Total now over $214,000 to buy Benicia’s 2020 Mayor’s race
On Saturday, October 31, The Valero PAC reported another payment of $5,000 to the Washington, D.C. based company Winning Connections for scripted live phone calls to Benicia residents to get out the vote for Valero’s chosen candidate.
The report, filed according to law with the City of Benicia and posted on the City’s website, shows the $5,000 expenditure and a 3-page script. The script includes proper pronunciation of “Benicia” for the out-of -state callers, (ben-ee-sh-a).
Benicia residents have largely been outraged and outspoken about the huge influx of outside money from the massive Texas-based corporation and a local labor union that is considered to be in the pocket of it’s primary employer, Valero.
All local candidates have expressed disapproval of Valero’s attempt to influence our election, including the candidate Valero hopes to buy.
Valero’s primary purpose is to defeat current City Council member and Mayoral candidate Steve Young. Young has been endorsed by the Benicia Independent and many other local individuals and groups. See SteveYoungForMayor.org.
On October 28, The Valero PAC reported total income and expenditures for the period October 18-25.
According to the report, the PAC received no new income and made no new CASH payments, but took on new UNPAID bills amounting to $8,500 for ROBO calls and Live Calls [p. 3 and p. 8].
Note that the form seems to show much more than $8500 spent. Detailed expenditures show another $30,688 spent during this period for ROBO calls, Live Calls, & Mailers [p. 4], and another $6,500 spent during this period for Professional Services [p. 9]. This would seem to contradict the $8500 claim. To sort this out is beyond my expertise. For details, see the Form_460_Pre_Election_3.pdf.)
TOTAL EXPENDITURES in 2020: $209,399 to buy Benicia’s next Mayor.
INCOME for the period October 18 to October 25
This period
Year to date
Monetary Contributions (International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, forgers & Helpers Local 549)
Valero-Funded PAC Pours More Than $250,000 Into Benicia Mayor’s Race
KQED News, By Ted Goldberg, Oct 28, 2020
Valero’s oil refinery in the Solano County city of Benicia. (Craig Miller/KQED)
A political action committee funded mainly by the Valero Energy company has raised more than a quarter million dollars to convince Benicia residents to vote for its preferred candidate in the city’s mayoral race.
The San Antonio-based oil giant runs the Benicia refinery, one of California’s largest, which is located in the small Solano County city.
Contributions to the Working Families for a Strong Benicia PAC represent four times the total combined amount raised from individual donations by the city’s three mayoral candidates.
In the mayor’s race, Valero and one of its allied unions are supporting Councilwoman and Vice Mayor Christina Strawbridge against Councilman Steve Young — both Democrats — funding phone polls, digital ads and mailers, and reigniting a debate over the city’s future.
Since 2019, Valero has donated $240,000 to the committee. The donations come two years after the Valero-funded PAC spent thousands to help Strawbridge and Lionel Largaespada win seats on the Benicia City Council and defeat Kari Birdseye, an environmentalist candidate who was outspoken about efforts to increase regulations for the refinery.
The PAC also received a $25,000 contribution from the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Lodge 549, in what the union calls an effort to stop “coastal politicians” from killing manufacturing jobs.
“Steve Young wants Benicia to be a town where tech professionals buy a latte and telecommute. Christina Strawbridge wants it to be a place where our members who live in Benicia, who come home from work dirty and tired, can continue to raise their families too,” said Timothy Jefferies, the union’s business manager.
Elizabeth Patterson, Benicia’s current mayor, and one of Valero’s leading critics, is leaving office after serving in that position for 13 years and on the City Council for 17 years prior to that.
The election arrives as Valero and other oil companies that produce and process petroleum in California face a cutback in profits brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and increasing calls for the state to move away from fossil fuels as it battles climate change-driven wildfires.
With gasoline demand dropping, two of the Bay Area’s refineries, the Marathon plant in Martinez and Phillips 66 in Rodeo, are shifting to producing cleaner sources of energy.
The two worst refinery accidents in the Bay Area in the last three years took place at Valero’s Benicia refinery. A May 2017 power outage at the refinery led to a major release of toxic sulfur, prompting city leaders to call for an industrial safety ordinance. In March 2019, the plant had a series of malfunctions that led to another significant pollution release.
Patterson and Young have since pushed for the city to have more regulatory control over the refinery. Attacks from the Valero PAC followed.
“Steve Young doesn’t need a job because he is supported by the taxpayers of California. He has no reason to protect Benicia’s jobs and tax base,” states one of the recent mailers from the Valero PAC that was widely distributed to Benicia voters.
“Christina is a local business owner and knows how important it is to keep Benicia working. Now, more than ever, we need leaders like Christina Strawbridge,” it states.
Benicia residents have also received several rounds of calls paid for by the Valero-funded PAC, aimed at convincing voters to back Strawbridge.
Young: ‘Leave it to Benicia Voters’
Young says he’s not against the refinery, noting that it’s a major part of Benicia’s economy and that Valero frequently contributes to “worthy local causes.”
“Their ongoing attempts to influence the makeup of the City Council go far beyond normal corporate interest in local affairs,” Young said in an email. “Leave it to Benicia voters to elect their own representatives.”
Young says he wants the company to be more transparent about problems and accidents at the refinery and to send out immediate alerts to Benicia residents when accidents occur. He also says the city should have stronger air quality monitoring systems in place.
“The relationship between Valero and the community is strained,” Young said, adding that city officials and refinery executives can change that by holding monthly meetings.
Young says he’s a stronger candidate than Strawbridge because of his career working in local government and his better understanding of how to address problems facing the city.
Strawbridge: ‘Heal the Divide’
Strawbridge says that since she was elected to the City Council in 2018, relations between Benicia and the refinery have improved.
She notes that while the city did not put in place the more stringent regulations that Young and Patterson wanted, Benicia reached an agreement with Valero that includes the addition of portable air monitors, notifications during hazardous material incidents and increased disclosure on incident investigations.
But she also acknowledges that the campaign work by the company’s PAC is not helping the two sides get along.
“The relationship needs to improve and may have had a setback with this election cycle and Valero’s formation of a PAC,” Strawbridge said in an email.
“There is now a continued lack of trust within the community about the methods used during the election that were similar to 2018,” she added. “Once again, Valero has gone after my opponent with negative ads. That does not work in Benicia.”
Strawbridge believes the pushback from Valero’s critics has also gone too far.
“There has been a concerted effort to discredit me on social media and the local paper by supporters of my opponent,” Strawbridge said. “As mayor of Benicia, I plan to heal the divide our city has experienced for many years.”
Strawbridge touts her experience promoting nonprofits, preserving historic buildings and advocating for parks and local tourism. She says her background in small business will help guide the city through the pandemic.
A third mayoral candidate, Jason Diavatis, who has not been supported or opposed by the Valero PAC, did not respond to a request for comment.
Influence in California
Valero’s donations to the PAC represent just one place the oil company has poured campaign contributions to influence races in California.
The oil giant and its various political action committees have contributed at least $14.1 million to California groups and congressional candidates in the state since 2015, according to a review of state and federal campaign finance data by MapLight, a Berkeley-based nonprofit that follows money in politics.
Jason Kaune, the Benicia PAC’s treasurer and head of political law at Nielsen Merksamer, a Sacramento-based lobbying firm, declined to comment. A Valero spokeswoman also did not return a request for comment.
During that election, the city filed a complaint with state campaign finance regulators, alleging that Valero sponsored a so-called push poll intended to negatively characterize Birdseye, the environmental candidate. The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, though, declined to investigate the calls.
The dispute led the City Council to approve stronger disclosure rules for political committees involved in local elections.
Letter to the editor by Judi Sullivan of Benicia, October 23, 2020
‘This is the same PAC that infected our last election…’
Judi Sullivan, Benicia
As a Benicia resident, I find it disturbing to be repetitively assaulted by non-fact-based, character-smearing tactics showing up again in our city election via a well-funded, mass media/mailing PAC campaign. This is the same PAC that infected our last election with a series of lies slandering a well-qualified candidate. The PAC responsible for this behavior, titled, “Working Families for a Strong Benicia,” has The Valero Refinery listed as its main donor. The purpose of the PAC’s multiple forms of mass advertising is to support one candidate while at the same time, (flip side of the flyer), falsely slandering another for the position of our Benicia Mayor.
Do they feel their chosen candidate, Christina Strawbridge, is not capable of being elected on her own merits? Their desperate need to slam her opponent belies her own credibility. From an educated voter’s point of view, this ploy is disrespectful to both individuals.
The negative campaigning from our last election led to the citizen-suggested concept of creating a “Code of Ethics” among candidates for future city elections. Instigation of this code was adopted in response to the dirty politics we had just experienced.
Where is the accountability to this new “Code of Ethics” showing up in this election? What different, proactive responses are candidates taking to respond to the same debacle faced in 2018, prompting the need for this code? Some candidates running now, ( Steve Young, Christina Strawbridge and Tom Campbell), worked on creating this code.
So far, “Code of Ethics” credit is due to three current candidates who have chosen to take an active stand in response to the PAC’s repeatedly offensive negative modus operandi. They are Steve Young, along with Jason Diavatis, both of whom are running for Mayor, and Terry Scott for City Council. In addition, they offered alternative suggestions of more beneficial ways the PAC could support the needs of our city during these times of COVID & economic duress through the use of their abundant discretionary income. If interested, check out their quarter page newspaper ad in the Sunday, Oct. 11th edition of “The Benicia Herald.” These candidates are thanked for having the courage to publicly make a strong stand against dirty politics in our elections. I was hoping all of you would do so. If you took this stance repeatedly, dishonest negative politics could not be substantiated. Your continued collective outcry for lack of decency would undermine that game plan, no matter how much money went into the effort. As candidates, you have that power should you choose to use it. As citizens, we have that power, too.
The PAC referred to has knowingly overextended our city’s mandated contribution limits to run a campaign. No more than $34,200 per individual candidate is allowed to be raised by a campaign as regulated by our city’s election ordinance. This limit was set up for the purpose of keeping an even playing field where campaign financial contributions are concerned. However, over $200,00 this year has been spent so far by this PAC in support of Christina Strawbridge for Mayor. Last election she and Lionel Largaespada were funded by this same PAC. Needless to say, whomever the PAC supports has an unfair advantage financially and exposure-wise in the their attempt to “buy a seat(s)” in our city government.
Since 2010, when the CITIZENS UNITED National Mandate was formed, PAC’s have been enabled to contribute unlimited amounts to campaigns. Unfortunately, Federal Law super cedes our own city’s Election Ordinance Mandate. Although we cannot legally stop this influx of excess money from entering our elections, we can each voice our concerns for the inequity it creates by going against our local mandate. Under these circumstances, what is legal does not necessarily fall into the category of being ethical. I am also asking for ethical campaigning. For each candidate to stand up against obviously slanderous negative statements that are so offensive to most of us, regardless of whether it is denigrating our chosen candidate or another. It’s a despicable practice misrepresenting candidates.
I am requesting ALL candidates and funders of campaign strategies to focus on policy-based campaigning, using the foundation of facts, past and current experience
relevant to the position sought, along with accurate depictions of facets of the candidate’s character relating to the job they are seeking. What a refreshing change that would be!
Each of you can stand on your own merits. Do any of you really want to win based on maligned misinformation spread about your opponent? That is not a clean “win.” I hope each of you will step up by demonstrating the desire for a fair, honest election through consistent actions taken towards producing that goal. That may include daily repetitive comments to discount disreputable injustices propagated by surly ad campaigns. Each candidate, or preferably the candidates as a collective, can choose to demonstrate the strength and purpose of the newly formed “Code of Ethics.” Otherwise, this code is merely a collection of words on paper.
Respectfully submitted,
Judith S. Sullivan
41-year Benicia resident
On Saturday, October 31, The Valero PAC reported another payment of $5,000 to the Washington, D.C. based company Winning Connections for scripted live phone calls to Benicia residents to get out the vote for Valero’s chosen candidate.
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