| With only 15 State Board of Education districts in all of Texas, running for office can be daunting for those who wish to serve. Twice the size of congressional districts, SBOE seats are gerrymandered to ensure the state board is Republican controlled, although it is split 8-7 on some of the most contentious issues from textbooks, religion, and sex education.
So while important, it's a tall order to challenge or switch these seats and in the past even serious Democratic challengers have not piled up huge sums of cash. In fact, the most any Democrat has raised is $100,000 by Laura Ewing in the District 7 race in 2008. Donna Howard raised $70,000 in the District 10 race back in 2000 where she held Republican incumbent Cynthia Thornton to a 50-45 margin.
Candidates running for the SBOE-10 seat held by Cynthia Dunbar include Democrat Judy Jennings, who has just reported having raised slightly over $10,000 in her first reporting period, with 85% of that still on hand. Former TX-10 write-in candidate Lorenzo Sadun has reported raising just over $3,500 (most of which is a personal loan by Sadun) and has retained an equivalent amount on hand.
Former Lee Leffingwell for Austin Mayor campaign staff member Susan Shelton, while considering her options, is not an announced candidate at this time. |
