• Michael McDevitt
    OCT 24, 2024
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    UNLOCKED

    Big money, clout being wielded in Board of Education race to represent district spanning Near North to Near South side

    article-image
    From left to right, Anusha Thotakura, Jessica Biggs, Andre Smith and Danielle Wallace. [Photos either provided by campaign or taken from campaign materials. Wallace picture taken from Kingdom Avenue Inc. website]

    Jessica Biggs, Anusha Thotakura and Andre Smith are all on the ballot in the race to represent District 6 on the partially elected Chicago Board of Education next year.

    A fourth candidate, Danielle Wallace, is also running as a write-in candidate in the district, which includes the Near North Side and Near South Side, encompassing Streeterville, River North, Cabrini Green, parts of the Loop, parts of West Town and some of Wicker Park as well as Englewood, Grand Boulevard, Washington Park, much of Greater Grand Crossing and parts of Woodlawn, Hyde Park and Bronzeville.

    Campaign contribution limits have been lifted in the District 6 race. In all but two of the 10 school board races, contribution limits have been lifted as a result of the amount of money being raised and spent. The State Board of Elections lifted limits in the sixth district earlier this month as a result of significant spending by an independent group to support Smith.

    Thotakura, the director of the progressive policy advocacy group Citizen Action/Illinois and a former middle school teacher in California, has raised the most of any candidate in the sixth district campaign, reporting at least $286,266 as of Oct. 23 in direct and in-kind contributions and transfers into her committee. Her campaign is being significantly bankrolled by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), which has endorsed her and given her campaign committee more than $114,300 in transfers in, direct contributions and in-kind contributions.

    Thotakura has reported $27,000 in transfers into her committee from the CTU Local 1 PAC and more than $87,300 from CTU’s political committees in in-kind contributions in the form of consulting, photoshoot preparation, mailers and other advertising, staff salaries and graphic design work. 

    The biggest individual donors to Thotakura’s campaign also include philanthropist Mridu Sekhar, president of the Kalapriya Foundation Center for Indian Performing Arts board of directors, who has given at least $3,500; Sameena Parveen, an account specialist for CCS Claims, who has given at least $3,000; Anna Weaver, who has given at least $2,000; and 128 Foundation co-founder Theresa Preston-Werner, who has given at least $2,000. 

    Other notable donations include one from Samir Mayekar, associate vice president and managing director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at University of Chicago and former deputy mayor for economic and neighborhood development under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Mayekar has given at least $1,000. Additionally, Cook County Comm. Josina Morita (D-13) has given Thotakura at least $250.

    Thotakura has also reported a $45,770 in-kind contribution from the People’s 32nd PAC in the form of campaign mailers, over $8,000 in in-kind contributions from the United Working Families PAC for text messaging and $4,818 in in-kind contributions from Our Schools Chicago’s political committees for staff salaries, consulting, petition-checking technology and data services. 

    Biggs’ committee has raised $41,632 in direct and in-kind contributions and transfers into her committee as of Oct. 23. 

    Biggs, the director of the community collaborative Healthy Southwest, a former Chicago Public Schools principal and a former special education teacher, has reported a $5,000 transfer in from Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s campaign committee and a $1,000 transfer from Ald. Brian Hopkins’s (2) committee. Preckwinkle has also personally reported giving at least $250. 

    The committee has also reported over $5,900 in in-kind contributions from Ald. Pat Dowell’s (3) committee for mailing and consulting costs. 

    Biggs’ committee has reported $29,650 in individual contributions, and her biggest and most notable donors include the LiUNA Chicago Laborers' District Council PAC, which has given $2,500; Ald. Lamont Robinson (4), who has personally given at least $1,000; the New York-based organization Leadership for Educational Equity, which has given $1,500; Leo Smith, director of policy for the gun violence reduction organization Chicago CRED, who has given at least $2,500; Dr. Jeensoo Chang, president and chief medical officer at Holy Cross Hospital, who has given at least $2,000; and former State Sen. Heather Steans, who has given at least $5,000. 

    Smith, who founded the violence prevention and reduction organization Chicago Against Violence, is the least well-funded of the three on the ballot. He unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic Party primary in March for District 5 in the Illinois House of Representatives. He had only $235 in his campaign committee when he amended his committee paperwork to reflect his pursuit of the Board of Education seat after spending over $16,730 during the primary campaign. 

    Since declaring as a school board candidate, Smith’s campaign has raised over $21,000 in direct and in-kind contributions and transfers into his committee. As of his most recently filed quarterly campaign finance report on Oct. 10, Smith also reported $1,966 in outstanding debt, which included $1,300 in outstanding debt to himself and $666.50 in outstanding debt that was loaned to his campaign by Lavonia Litzsey 

    Still, some of Smith’s biggest financial backers are charter school interests. The Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS) Action PAC has given Smith’s campaign at least $9,000 in direct contributions and a $3,000 in-kind contribution for petition circulation from Goshen Impact Services. The INCS Independent Action PAC has spent over $132,900 to support Smith’s candidacy through campaign mailers and digital media buys. 

    Additionally, the pro-school choice Urban Center’s political action committee has given a $500 direct contribution to Smith’s campaign. 

    Wallace is the founder and executive director of Kingdom Avenue Inc., an organization serving youth in Englewood. Wallace’s campaign committee has received less than $500 total for the duration of her campaign, and none of the contributions that have been reported have been itemized. 

    The four candidates are competing for a two-year term on the board, which is phasing in an all-elected board member model. In January 2025, 10 elected board members and 10 mayor-appointed board members will take office, and the mayor will appoint a board president. Early voting is ongoing in the school board race. 

    Following the 2026 elections, all 20 board members and the board president will be elected by voters and seated in January 2027.

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