Challenger maintains funding edge in Georgia superintendent’s race
Alisha Thomas Searcy, the Democrat challenging Republican Richard Woods in the November election for Georgia school superintendent, extended her lead in fundraising as of the latest reporting deadline.
Searcy had raised nearly $153,000 to incumbent Woods’ nearly $94,000 as of Sept. 30.
It is a slightly larger gap than the one that separated their totals at the end of the June reporting period, when Searcy had raised nearly $98,000 and Woods had drawn almost $55,000.
Among the more notable contributors to each candidate this reporting cycle were Alec Poitevint, a former Georgia Republican Party chairman and Republican National Committee treasurer, who gave Woods $1,000 in late September, and former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, who gave Searcy $1,000, also in late September.
Woods has held the office for eight years after first winning it in the 2014 election. Searcy ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary that year, but she beat three other Democrats in this year’s primary election, when Woods bested one challenger.
Both Woods and Searcy won all 159 Georgia counties.
The superintendent leads the Georgia Department of Education, which oversees a third of the state budget. The agency distributes state and federal funding to public schools serving more than 1.7 million students while monitoring their academic performance and compliance with laws and regulations.
Woods, 60, was a high school social studies teacher and school administrator in Irwin County. He says he wants to continue cutting bureaucracy, leaving teachers more time to teach, and is endorsed by the Georgia Association of Educators, which contributed $4,000 to his campaign in September. (The other two large teacher organizations are not endorsing in this race, but a smaller group, Educators First based in Kennesaw, gave Woods $500.)
Searcy, 44, is a former state representative from Cobb County who went on to become superintendent of a charter school network with three schools; two of them closed, leaving a school for girls in DeKalb County. She says she wants more mental health intervention for students and that safety and teacher burnout are priorities.
Woods didn’t get along with Gov. Nathan Deal but has forged an alliance with Gov. Brian Kemp.
Kemp has gradually replaced the policymaking state education board with members friendly to Woods. They are now in the majority. Searcy has clashed with members of her own party who disagree with her support of charter schools and for tax credits that help pay for tuition subsidies at private schools. She has suggested that she is being ostracized by the gubernatorial campaign of Stacey Abrams and by other influential Democrats, which they all deny.
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
