Update: Classroom Teacher Wins LA School Board Runoff

Underdog LAUSD classroom teacher Monica Ratliff (right) has won a surprising upset victory in her school board runoff agaainst rival Antonio Sanchez (left) , according to a story posted on KPCC and tweets from LA Times and LA Daily News reporters:

“Elementary school teacher Monica Ratliff faced a David-and-Goliath competition for a seat on the Los Angeles Unified School Board — and won.” (LA elects new city attorney, controller and 3 city councilmen)

“Monica Ratliff wins #LAUSD race with 52%, says final #LAelection tally posted at 3:16 am,” tweeted LA Daily News‘ Barbara Jones. “Upset for reformers and candidate Antonio Sanchez… #LAUSD tally shows 37,022 of District 6′s 250,000+ voters went to the polls. That’s 16% turnout. Ratliff ahead by 1,464 votes.”

“Monica Ratliff edges out Antonio Sanchez for the Board of Education seat,” tweets LA Times reporter Laura Nelson. According to Nelson, the vote is “Almost final, but not quite,” with all of the precincts having been counted but not all the mail-in ballots.

Ratliff only campaigned part-time (she's a 5th grade teacher) and didn't have any outside campaign contributions (compared to Sanchez, who had boatloads of money).  She didn't even have the unequivocal endorsement of her union (UTLA endorsed both candidates). In the March primary, she was a whopping 10 percentage points behind Sanchez, 34 percent to 44 percent. This time around, it was 52-48 in her favor.

LA School Report will have a full analysis of how Ratliff won and what it means (or people want it to mean) later today.  For more background in the meantime, see: Ratliff Holds Narrow Lead; Voter Turnout Will Determine Outcome