Once more unto the breach, dear friends, for a final Leap Day column before the March 5 voting deadline.
Deadline, indeed. Election Day has become an anticlimax as we wait weeks for the final tallies. A longer voting period, a longer wait for final results, all in the name of progress. Newfangled technologies, new tsuris. How 21st Century.
Meanwhile, the number of ballots returned creeps up slowly and the result is looking increasingly creepy — a record low 30% statewide? Slightly higher here in the Land of Good Citizenship?
Political Data Inc.’s report on turnout showed, as of Tuesday, two weeks before the election deadline, that only 10% of ballots had been returned in San Mateo County. In Board of Supervisors District 4, where five candidates are running to replace Warren Slocum, turnout is lagging the county at 8%. In the 16th Congressional District race to replace Anna Eshoo, turnout is slightly better at 11%.
PDI’s Paul Mitchell noted in a report this week that Latino turnout is behind statewide registration, as is the case, too, in District 4, where an unprecedented three Latinos are seeking the same office. Republican turnout is running ahead of registration.
This means the largest turnout will be among voters who are white and over 50. And in the hotly contested races for District 4 and the 16th CD, it will all come down to who can get their voters to show up.
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: The latest (through Feb. 17) spending reports in the District 4 race show East Palo Alto Councilmember Antonio López continuing to demonstrate an incredible ability to raise money from all over the United States.
Lopez, in his first term in any office, has raised $161,492 in total campaign funds; City Council colleague Lisa Gauthier has raised $122,602; nonprofit administrator Maggie Cornejo has raised $42,802, and justice system reformer Paul Bocanegra has raised $24,860, including a $4,000 loan he made to his campaign.
Recommended for you
Cornejo had only $1,512 in cash on hand for the final weeks, presumably having spent it all — better than ending the campaign with a surplus. … Lopez, meanwhile, had $31,761 in cash for the final push, Gauthier had $37,972 and Bocanegra had $9,680. Through the reporting deadline, Lopez was easily the biggest spender at $80,250 — nearly twice the $45,495 spent by Gauthier. … In the same reporting period, Bocanegra reported spending $25.13, an amount that has a charm all its own.
By far, the most intriguing fact in the reports, if not the race, has been Lopez’s ability to raise money from his own apparent network of donors that includes large numbers of people across a wide demographic and geographic spectrum. And most of them are from outside the district. In the report filed for fundraising through 2023, Lopez had raised only 7% of his funds from within the district. That improved slightly in the latest report to 12%. … Lopez spent the money on, among other things, a video ad posted on social media. The ad shows him talking to people in various locations. The final shot shows him at the Stanford Shopping Center. Nice setting. Beautiful, even. Not in the district or the county, which seems appropriate.
WELL-OILED MACHINE: An independent committee — Campaign for Jobs and the Economy — has spent $18,000 on a mailing in support of Gauthier. The committee is funded by Phillips 66, Chevron and Marathon Petroleum. As an independent expenditure, the committee acted without Gauthier’s knowledge. Campaign law prohibits independent committees from having any contact with candidates they may choose to support.
Why are they getting involved at all? The county is at the forefront of a massive multicounty, lawsuit against the oil companies, including those backing the committee, for their role in contributing to climate change and related disasters, such as sea-level rise and flooding.
Gauthier said she “definitely supports” the suit and will act accordingly if elected. “We have to do something about sea-level rise and we have to hold those accountable.”
COMPLETE CONFIDENCE: Former U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier has not been running for the Board of Supervisors as much as she has been strolling. The latest money reports show her out-raising opponent Millbrae Councilmember Ann Schneider by a 13-1 margin. … Still, Speier is working harder than Assemblymember Diane Papan and state Sen. Josh Becker, each of whom is running for reelection, neither of whom has bothered to update their campaign websites since 2022.
HUH? In his voter pamphlet statement, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Garvey had this to say: “When I took the field, I played for all the fans.” I keep trying to make sense of this, but I seem to come up short.
Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He can be reached at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.
(2) comments
Thanks for another eclectic column, Mr. Simon. A few thoughts…
If oil companies/committees want to sabotage (perhaps too strong a word) candidates, one tactic would be to provide independent expenditures to those candidates and let outrage from other Dems (since they have a bigger base) do the oil companies work for them? So if Gauthier is seen as the biggest threat to oil companies, provide an independent expenditure to her campaign. Brilliant!
As for Steve Garvey saying he “played for all the fans” I’d prefer that to a candidate that tells you to wear masks and social distance while they eschew masks and social distancing, a la Newsom. HUH? Or a candidate that attempts to mandate all-electrical when they willfully ignore the fact that natural gas has and continues to provide at least half our electrical power, a la Newsom. HUH? Or folks preaching to us about global emissions when they take private jets to gallivant across the world when they’ve likely contributed more carbon to the atmosphere than most of us will in our entire lives, a la Newsom. HUH? I keep trying to make sense of folks who accept the hypocrisy, but I seem to come up short. Perhaps we should recall Newsom. Happy Leap Day!
It may be apples and oranges. The people whose policies to which you object at least make clear statements, no matter how hypocritical they may be. Garvey’s statement is simply gibberish and, following up on your conspiracy-minded initial comment, perhaps it is designed so that no one knows what he thinks about anything.
I have a mental image of Garvey striding to the plate and pausing to tell the fans in section 121 to look away - he’s not playing for them.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.