn’t the media ever talk about the importance of the white vote? Not politically correct? Just looking for some straightforward honesty.
I voted for Tuck. He will probably turn out to be a back stabber like all the rest eventually do. But we already know what Torlakson is. And there are only 2 candidates in the race as far as I know. Eenee-meanie-minee-moe.
Wed: one plus two equals four. Or does it?
Went to my favorite old coffee shop in Tustin for breakfast today. First time in almost nine months.
I tried to do the math. The familar big board signs laying out the menu had tape over the painted prices and they were replaced with chicken scrawled alarming prices….$9.37 for a fish burger combo, $8.95 for the heartburn special: bacon, eggs and those coveted semi-burnt hash browns….and add in $2.25 for bottomless coffee in new ceramic cups half the size of those on my last visit. With tax your stunned with a bill of over $10.00 BUCKS!
Only four others in the place frowning not believing the math. And the $15.00 minimum wage has not come to the OC.
Why such a post….no one working there can do the math, exploited service workers obviously making the low end of “ends meet”.
Such excess in Sacramento while us, the forgotten, in the Tustin coffee shop can’t believe their math either!