A school board candidate who received enormous financial backing from the teachers union — approaching $200,000 — was in a celebratory mood at her election watch party on Tuesday night. Though ballots are still being counted, at 9:18 p.m., incumbent Diana Craighead had 54.1% of the vote, a commanding lead over her two challengers in an unusually heated school board primary.
If Craighead receives over 50% of the vote, she’ll win the seat outright and avoid a November runoff against the second finisher.
The race for the District 5 seat, which covers northeast Long Beach and parts of Lakewood, has been a historically one-horse competition. Craighead, a liberal candidate promoting student success and equity, has held the position for 14 years and faced only one opponent in that time. But the stakes rose this year when grassroots organizer Sara Pol-Lim and charter school teacher Maureen Flaherty announced their candidacies.
Flaherty champions vaccine choice, exclusion of trans girls from girls’ sports and parental control over books and curriculum. Her ties to conservative groups, including Moms for Liberty, prompted the teachers union, one of the heaviest hitters in Long Beach education, to pour $175,000 into Craighead’s campaign in an effort to keep Flaherty out of office.
That money comes from the union’s own political action committee and the California Teachers Association, which can fund local PACs in special circumstances. Combined, the contributions have funded mailers, a promotional ad for Craighead, an attack ad against Flaherty, door-knocking and opposition research.
Flaherty fought back, sending out her own mailers, texts and attack ads, positioning herself as the change candidate and dragging Craighead and the current school board leadership. She said that in the last month, her campaign has gained significant momentum, though she has had to contend with disparaging posters plastered around her neighborhood as well as the theft of her lawn signs around town.
Compared to Craighead, Flaherty has reported orders of magnitude less spending and campaign contributions, but she has sought her own list of endorsements from conservative politicians and leaders, including gubernatorial hopeful Chad Bianco, the current sheriff of Riverside County. Flaherty even resorted to planting her campaign lawn sign in front of the teachers union headquarters, according to video surveillance reviewed by the Long Beach Post.
“I feel like I’m going up against a machine,” Flaherty said, of challenging a union-backed incumbent. “But, ultimately, I’m doing my calling and my purpose,” she added.
Flaherty’s had 34.6% of the vote, or 4,721 ballots, as of 9:18 p.m.
The focus on Flaherty and Craighead largely eclipsed Pol-Lim’s campaign. After surviving the Cambodian genocide, Pol-Lim arrived in California and served most of a decade as executive director of the United Cambodian Community. She had 11.2% of the vote at 9:18 p.m., an unlikely path to victory.
Second school board incumbent also leads
On the other side of the city, incumbent Maria Isabel López sailed to a significant lead over challenger Deborah Betance for the seat representing District 1, encompassing Bixby Knolls and North Long Beach. As of 9:18 p.m., López had 77.3% of the vote compared to 22.7% for Betance.
López won the board seat in 2022, defeating two other candidates (including one backed by the teachers union). Since then, she has been one of the more outspoken trustees and a rare dissenting voice on a board that often votes as a unanimous block.
Both District 1 candidates were seeking office despite significant negative publicity.
In March, López’s husband, a teacher at John Muir Academy, was placed on administrative leave while the district investigates allegations that he abused a child at an LBUSD school several decades prior. López said she looks forward to a full investigation to clear his name.
Her challenger, Betance, is a former LBUSD teacher. While she still worked at Longfellow Elementary, she was arrested in connection with a hit-and-run that killed a 78-year-old woman in 2021. The district suspended her without pay, and Betance retired in early 2023. But prosecutors dropped the charges in spring 2023, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute her.
See the latest vote tallies at results.lavote.gov.