Quick Take
With election day approaching rapidly, we take a look at how fundraising for the 3rd and 4th District Santa Cruz County Supervisor candidates compares, with the top candidates reporting dozens of contributors who maxed out their $500 gifts.
Santa Cruz County is five days away from election day, and candidates have officially filed their final pre-election finance reports. According to those reports, the six candidates for the two open county supervisors’ seats have raised more than $230,400 in monetary contributions. That compares to the astounding almost $800,000 raised by both sides in the Measure D contest, as we chronicled here.
The District 3 Supervisor candidates — Justin Cummings, Ami Chen Mills and Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson — have raised a total upward of $157,000. Kalantari-Johnson leads the charge by far, with $93,655 in cash contributions — more than double that of Cummings’ $45,759 and five times higher than Mills’ $18,077.
Additionally, Kalantari-Johnson received contributions of $500 — the legal limit per contributor — from 107 contributors. Cummings had 35 such contributors and Mills had 17.
Notable contributors to Kalantari-Johnson’s campaign include the California Real Estate Political Action Committee, Donna Meyers, Donna Murphy, the Iranian American Political Action Committee, Inc., John “Bud” Colligan, Mark Mesiti-Miller, the NIAC Action Political Action Committee, Paul Lee, Rowland and Patricia Rebele, Val Cole, and William Ow.
For Cummings, notable contributors include the California Real Estate Political Action Committee, Fred Keeley, Gary Patton, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 234 Political Action Committee, Katherine Beiers, the National Union of Healthcare Workers Candidate Committee for Quality Patient Care and Union Democracy, and the Service Employees International Union Local 521 Candidate Political Action Committee.
In District 4, candidates Felipe Hernandez, Jimmy Dutra and Ed Acosta have raised a total just shy of $73,000. Hernandez is the front-runner there, with $37,240 raised. Dutra has raised $28,637 while Acosta has raised $7,099.
Hernandez had 41 contributors who donated $500, nearly twice as many as Dutra’s 22, and more than five times as many as Acosta’s eight.
Notable Hernandez contributors include Iman Novin, Mark Mesiti-Miller, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 234 Political Action Committee, the Laborers Local Union 270 Political Action Committee, the National Union of Health Care Workers, the Pajaro Valley Cesar Chavez Democratic Club, Service Employees International Union Health Care Workers West Political Action Committee, and Service Employees International Union Local 521 Candidate Political Action Committee.
For Dutra, notable contributors include Ann Morhauser, the California Real Estate Political Action Committee, Equality California, the HONOR Political Action Committee, and the SMART Transportation Division Political Action Committee.
