Kayser Claims Opponent Sanchez Raised Funds Before LAUSD District 5 Runoff Finalized

The runoff suggested by early tallies in the March 8 vote for a new LAUSD district 5 trustee surprised many. Favorite Luis Sanchez, chief of staff for the current board president, had gotten about 49 percent of the vote, below the majority required to avoid a runoff against teacher and Echo Park resident Bennett Kayser.

LAUSD 5 includes schools in Highland Park, Mount Washington, Eagle Rock, Echo Park and numerous other northeast and eastside communities.

The results had remained “preliminary” until they were certified by City Clerk June Lagmay on Friday afternoon. The final count bumps Sanchez’s share down to 48.1 percent. Kayser finished with 34.6 percent. Spoiler John Fernandez had 16.73 percent.  The final results also show 0.56 percent of the vote allocated to “scattering,” arguably a placeholder for the write-in candidate Scott Folsom in the race.

By law, the City Clerk had 21 days to release the final results. The City Council must now also approve them. The runoff in the race will take place on May 17, along with another in one of the community college districts.

The arrival of the “certified results” should have been good news for the Kayser campaign.  Kayser had complained to Jennifer Bravo of the City Ethics Commission in an email last week about a Sanchez emailer. Kayser said it violated Commission restrictions on candidates’ fundraising before a runoff election is certified, and put him at a “unfair disadvantage.”

Sanchez has yet to respond to inquiries regarding the emailer from Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch.

The Sanchez emailer, sent out just a few days after the March 8 election, refers to a possible runoff election and is “paid for by the Luis Sanchez to Reform LAUSD Board 2011-General.”

Kayser emailed Bravo again to complain about Luis Sanchez’ website, which includes a link for a making an online contributions.

In that email Kayser stated “I am requesting that you notify Mr. Sanchez that he is fraudulently soliciting funds for an election committee that cannot exist. As you said to me in a recent (3/18/11) phone conversation, there is no General Election until the City Clerk certifies that a runoff election is necessary for LAUSD's District #5 Board of Education seat.”

Bravo advised Kayser on last Monday that she had forwarded the emails to the Commission’s Enforcement Division as a “whistleblower complaint.” But, she added, that her advice stood  that he should “not create [a] general election committee until the primary election is certified and there is a general [runoff] election set.”

Kayer said Bravo then called him on Wednesday to say that the commission had decided that his request to create a campaign was “reasonable.” He said he was told he could pick up the papers needed to apply to create a fundraising committee. Kayser’s treasurer completed the forms and submitted them on to the secretary of state just before the election was formally certified on Friday.