All posts by Roger Straw

Editor, owner, publisher of The Benicia Independent
2020 elections, Benicia elections, Campaign finance, Negative ads, Negative campaigning, Steve Young, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero PAC

Valero PAC – Those 2 new mailers: $9,844 …and $11,000 more for ROBOCALLS

By Roger Straw, October 20, 2020

Valero PAC spending for purchase of the Benicia Mayor seat now at $91,688

VALERO’s sick attempt to buy the Benicia Mayor seat has disclosed it’s latest expenditures:

  • $11,000 for more ROBOCALLS
  • $9,844 for 2 recent ugly campaign mailers

In emails earlier today with the City of Benicia, the Benicia Independent confirmed that Benicia’s campaign finance ordinance requires the Valero PAC to submit for public review copies “of the literature or script used for each communication to the city clerk within 24 hours of the first time the mailings, calls, transmissions, or advertisements are made or aired.” (Benicia Municipal Ordinance 1.40.110).

The City posting of Valero’s newest report does indeed include photocopies and ROBOCALL scripts.  If you have the stomach for it, see Working_Families_for_a_Strong_Benicia_496_7.

The City of Benicia will be revising previously posted campaign financial reports that were posted without the required photocopies and scripts.  Stay tuned for links.

See also:

2020 elections, Benicia elections, Campaign finance, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero PAC

Valero’s pet labor union kicks in $25,000 to help buy the Benicia Mayor’s seat

By Roger Straw, October 20, 2020

Labor finally gets around to contributing to this year’s Valero war chest- total now nearing $300,000

Reporting on forms required by Benicia ordinance, the Valero PAC that is attempting to buy the Benicia Mayor race detailed a new contribution of $25,000 on  October 15.

The new money comes from an independent expenditure committee (PAC) formed by the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, forgers & Helpers Local 549.  It is interesting that this ultra-conservative labor group has been convinced to jump in with Valero, which is a non-union corporation.  It’s not the first time – this PAC contributed heavily to Valero’s 2018 smear campaign against Kari Birdseye.

I wonder how many of the Sacramento-based Brotherhood PAC’s decision-makers live in Benicia or even work at Valero?  I’d guess the decision was made by a small group of highly-paid executives who have rarely if ever set foot in Benicia.

Cumulative Valero PAC contributions to date: over $273,000.  (COMPARE: All candidates running for Benicia mayor and Council who pledge to run fair campaigns may not spend over $34,200 on their own campaigns.)

Cumulative Valero PAC spending to date: $70,844.  (AGAIN COMPARE: All candidates running for Benicia mayor and Council who pledge to run fair campaigns may not spend over $34,200 on their own campaigns.)

I am tracking DETAILS of the Valero PAC’s 2020 campaign disclosure reports combined in a single Excel spreadsheet.  The sheet contains 2 tabs:

    • “VALERO PAC Form460 CpgnDisclosr” is a record of Valero’s SUMMARY reports, showing 2020 income, expenses and cash balance.
    • “Forms 465 & 496 IndExp” is a more interesting 2nd tab, showing in detail the Valero PAC’s individual expenditures.

REFERENCE: Valero PAC Financial Disclosures – City of Benicia website

Source: from the City of Benicia website, 2020 Campaign Finance Reports

2020 elections, Benicia elections, Jason Diavatis, Negative ads, Negative campaigning, Steve Young, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero PAC

Benicia Mayor race: 2 more $Valero mailers smearing Steve Young

By Roger Straw, October 20, 2020
I have chosen NOT to display Valero’s most recent nasty mailers.  I won’t give them the time, space and bully pulpit here.  Read on for description and analysis…

There are two sides to the latest Valero PAC mailers: nasty slams on Young and Diavatis, and big name sweet promos for their candidate.

$Valero’s push to win the Benicia Mayor’s seat continues unabated, despite the requests by all candidates that they cease and desist.

The claim against Diavatis is instructive.  The Valero PAC claims to have paid for a poll that shows Diavatis can’t win.  When was the last time that ANY candidate in Benicia was able to afford polling?  Small towns don’t do polling.  But big oil money does.

Valero’s independent expenditure committee (PAC) has set aside around $250,000 for our little Mayor’s race, and spent over $70,000 as of October 9.  (Additional contribution of $25,000 now – see update here.)

The U.S. Supremes ruled that the Valero PAC is a person, and can spend as much as it likes on an election.  But here in Benicia, we have a fair campaign ordinance that limits REAL people who run for office to expenditures of no more than $34,200 per candidate.

The total spending of the three candidates for Mayor amount to 3 x $34,200 or $102,600.  Stack that total up against Valero’s $250,000, and you might think the playing field is a little slanted?  And recall that one of the REAL person campaigns will be Valero’s chosen candidate, so it’s actually $250,000 plus their candidate’s $34,200, for a grand total of over $284,000.  Plunk down that kind of money against any one or two candidates, and see what happens.

That wouldn’t be fair even if Valero played nice.

I have chosen NOT to scan and post Valero’s most recent mailers.  I won’t give them the time, space and bully pulpit here.  Suffice to say the ads are all on file with me.  (Oh, and… the Benicia fair campaign ordinance requires that Valero submit photocopies of their ads, like they did in 2018 when they smeared candidate Kari Birdseye.  Why have we NOT seen photocopies in any of their 6 submitted 496 Independent Expenditure forms?)

See also:

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Solano County CA

Solano COVID numbers: 108 new cases over the weekend, average of 37 per day over last 2 weeks

[Source: Solano County Coronavirus Dashboard.  For a complete archive of day by day data, see my Excel ARCHIVE.]

Monday, October 19: 108 new cases over the weekend, no new deaths, no new hospitalizations.  Since the outbreak began: 7,117 cases, 405 hospitalized, 74 deaths.Compare previous report, Friday, Oct. 16:Summary

  • Solano County reported 108 new cases over the weekend, total of 7,117 cases since the outbreak started.  Over the last 2 weeks, Solano reported 516 new cases, average of 37 per day (significantly higher than the previous weeks’ daily averages).
  • Deaths – no new deaths today, total of 74 Solano deaths since the pandemic began.
  • Active cases – Solano reported 31 fewer ACTIVE cases today, total of 270.  Last week, Solano reported over 300 active cases for the first time since September 4.  Note that only 24 of these 270 people are hospitalized, so there are a lot of infected folks out among us, hopefully quarantined.  Is the County equipped to contact trace so many infected persons?  Who knows?  To my knowledge, Solano County has offered no reports on contact tracing.
  • Hospitalizations – the number of currently hospitalized persons increased by 3 today, total of 24.  The total number hospitalized since the outbreak started remained steady today, total of 405. (For manual calculation of total, see age group stats below).
  • ICU Beds – the County reported a significant drop in ICU beds available, down from 46% to 38%.  (After 8 weeks, still no information about availability of ventilators.)
  • Testing – The County reports today that 1,983 more residents were tested over the weekend, new total of 98,214.  (Solano has AVERAGED over 450 tested per day during the last 3 weeks.)  Solano has a long way to go; only 21.9% of Solano County’s 447,643 residents (2019) have been tested.

Positive Test Rate

Solano County reported today that our 7-day average test rate jumped today from 6.1% to 6.5%.  Average percent positive test rates are among the best metrics for measuring the spread of the virus.  The much more stable California 7-day test rate dropped today, from 2.6% to 2.4%.  (Note that Solano County displays past weeks and months in a 7-day test positivity line graph which also shows daily results.  However, the chart does not display an accurate number of cases for the most recent days, as there is a lag time in receiving test results.  The 7-day curve also lags behind current unknown results.) 

By Age Group

  • Youth 17 and under – 14 new cases today, total of 802 cases, representing 11.3% of the 7,117 total cases.  No new hospitalizations among this age group today, a total of 6 hospitalizations since the outbreak began.  Thankfully, no deaths have ever been reported in Solano County in this age group.  But cases among Solano youth rose steadily over the summer, from 5.6% of total cases on June 8 to 11% on August 31 and has plateaued just over 11% since September 30, increasing to 11.3% for the first time today.  Youth are 22% of Solano’s general population, so this 11.x% may seem low.  The significance is this: 1) youth numbers increased steadily and at a faster rate than the other age groups, and 2) youth are SERIOUSLY NOT IMMUNE (!) – in fact 6 youth have now been hospitalized.
  • Persons 18-49 years of age – 53 new cases today, total of 4,238 cases. This age group is 41% of the population in Solano, but represents just under 60% of the total cases, by far the highest percentage of all age groups.  The County reported no new hospitalizations in this age group today, total of 131 hospitalized since the outbreak began.  No new deaths in this young age group today, total of 5 deaths.  Some in this group are surely ignoring public health orders, and many are providing essential services among us.  I expect this group is a major factor in the spread of the virus.
  • Persons 50-64 years of age – 28 new cases today, total of 1,365 cases.  This age group represents 19% of the 7,117 total cases. No new hospitalizations today, total of 109 hospitalized since the outbreak began.  No new deaths in this age group today, a total of 15 deaths.
  • Persons 65 years or older – Today the County reported 13 new cases, total of 710.  No new hospitalizations, total of 159.  No new deaths, total of 54 of our elders who died of COVID.  This age group’s 710 cases represent 10% of the 7,117 total cases.  In this older age group, 22.5% of cases required hospitalization at one time.  This group accounts for 54 of the 74 deaths, or 73%.

City Data

  • Benicia added 1 new case today, total of 183 cases since the outbreak began.
  • Dixon added 12 new cases today, total of 462 cases.
  • Fairfield added 31 new cases today, total of 2,302 cases.
  • Rio Vista added 2 new cases today, total of 56 cases.
  • Suisun City added 7 new cases today, total of 516 cases.
  • Vacaville added 20 new cases today, total of 1,233 cases.
  • Vallejo added 35 new cases today, total of 2,342 cases.
  • Unincorporated areas remained steady today, total of 23 cases.

Race / Ethnicity

The County report on race / ethnicity includes case numbers, hospitalizations, deaths and Solano population statistics.  This information is discouragingly similar to national reports that indicate significantly worse outcomes among black and brown Americans.  Note that all of this data surely undercounts Latinx Americans, as there is a large group of “Multirace / Others” which likely is composed mostly of Latinx members of our communities.

  • Asian Americans are 14% of Solano’s population, and account for 9% of cases, 11% of hospitalizations, and 19% of deaths.
  • Black Americans are 14% of Solano’s population, and account for 11% of cases, but 18% of hospitalizations, and 24% of deaths.
  • Latinx Americans are 26% of Solano’s population, but account for 29% of cases, 29% of hospitalizations, and 18% of deaths.
  • White Americans are 39% of the population in Solano County, but only account for 22% of cases, 27% of hospitalizations and 30% of deaths.

More…

The County’s new and improved Coronavirus Dashboard is full of much more information, too extensive to cover here on a daily basis.  The Benicia Independent will continue to summarize daily and highlight a report or two.  Check out the Dashboard at https://doitgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=055f81e9fe154da5860257e3f2489d67.