Usua Amanam, who’s listed as coming from both Fremont and Union City, has donated a total of $550.

Another Fremont donor, Kofi Tawiah, has contributed $250.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee has a Web page listing all donors who have given at least $200. Top donors forked over $50K. Click here to check out the site.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: If you follow local school news, then you know by now that Lily Mei was one of three people elected to the Fremont school board on Tuesday.

Well, it turns out she’s not the only politician in the family. The same day that Mei was voted onto the school board, her daughter was elected president of her elementary school’s student council. Actually, the younger Mei tied with another girl boy. Rather than hold a runoff, it appears both girls students will serve as co-president this year.

Could you imagine having two U.S. presidents simultaneously?

Well, he may be the biggest fundraiser among school board candidates in the Tri-City area, but he’s no match for the politicians in the West Contra Costa school district.

There, incumbent Karen Pfeifer has raised nearly $100K (about what the five candidates in Fremont have raised collectively), and Robert Studdiford has collected about $42K.

According to my colleague at the CCT, the West Contra Costa school district is in the midst of a $1 billion bond program, with most schools being rebuilt. The architects, vendors and unions working on these projects are giving tens of thousands of dollars to their preferred candidates, and the amount of their contributions have grown the past two years. In ‘06, one candidate raised about $135K and another collected about $80K.

Just so you know, the amount of money school board candidates in West Contra Costa County are raising is not the norm. In an informal survey of ed reporters in our chain, it appears most school board candidates in the area have raised $25K or less. (Note: In the Mt. Diablo district, the teachers union apparently has spent about $50K to promote the candidates they’re supporting, but that money was not given directly to the candidates.)

Armonio is studying political science at Chabot College. He said he doesn’t expect to win, but he entered the race to gain experience in politics. Ultimately, he wants to become a legislator.

I’ll have a story about Armonio in either tomorrow or Wednesday’s paper. (I’m working on getting a photo of him.)

Also, FUDTA President Jeff Poe explained why the union gave candidate Bryan Gebhardt $2,500 but only offered $2,000 to Wu and Lily Mei.

When the union “pre-endorsed” Gebhardt early on in March, it wrote a check, using funds from FUDTA’s own political action committee. However, after deciding to endorse Mei and Wu this fall, FUDTA turned to the California Teachers Association’s political action committee for money to give the candidates. CTA decided it would offer only $2,000 per candidate. Hence, the discrepancy.

Poe said FUDTA has not decided whether it will offer more money to the other candidates (not that it matters to Wu).

By the way, Poe believes Mei has accepted the $2,000 from the union, although it sounds like she received the check after filing her most recent campaign finance statement with the Registrar of Voters Office. I guess the money will show up in her next finance statement, which is due Thursday.

UPDATE (10/20/08): As you can see, I finally managed to post this photo on the blog, which I had trouble doing last week.

In case you didn’t see it, there was a story in today’s paper about neighbors in Union City who had lived peacefully alongside each other for two decades until now. One family suspects their neighbor got upset when they hung a sign supporting Prop. 8 on a hedge bordering the properties.

The story has generated some buzz already. Unfortunately, the photos online are not the same as the main photo that ran in the print edition. It’s the photo in print that really tells the story. For some reason, I can’t upload that photo to this blog. I’ll consult with our photographers on Monday about putting the photo online (if I remember).