Tales from the Spin in the 46th Assembly District Race

Forget about Spam when the Spin piles up at election time.

46th Assembly Candidate Brian Johnson

BRIAN JOHNSON TO CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT: STOP SPENDING MONEY AGAINST ME AND LET’S WORK TOGETHER ON OUR JOINT EFFORTS

LOS ANGELES – In response to the California Teachers Association’s smear campaign against him, former first grade teacher and current public school executive Brian Johnson sent a letter to CTA President Dean Vogel outlining their common ground and asking to work together.

“I believe your time and money could be better spent working together in our joint efforts against paycheck deception, for the Governor’s tax initiative, and delivering a world-class education for all of our students,” Brian Johnson said. “This is a huge opportunity for us to come together as a party and say the status quo is not working at our schools – we can and have to do better for our students.”

The California Teachers Association has already spent over $100,000 falsely implying that Brian is for vouchers, privatization of public schools, and turning all public schools into charters.  On the contrary, Brian has worked in many district schools throughout his career as an educator. As Executive Director of Teach for America in Los Angeles, he even recruited 500 top graduates into UTLA jobs at LAUSD schools. 

He re-asserts in the letter that he will stand up for all public schools – regardless if they are charter, magnet or district schools. “Let’s pivot from this adult-driven conversation about what piece of paper accompanies a school’s name to actually discussing how we can best serve our children’s needs,” Brian Johnson said.

CTA also has alleged that Brian Johnson’s campaign has “right-wing” support. In fact, simple campaign disclosure research has shown that most of these so-called  "right-wing" donors are bipartisan and have collectively given over $1.3 million to Democratic causes in recent years.  These donors have given over $750,000 to the Democratic Party at the state and federal levels, over $150,000 to Governor Jerry Brown, and approximately $80,000 each to President Obama and Attorney General Kamala Harris.

Lastly, CTA has alleged that Brian has given preferential treatment to wealthy students.  At Larchmont Schools, Brian doubled the number of Latino, African American and low-income students while also increasing student achievement. Larchmont, a group of public schools in the City of Los Angeles, now score higher than every public school in Beverly Hills and is in the top 3% of LAUSD.

46th Assembly District Candidate Adrin Nazarian.

Dear Friends,

In the past 24 hours, the special interests aiming to defeat my campaign have spent an additional $400,000 in an effort to steal this election. This brings the total to over $900,000 of special interest money that has been spent against me, and that number will continue to rise. 

Simply put, we will never be able to match the obscene level of spending coming from these Sacramento-based groups trying to buy this election. Fortunately for us, we know that even being outspent by more than 4-to-1, we can still win this election.  Why?

Because of you. 

Despite being vastly outspent we have matched our opponent in voter communication. We have the strongest volunteer base, the support of community leaders throughout the district, a winning message that resonates with voters, and we know how to get the most bang for our buck.

Please click here to contribute to help us send a message that grassroots politics can succeed and that the 46th Assembly District is not up for sale. Together, we can overcome the special interests and win this election.

Your thoughts ..............

Scott Johnson in CD 14