Tag Archives: #VALEROPAC

2020 elections, Benicia elections, Valero PAC, Valero Services Inc.

Benicia Campaigns to Valero: BACK OFF!

By Roger Straw, October 13, 2020

Young, Scott and Diavatis take out ad in Benicia Herald: “It’s Time to Stop.”

Three Benicia candidates, including two who are running for Mayor, stepped forward on Monday publicly asking a Valero funded independent expenditure committee to stop bombarding residents with robocalls, texts, emails, flyers, mailers and Facebook ads.

The Political Action Committee (PAC), which calls itself “Working Families…Supporting Christina Strawbridge,” is anything but a bunch of working families.  It is Big Oil money and other unidentified “Affiliated Entities.”  The 2020 PAC was funded last November by a contribution of $200,000 from “Valero Services, Inc. and Affiliated Entities”,  supposedly located in Benicia.  This year, the committee is promoting Christina Strawbridge for Mayor, but has also engaged in negative campaigning, spreading lies and unflattering images of her opponent, Steve Young.

See also:
2020 elections, Benicia elections, Campaign finance, Steve Young, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero PAC

Valero PAC spends another $17,000 for robo calls and live phone calls

By Roger Straw, October 9, 2020

2020 Campaign Finance Reports – Benicia Mayor

Reporting on forms required by Benicia ordinance, the Valero PAC that is attempting to buy the Benicia Mayor race detailed the expenditure of another $17,000 on  October 4.

Cumulative Valero PAC spending to date: $62,844.  (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.)

Details of new money spent for Christina Strawbridge to defeat Steve Young:

  • ROBO CALLS – Another $1,000
  • LIVE CALLS – Another $15,000
  • ROBO CALLS – Another $1,000

Both payments were made to WINNING CONNECTIONS, 317 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, 2ND FLOOR, WASHINGTON, DC.  Source: Benicia_Form_496_4.pdf and Benicia_Form_496_5.pdf.

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 Valero’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 City Council, Benicia elections, Benicia Mayor, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero PAC

Valero PAC spending heavily in Benicia Mayor race – details

As of Sept. 24, Valero and friends had spent nearly $30,000 against Steve Young, owing another $30,000 in unpaid bills

A Sept. 29 report suggests Valero has spent nearly $70,000
By Roger Straw, October 2, 2020

After reviewing campaign finance documents on the City of Benicia website today, it is apparent that Valero is going to do everything it can once again to buy its way onto Benicia’s City Council.

This time around, they are smarter than they were in 2018, when the NAME of their political action committee was a mile long, naming two candidates they favored and coming right out and naming a single candidate they opposed.  This year, they claim only that they FAVOR one candidate for Mayor.  They kept the ludicrous “Working Families” moniker – as if we’re not ALL working families.  But this time  around, they’ve avoided reference to their real objective: to disparage and malign Steve Young so that he doesn’t become Mayor and hold Valero’s feet to the fire as he has in the past.

The details of Valero’s spending as of September 29 are combined in a single Excel spreadsheet here.  The spreadsheet contains 2 tabs:

    • “VALERO PAC Form460 CpgnDisclosr” is a record of Valero’s 3 SUMMARY reports, showing 2020 income, expenses and cash balance.
    • “Forms 465 & 496 IndExp” is a more interesting 2nd tab, showing in detail Valero’s individual expenditures so far, including…
      • Live Calls & Data: $27,000
      • Voter Data & Call Lists: $1,031
      • Call Center: $21,468
      • Digital Ads: $10,000
      • and Mailers: $9,844

Direct links to Valero’s documents as they appear on the City of Benicia website follow at the end of this article.

Sample Photocopies?

I recall that when Valero reported in 2018, they were required to included photocopies of the dirty and misleading ads they distributed (right).  I believe Benicia’s campaign finance ordinances required this.  Those ordinances have been strengthened since 2018, but no such photo samples have been included in Valero’s reporting as yet.  Residents have been seeing Valero’s negative ads on social media this week.  (Out of respect, I will not reprint them here.)

Valero Financial Disclosures – combined in one document

Again – our spreadsheet is viewable on Google Docs at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IYHmTbaw8IIyIPbB97FdjyiFmvU-3vvY/view?usp=sharing

Valero PAC Financial Disclosures – City of Benicia website
2020 elections, Benicia elections, Campaign finance, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero PAC

FIRST LOOK: Valero PAC report shows $248,111 on hand to influence Benicia’s 2020 election

Link to Valero’s Campaign Finance Report below…

Valero Benicia Refinery, emissions on Mar 23, 2019, 2.21pm [Photo: MBardet]
By Roger Straw, February 8, 2020

Valero and it’s labor force will once again have more money to spend than any of the candidates running for office in Benicia this year.  Most likely more than all candidates combined.

On November 20, 2019 Valero added $200,000 to a carry-over balance of $48,161.54.  The balance remained after the PAC’s huge expenditures in the 2018 race in which they smeared and spread misinformation, successfully defeating City Council candidate Kari Birdseye.

Here is the so-called “Working Families” PAC’s contributions and expenditures report for 7/1/19 to 12/31/19:
Working_Families_for_a_strong_Benicia_PAC_2020_Semi_Annual__Form_460_1.pdf

Future (and past) campaign finance reports for the Valero PAC and for all candidates can be found on the City of Benicia’s ELECTIONS page.