California schools chief primary race draws a surge in outside spending. Here’s the data

When it comes to campaign finance filings by candidates for the state superintendent of public instruction, the big movement in recent weeks has been in independent expenditures.

In late April and early May — late in the cycle compared to the 2018 state superintendent primary race — outside organizations began spending to support their preferred candidate. Most notably, the California Teachers Association’s independent expenditure committee spent over $5 million on consulting and ads to support Richard Barrera, a longtime San Diego Unified board trustee, with the California Charter School Association spending an additional $40,000 on TV and online ads for him.

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There was less movement on direct donations to campaigns.

Between the previous April 18 campaign finance filings and the May 16 deadline, the last before Tuesday’s primary, candidates for state superintendent of public instruction raised more than $300,000 in direct monetary donations. That’s an increase of 18% over the previous total across the eight candidates who filed their forms electronically.

Anthony Rendon, a former state Assembly speaker, saw both the most money and the largest increase with nearly $155,000. The total monetary donations to his campaign increased by 36% — though he also came into the race with $1.1 million from his previous campaign for state treasurer. Al Muratsuchi, a state Assembly member, is second with $61,000 in contributions, followed by Josh Newman, a senior fellow at UC Irvine, with $42,000.

While not at the top in totals, Sonja Shaw, board president of the Chino Valley Unified School District, added the most individual donors, with 318 people or organizations giving to her campaign for the first time since the last filing. Barrera’s outside support also comes with direct donors, with 195 new first-time donors in the latter half of April and first half of May. While Rendon’s monetary contributions led the pack, he only added 37 new donors, although that more than doubled his previous total of 28.

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