California Superintendent of Public Instruction election, 2018

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California Superintendent of Public Instruction election, 2018
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←  2014 June 5 and November 6, 20182022 →
  Assemblymember Tony Thurmond (cropped).jpg Marshall Tuck (cropped).jpg
Nominee Tony Thurmond Marshall Tuck
Party Nonpartisan Nonpartisan
Popular vote5,038,5314,856,444
Percentage50.9%49.1%
SPI before election

Tom Torlakson
Nonpartisan

Elected SPI

Tony Thurmond
Nonpartisan

The 2018 California Superintendent of Public Instruction primary election was held on June 5, 2018, to elect the Superintendent of Public Instruction of California. Unlike most other elections in California, the Superintendent is not elected under the state's "top-two primary". Instead, the officially nonpartisan position is elected via a nonpartisan primary election, with a runoff held on November 6, 2018, because no candidate received a majority of the vote.

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) of California is the nonpartisan elected executive officer of the California Department of Education. The SPI directs all functions of the Department of Education, executes policies set by the California State Board of Education, and also heads and chairs the Board. The superintendents serves a four-year term, serves as the state’s chief spokesperson for public schools, provides education policy and direction to local school districts, and also serve as an ex officio member of governing boards of the state’s higher education system. The current Superintendent of Public Instruction is Tony Thurmond.

A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office, regardless of respective political party, run against each other at once, instead of being segregated by political party. It is also known as a jungle primary, or qualifying primary. In most cases there are two winners who advance to the general election, which must be a normal first-past-the-post election, in this case it is called a top-two primary.

Contents

Incumbent Superintendent Tom Torlakson is term-limited and cannot seek re-election to a third term. As no candidate received a majority in the nonpartisan primary, a runoff was held between two Democrats: Marshall Tuck and Tony Thurmond. Thurmond narrowly defeated Tuck.

Tom Torlakson American politician

Thomas A. Torlakson is an American politician from California. In 2010, he was elected to the position of California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, a position he served in until 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Marshall Tuck American venture capital investor, educator, and politician.

Marshall Tuck is an American venture capital investor, educator, and politician. He has served as CEO of Antonio Villaraigosa's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, former and as President of charter school chain Green Dot Public Schools. Tuck was a candidate for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2014 and 2018, losing in the general election in both races.

Tony Thurmond Member of the California State Assembly

Tony K. Thurmond is an American educator and politician who is the 28th and current California State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Thurmond was narrowly elected Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2018, in a major upset against his opponent, Marshall Tuck. He was the endorsed candidate of the California Democratic Party and all five 2018 California Teachers of the Year. A Democrat, he represented the 15th Assembly District from 2014 to 2018. The district encompasses the northern East Bay. The district includes the East Bay communities that stretch along the I-80 corridor from Hercules to Oakland, including Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont, El Cerrito, Pinole, Richmond, San Pablo, El Sobrante and Kensington.

Primary election

Candidates

Declared

Lily E. Ploski is an American educator, author, and candidate for the 2018 California Superintendent of Public Instruction election.

Democratic Party (United States) political party in the United States

The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.

Declined

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Endorsements

Tony Thurmond
Federal-level Elected Officials
Kamala Harris United States Senator from California

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State-level Elected Officials
Jack OConnell (politician) American politician

Jack T. O'Connell is an American politician and the former 26th California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, having been elected to the post in November 2002 with 61% of the vote. He was re-elected to his post by receiving a majority (52%) of the vote in the Primary election on June 6, 2006, thus avoiding a November run-off. He is a member of the Democratic Party. O'Connell was unable to run for a third term in 2010 due to term limits and was succeeded by former state assemblyman Tom Torlakson.

Alex Padilla American politician

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Local-level Elected Officials
Organizations
Newspapers
Individuals
Marshall Tuck
Federal-level Appointed Officials
Federal-level Elected Officials
State-level Elected Officials
Local-level Elected Officials
Organizations
  • Association of California School Administrators [16]
  • California Peace Officers' Association [11]
Newspapers
Individuals

Results

Results by county: Tuck 50-60% 40-50% 30-40% Thurmond <30% 30-40% 40-50% 50-60% Ploski 30-40% CA SPI 2018 primary.svg
Results by county:
Nonpartisan primary results [20]
CandidateVotes%
Marshall Tuck 2,223,78437.0%
Tony Thurmond 2,136,91935.6%
Lily Ploski 984,93216.4%
Steven Ireland658,78611.0%
Douglas I. Vigil (write-in)830.0%
Thomas L. Williams (write-in)660.0%
Total votes6,004,570100.0%

General election

Candidates

Endorsements

Tony Thurmond
Federal-level Elected Officials
State-level Elected Officials
Local-level Elected Officials
Organizations
Newspapers
Individuals
Marshall Tuck
Federal-level Appointed Officials
Federal-level Elected Officials
State-level Elected Officials
Local-level Elected Officials
Organizations
  • Association of California School Administrators [29]
  • California Peace Officers' Association [11]
Newspapers
Individuals

Polling

Poll sourceDate(s)
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Tony
Thurmond		Marshall
Tuck		Undecided
UC Berkeley October 19–26, 20181,339± 4.0%36%48%16%
Thomas Partners Strategies October 18–20, 20181,068± 3.5%35%37%28%
Thomas Partners Strategies October 5–7, 20181,068± 3.5%28%30%41%
Thomas Partners Strategies September 28–30, 20181,068± 3.5%17%29%54%

Results

California Superintendent of Public Instruction election, 2018 [33]
CandidateVotes%
Tony Thurmond 5,038,53150.9%
Marshall Tuck 4,856,44449.1%
Majority182,0871.8%
Total votes9,894,975100.0%

See also

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References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ "Lily E. Ploski Announces Bid for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction 2018". 2017-12-26. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  3. 1 2 3 Koseff, Alexei (April 3, 2017). "Tony Thurmond enters schools chief race pledging to fight Trump on education funding". The Sacramento Bee . Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  4. ↑ Koseff, Alexei (March 13, 2017). "Marshall Tuck running again for California schools chief: 'We've settled for mediocrity'". The Sacramento Bee . Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  5. 1 2
  6. ↑ Holloway, Marguerite (March 27, 2017). "Two NASA Engineers Try Out Politics". The New Yorker . Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 "Endorsements". TONY THURMOND FOR SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  8. ↑ https://www.cadem.org/vote/body/CDP-2018-Endorsements-Official-18-04-08.pdf
  9. ↑ http://www.latimes.com/opinion/endorsements/la-ed-endorsement-superintendent-public-instruction-20180423-story.html
  10. ↑ http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article209944079.html
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 https://marshalltuck.com/supporters/
  12. ↑ https://marshalltuck.com/george-miller-endorsement/
  13. ↑ https://marshalltuck.com/weber-endorsement/
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 https://marshalltuck.com/legislators-endorse/
  15. ↑ http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1395234&session=2017&view=received
  16. ↑ https://marshalltuck.com/acsa-endorsement/
  17. ↑ https://marshalltuck.com/sf-chronicle-endorses-tuck/
  18. ↑ http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-marshall-tuck-for-school-superintendent-20180523-story.html
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1395234&session=2017&view=late1
  20. ↑ "Complete Statement of Votes" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  21. ↑ Koseff, Alexei (April 3, 2017). "Tony Thurmond enters schools chief race pledging to fight Trump on education funding". The Sacramento Bee . Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  22. ↑ Koseff, Alexei (March 13, 2017). "Marshall Tuck running again for California schools chief: 'We've settled for mediocrity'". The Sacramento Bee . Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  23. ↑ https://www.cadem.org/vote/body/CDP-2018-Endorsements-Official-18-04-08.pdf
  24. ↑ http://www.latimes.com/opinion/endorsements/la-ed-endorsement-superintendent-public-instruction-20180423-story.html
  25. ↑ http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article209944079.html
  26. ↑ https://marshalltuck.com/george-miller-endorsement/
  27. ↑ https://marshalltuck.com/weber-endorsement/
  28. ↑ http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1395234&session=2017&view=received
  29. ↑ https://marshalltuck.com/acsa-endorsement/
  30. ↑ https://marshalltuck.com/sf-chronicle-endorses-tuck/
  31. ↑ http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-marshall-tuck-for-school-superintendent-20180523-story.html
  32. ↑ JohnHCox. "People have asked my recommendations on a lot of races & ballot measures - two easy ones are @StevePoizner for IC and @MarshallTuck for #SPI - they will both be great for CA! #Midterms #California". Twitter.
  33. ↑ "Superintendent of Public Instruction - Statewide Results". California Secretary of State. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
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