Repost from the Vallejo Times-Herald
[Editor: The Benicia Independent endorses Kari Birdseye for City Council. This report documents her fundraising success. More is needed – learn about Kari and make a donation at BirdseyeForBenicia.com. – R.S.]
Benicia City Council candidates raise funds
By John Glidden, October 1, 2018 at 3:05 pm
BENICIA — The three active City Council campaigns have had a spend-now mentality during the last three months as they spent a combined $31,735, nearly $6,000 more than what they took in, according to financial records submitted to the Benicia City Clerk’s Office last week.
Kari Birdseye, Christina Strawbridge, and Lionel Largaespada raised a combined $24,000 in cash contributions during the same three-month period from July 1 through Sept. 27, records show.
A political newcomer, Birdseye raised the most with $10,523 in cash contributions, her campaign reported. Interestingly, the campaign picked up several individual $500 donations. They included: Kathy Kerridge, Michael Keischnick, Mildred Brennan, Brian Mitchell, Kelly De witt, Tom Wilson, Jill Wilson, David Hackman, and Jeremy Hartgraves.
Other major donations include, $540 from Dirk Fulton, $300 from Benicia school board candidate Adrean Hayashi, with Jack Ruszel contributing $300, $350 coming from Ralph Dennis, and James Birdseye giving $550.
The United Democrats of Southern Solano County donated $500 to Birdseye’s campaign as well.
Almost half of the campaign’s $11,079 in expenses was spent on television advertisements and production costs. The majority of the expenses were also allocated for campaign literature, records show.
The campaign has about $3,100 in its coffers.
Former Benicia Councilwoman Christina Strawbridge received $6,900 in cash contributions during the same period.
Councilman Mark Hughes gave the campaign $250, records show. Hughes and Alan Schwartzman both decided not to seek re-election to the fiver person City Council this fall, paving the way for two new councilmembers.
Strawbridge received notable donations, including $500 from the UA Local 342 PAC fund, $500 from IBEW Local 180, $540 from the Tim Grayson for Assembly 2018, $330 from the International Association of Heating and Frost Insulators PAC, $330 from Tim Hamann, $330 from Jean Hamann, and $100 from Gary Heppell and attorney with the Vallejo-based Favaro, Lavezzo, Gill, Caretti, Heppell law firm.
Her campaign spent the most with $13,922 in expenditures since July 1. About $2,300 of that went to Mary Hand Mango Consulting, with $1,750 going to Mark Lampkin to help film a commercial. Another expense was $5,000 for a television advertisement.
According to her financial documents, Strawbridge’s campaign has nearly $6,000 in the bank.
Finally, the Lionel Largaespada for Benicia City Council 2018 campaign picked up $6,698 in cash. Hughes also donated $250 to the campaign, with additional notable contributions of $500 from Richard Bortolazzo, $500 from Sherri Bortolazzo, $540 from the Tim Grayson for Assembly 2018 campaign, $500 from IBEW Local 180 PAC, $500 from Bob Triggila, $540 from Ponder Environmental Services, $580 from the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulator and allied Workers Local 16, AFL-CIO PAC fund.
Largaespada’s campaign received $311 in non-monetary funds for a walk list which was paid for by the San Diego-based GROW Elect, a PAC which funds, endorses, and recruits Latino Republicans for public office.
The campaign had $6734 in expenses with a majority of the funds being spent on campaign literature, the same records show. About $10,354 was in the campaign’s coffers as of Sept. 27.
A fourth City Council candidate, William Emes doesn’t have a campaign committee so he wasn’t required to submit financial forms.
The election is Nov. 6.
If you are on the Benicia Independent email list, I can pretty much be sure that your alarm bells – like mine – are going off. A sampling…
Making democracy work means holding on to our principles, having clarity about our principles, and then having the confidence to get in the arena and have a serious debate. And it also means appreciating that progress does not happen all at once, but when you put your shoulder to the wheel, if you’re willing to fight for it, things do get better….Better is good.
outcome. But those who could, opted for public outrage, with signs and shouting. A few incredibly brave ones went public with their stories, and two made history confronting a Republican Senator in an elevator booth. The combined efforts of all these activists stopped the elevator ride for Brett Kavanaugh – at least for a week. Definitely NOT perfect… but BETTER.
Open Government Commission will hold a last-minute public hearing on November 3rd, giving candidates a chance to defend against hit pieces and misinformation. It’s good that there are a number of public hearings in our small town where we can go listen to and ask questions of the candidates themselves. See the schedule of forums at 
Here in Benicia, there are excellent substantiated reasons why NOT to vote for City Council candidate Lionel Largaespada. His registration as a Republican aside, he stood with Valero and Texas executives and attorneys in favor of dangerous and dirty oil trains cutting over the mountains and through California to Benicia. He was paid to help defeat a 2012 California tobacco tax initiative that would have funded cancer research. His friendly outreach and community service is notable, but he is undeniably a supporter of big business, and has demonstrated that he was impervious to community activist’s efforts to educate and organize for environmental health and the safety of the community. Let’s cast our votes and hope that the Council can proceed without that kind of drag on a bright future for our beloved city.
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