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With just a few days left until the Nov. 5 elections, the latest campaign finance disclosures show Lisa Gauthier now outpacing Antonio López in financial support in the contest for the San Mateo County District 4 supervisor seat.
Gauthier has benefited from close to $300,000 in contributions and independent expenditures so far this year — including about $60,000 from a committee largely funded by the fuel industry and more than $30,000 from a law-enforcement group, according to the disclosures filed with the county in October.
For much of the year, López had the financial edge over Gauthier. However, the most recent disclosure for López shows that individual contributions amount to $7,560. With those additions, López has received a little more than $190,000 in contributions at this juncture.
Currently, colleagues on the East Palo Alto City Council, Gauthier and López were the top two finishers out of five candidates in the March primaries to advance to the November elections.
Gauthier, former East Palo Alto mayor who remains on the council, garnered 45% of the votes in the primaries. López, the current mayor, took second with 25%.
According to an independent-expenditure report filed Oct. 22, the Committee for Jobs and the Economy, Sponsored by Energy Companies and Building Trades Unions Representing Working Men and Women has spent $59,987 year-to-date on information-technology costs such as those involving the Internet and email in support of Gauthier.
The Committee for Jobs and the Economy is funded by such energy corporations as Chevron and Phillips 66 and unions representing refinery workers.
Gauthier told the Pulse that she was unfamiliar with that committee and had no knowledge of its spending activities supporting her.
“It’s perplexing to me,” she said, noting that her city and district don’t have refineries.
Being endorsed by her Democratic Party, she added, “I signed a pledge not to take any money from oil companies.”
Moreover, she said that protecting the environment has been “my history and background,” including being a founding member of the climate-change mitigation organization OneShoreline and her involvement with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
Legally, Gauthier also said, political candidates are not allowed to coordinate or have prior knowledge of the spending of independent-expenditure committees.
A spokesperson for the Committee for Jobs and the Economy could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to another report filed Oct. 23, the Peninsula Law Enforcement Association PAC spent $32,309 on mailers and digital and newspaper ads supporting Gauthier.
A report filed earlier in October revealed that the National Association of Realtors spent about $68,700 mostly in mailers and online ads for Gauthier’s election bid.
According to a report on contributions covering the period from Sept. 22 to Oct. 19, other Gauthier supporters gave about $26,000 to her campaign — including the Peace Officers Research Association of California ($1,000), the Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 104 Political Committee ($1,000), San Mateo County District 5 Supervisor David Canepa ($500) and Anthony Ewell of Hayward, founder of ADE Management Corp. ($500).
Other notable contributors during that period, according to the report, were U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin’s reelection campaign ($1,000), the Bay Area Council Candidate PAC ($1,000), the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees Council 57 PAC ($500) and Redwood City City Council member Alicia Aguirre ($100).
That period’s giving brought the amount of contributions that Gauthier received so far this year to slightly more than $136,000, according to the report.
Gauthier spent about $49,000 on her campaign during the period and nearly $170,000 year-to-date, according to the report.
As in past disclosures, among Gauthier’s big expenses over these recent weeks involved online ads, consulting and other services provided by Oakland-based public-communications firm BMWL Campaigns.
According to a report on contributions that López received from Sept. 22 to Oct. 19, he collected $1,000 each from Patricia Mondragon of San Jose, Madahi Cornejo of Redwood City and Aaliya Yaqub of Atherton, $250 from Jamie Bruning-Miles, CEO of the YMCA of San Francisco, and $100 from Berkeley City Council member Terry Taplin.
According to the report, López spent $173,000 this year through Oct. 19. Some of his large expenses went toward campaign literature and television airtime or other broadcast-related costs, including $25,000 to the digital-advertising company DSPolitical, based in Washington, D.C.
López could not immediately be reached for comment.
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Please also comment on where Lopez contributions come from. It looks very biased to have report on only one. (would be helpful to have this done in the same article) Thank you