Records Reflect Final Push in Campaign Fundraising

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By Giana Magnoli, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @magnoli

In the last fundraising reporting period before the election, local candidates have continued to push to out-raise and out-spend their competition.

The period of Oct. 1-20 is the last campaign finance disclosure date before the election, and contributions after that are reported individually within a day they are received.

Fourth District county Supervisor Joni Gray and challenger Peter Adam have been fairly close in their fundraising efforts, but Gray’s records show a hard push in the last month and $27,000 in loans to herself.

Gray raised $35,236 in October plus $5,000 already since Oct. 20, according to Santa Barbara County Elections Office records. That puts her at about $180,000 for the year, compared with Adam’s $142,843 for the year.

Both have a wide range of supporters, but Gray has more organized groups and unions — including $19,000 total from the Santa Ynez Band of Mission Indians — and Adam has a lot of North County agricultural and business community support.

Secretary of State records show that Democrat Assemblyman Das Williams out-raised Republican challenger Rob Walter more than 15-to-one in October for the 37th District Assembly seat, with a total of $402,000 raised in all of 2012.

Walter, an attorney, raised $4,000 in October and $31,013 total this year.

In the competitive 19th District State Senate race, Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson and Republican Mike Stoker each have been spending tens of thousands of dollars, but Jackson has raised three times what Stoker has this year so far.

Jackson put up big numbers in October, raising $108,786 and bringing her total to $954,577 this year. Stoker’s $311,808 this year so far includes $61,609 in October.

The new 24th District Congressional District seat is hotly contested this year, thanks to redistricting, with incumbent Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, facing challenger Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria. Capps, who has represented a portion of Santa Barbara County in the House of Representatives since 1998, raised $2.99 million through Oct. 17, according to the Federal Election Commission. Maldonado raised $2.39 million, which includes $765,000 in loans to himself.

Not as much money has been pushed into local ballot measures compared with past elections. The campaign for Measures A and B, the parcel taxes for Santa Barbara Unified School District programs to replace the expiring parcel taxes, is being run by the Santa Barbara Education Foundation.

It’s the fourth campaign the organization has run for the district, the most recent being the failed attempt to get these parcel taxes passed in June.

The campaign received $20,477 in support during October, which nearly doubled its total fundraising efforts to a total of $42,477, according to the Santa Barbara County Elections Office.

The contributions include $7,017 worth of administrative support from the Education Foundation’s executive director, Margie Yahyavi, and donations of $5,000 each from Santa Barbara publisher and philanthropist Sara Miller McCune and the Santa Ynez Band of Mission Indians.

Measure G, Goleta’s Agricultural Land Protection Initiative, has a vocal group of supporters in The Goodland Coalition but no official campaign or financial documents filed with the county.

Not many people have been fundraising for the local races, records show.

Santa Barbara Unified School District candidates Gayle Eidelson, Ed Heron, Pedro Paz and Lou Segal did not file any campaign finance documents with the county.

The Santa Barbara City College Area 4 seat is the only one being contested this year due to redistricting, with residents Brian Fay and Craig Nielsen vying for the spot.

Fay has raised $2,082 for his campaign. Nielsen has not reported any fundraising to the county.

— Noozhawk staff writer Giana Magnoli can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.

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