madison nguyen
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</div><div>=</div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.scpr.org/news/2016/11/11/66059/flood-of-spending-by-charter-advocates-leads-to-el/">https://www.scpr.org/news/2016/11/11/66059/flood-of-spending-by-charter-advocates-leads-to-el/</a></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><hr class="o-articleb-rule b-rule b-rule--padded-small" style="margin: 31.5px 0px 31.5px 166.359px; padding: 0px; background: rgb(232, 232, 232); border: 0px; display: inline-block; height: 1px; width: 624.609px;" /><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><aside class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font></p><div class="o-articlebody" style="margin-left: 166.359px; width: 624.609px; display: inline-block; overflow: hidden;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Charter school advocates flooded state legislative races with more than $19 million in campaign spending — and mostly got the results they were seeking. </b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 1;"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In seven of eight races where charter advocates made at least $900,000 in "independent expenditures," the candidate they supported will advance to Sacrament</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">o. That's according to a KPCC review of election results and campaign finance records.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 2;"><b>Richard Garcia of the California Charter Schools Association Advocates</b> said those millions of dollars were money well spent.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 3;">"It seems that the voters recognized what we recognized in these candidates," Garcia said. "It's a big win for those who value their right to choice in education."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 4;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Garcia's group is linked to the<b> Parent Teacher Alliance</b>, one of the two main charter spenders.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> The other big spender was<b> EdVoice</b>'s independent expenditure committee. The two groups spent a combined $18.4 million trying to get their favored candidates to seats in Sacramento.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 5;">In fact, <b>EdVoice and the Parent Teacher Alliance were the number one and two outside spenders in state legislative races, beating out groups backed by political heavyweights like the oil industry and developers.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 6;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> you add an additional $930,000 from two smaller pro-charter committees — Parents and Teachers for Student Success and CCSA Advocates's independent expenditure group — the total reaches $19.4 million from charter groups. The money they spend is separate from actual candidates' campaigns.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 7;"><a href="http://162.243.135.6/elections/general-2016-11-08/playlist/state-legi-races-with-charter-money-to-track/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;"><strong>RELATED: Election results in the races charter groups targeted</strong></a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 8;">Not everyone was on board with the charter groups' aims.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 9;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Their one big defeat came in the 27th Assembly District, representing the San Jose area. There, the Parent Teacher Alliance dumped more than $4 million into an effort to elect Madison Nguyen — the most any group spent in a single race.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 10;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Yet </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">San Jose city councilman Ash Kalra <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/09/san-jose-councilman-ash-kalra-pulls-ahead-of-27th-assembly-rival-madison-nguyen/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">defeated Nguyen in that race</a>. A union group was active there, pouring more than $1.2 million into the contest, which funded a big chunk of negative spending against Nguyen.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; order: 11;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That dynamic was flipped in the 14th Assembly District, where charter-backed Tim Grayson cruised to victory. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">EdVoice spent $3.3 million in that race supporting Grayson and opposing the union-backed Mae Torlakson. Her husband is the state's top K-12 education official, Superintendent Tom Torlakson.</span></p></div></div><div>===</div>