Peninsula politics II

I promised to provide a similar overview of the nonpartisan races. Unfortunately, the congressional race keeps hip-checking the other races to the side. I will get to them. 

Meanwhile, the congressional race continues to generate irresistible news, this time in the results of the year-end campaign funding beg-a-thon by the principal Democratic candidates. The deadline was Dec. 31. The candidates have until the end of this month to file their reports.

San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa just could not wait, announcing via text Monday morning that he had raised $419,000, easily the most money of the three lead contenders. Considering he had been a candidate only 42 days in 2021, that is a staggering pace of nearly $10,000 a day. All while campaigning in person all over the district at all hours of the day and, presumably, night, or, most assuredly, early morning, judging by the texts he sends me at 5 a.m. I once described Canepa as peripatetic. Ubiquitous might be more accurate. 

We will have to wait until the reports are filed to see the sources of all this money, but it is a decidedly attention-getting start. Canepa’s news release described the funding as a “grassroots groundswell of support.” 

“That’s an impressive number,” Assemblymember Kevin Mullin said Tuesday. “I’ve expected this to be a competitive race from the get-go.”

Indeed. Mullin, it turns out, was third in the end-of-year reporting. Burlingame Councilmember Emily Beach said she has raised $275,000. She offered no further details, except to say, “We’re on our way to having the resources we need to get our message out there and tell my story.”

Mullin has raised $247,000, beating his goal of $200,000. He has a goal of raising $5,000 a day, he said. The campaign is “just now ramping up the fundraising operation” and he noted that “Jackie is going to be very helpful,” including a $5,000 donation from her own political action committee.

Mullin’s goal is $800,000 for the primary campaign and $1.5 million for the “entire campaign” — primary and general. “We’re going to have plenty of money to do what we need to communicate with voters,” he said.

Including, it turns out, more than $230,000 sitting in an account Mullin was accumulating for reelection to the Assembly. He is allowed to use those funds to “communicate” to his constituents, which Mullin has done twice recently — a holiday card and a glossy, eight-page “report” to his constituents on his legislative activities and achievements.

Mullin defended the mailing as a legal and legitimate report that “is relevant to my constituents” and reflects the nine years he has been in the Legislature. “There were no references to the congressional run” in the piece, he said, while acknowledging that it “can help with name identification.” But, he said, it is a fair “residual benefit” from his service as a legislator and in a leadership position as speaker pro tem of the Assembly. “I’m the only one in this race with a legislative record,” he said, which would seem to dismiss the local experience of Canepa and Beach.

A quick review of Mullin’s midyear Assembly campaign report shows large donations from labor organizations and business interests. As a member of the Democratic leadership, Mullin said he is expected to raise money to “elect Democrats across the state. I’m proud of that record.”

Still, the use of the Assembly campaign money would seem to play into Canepa’s sustaining underdog campaign theme, captured, sort of, in his news release headline: “Canepa Continues to Defy the Odds Against Sacramento Machine.”

NEXT UP: Maurice Goodman, San Mateo County Community College District trustee, announced via social media Tuesday he is running for the 21st Assembly District seat being vacated by Mullin. Goodman is in his second term on the community college board and served as a trustee on the South San Francisco school board. In his posting, he said, “It is my proven independent voice for all residents throughout our County, and my unapologetic focus on the most marginalized members of our community that will truly inform my actions as I campaign to be your voice in Sacramento.” He is the third candidate to declare for the seat.

NUMBERS: Last week, I mixed up the numbers of the newly renumbered congressional districts. The folks in this column are running in the 15th. Incumbent U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo is running for reelection in the 16th. Mistakes will happen. I try to acknowledge mine here.

Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. Email him at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.