Of pork chops and campaign money

MEANWHILE: Late money in the 13th Senate District continues to roll in, as this becomes one of the two most expensive California Senate races. The most recent activity has centered around two of the five Democrats — public interest entrepreneur Josh Becker and Redwood City Councilwoman Shelly Masur. If the flow of money is any indicator, and it often is, it appears the insiders see the race boiling down to Becker and Masur. They’re not always right, however.

Since last week’s report here, $162,000 was spent Monday by an independent committee supporting Becker. The committee was formed with $500,000 from venture investor and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. This week’s money went for a piece likely to show up in your mailbox shortly, as well as some polling and campaign consulting. Among Becker’s late, direct contributions are $1,500 from Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and $9,300 from the state’s leading police officers labor organization, Peace Officers Research Association of California ($9,300) … since last week, the independent committee formed by the California Teachers Association, the California Medical Association and the California Federation of Teachers spent $53,700 Masur. The money was for TV airtime and digital ads, which have been popping up on Facebook. Her late, direct contributions include $4,600 from the Sheet Metal Workers union. … Millbrae Councilwoman Annie Oliva benefited in the last week by an independent expenditure of nearly $14,000 from the California Association of Realtors for yet another mailing, but that’s a significant dropoff from the hundreds of thousands of dollars CAR has poured into the race so far. … One of the most interesting late contributions — my guess is that it was unsolicited — came to Burlingame Councilman Michael Brownrigg’s campaign. It was $4,700 from Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy. This broad-based, pro-business political action committee has a history of backing moderate Democrats. Major funders of the committee include Walmart, Microsoft, the California Hospital Association, BNSF Railway, Anheuser-Busch, Chevron, Boeing and the California Apartment Association. … Former assemblywoman Sally Lieber received no late contributions, independent or otherwise, 

IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY: Brownrigg’s campaign slogan, almost from his first day, has been “He gets it, and he gets it done.” Now comes this upstart presidential candidate and billionaire, Mike Bloomberg, who is slogan-poaching with “Mike will get it done.” Should Brownrigg sue for plagiarism, or does he get some spillover benefit from a similar slogan and a similar name?

DOES ANYONE READ ANYMORE? Rishi Kumar, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Anna Eshoo in the Democratic primary, is out with one of the wordiest campaign mail pieces of this cycle. The bottom line on the piece is, “Rishi has pledged to never accept PAC or special interest money.” Of course, it’s easy to turn down something no one has offered to you.

IT’S ALWAYS ON OUR MINDS: A real estate sign posted on a busy Redwood City corner from Compass Realtors Sam and George Anagnostou has a sheet of paper attached announcing that the 3-acre property at 700 Kings Mountain Road in Woodside has been priced to move, marked down to $12.8 million — from $47.5 million. 

Agent George Anagnostou says the property had only a small house on it in the 1980s and then some flamboyant types bought it and built a 10,000-square-foot main house, Filoli-style gardens with swimming pool and wading fountain, a guest house, a maintenance unit and a giant well. He said the owners had a flair for the ostentatious. But they ran into some financial problems and the place went into foreclosure in 2011. Ultimately, it became available through auction and the new owners have cleaned, put in new carpets, done some painting and hope to move it. George called the property Romanesque and romantic, and considering he’s Greek that has to count as some kind of concession.

George said the main challenge for pricing is that “there aren’t many comps” when you venture deep enough into Woodside and Portola Valley. But a 70% reduction in the price should help. Right?

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.

 Note to readers: This story has been changed to correct a mistake. It is a 70% reduction, not a 700% reduction.