Category Archives: Kari Birdseye

Benicia City Attorney Heather McLaughlin, Benicia City Clerk, Christina Strawbridge, Kari Birdseye, Lionel Largaespada, Local elections, Negative ads, Negative campaigning, Valero Benicia Refinery

Lingering questions regarding Anti-Birdseye PAC money

By Roger Straw, October 18, 2018

The Benicia City Attorney and City Clerk were not helpful in clarifying certain questions regarding funds collected and spent by the Anti-Birdseye political action committee (PAC) as of October 13.

In my last report of October 13, I was able to post links to the City of Benicia website showing the Anti-Birdseye PAC’s first Contribution Report (Form 497-1), totaling $74,200.  Strangely, I was able to report an additional $30,000 contribution which showed up in an Expenditure Report (Form 496-4).  So I reported total receipts of $74,200 + $30,000, or $104,200.

Also in my Oct 13 report, I was able to post links to the City of Benicia website showing details from the four Anti-Birdseye PAC Expenditure forms. Form 496-1 reported $9,900 spent for phone calls on behalf of candidate Strawbridge; Form 496-2 showed $9,900 spent for phone calls on behalf of candidate Largaespada; and Form 496-3 showed $9,900 spent for phone calls to oppose candidate Kari Birdseye.  An additional Form 496-4 showed $6,689 for negative digital advertising to smear candidate Birdseye

Contributions (as of Oct. 13)

Expenditures (as of Oct. 13)

These expenditure reports confused me, so I wrote to our Benicia City Attorney and City Clerk asking for clarification, “On 496 Expenditure forms #1, #2 and #3, the exact same amounts are listed, $5,166.66 and $4,733.34.  Does this mean that a total of $9,900 was spent THREE times, for a grand total of $29,700?  Or are all three forms reporting the same dollars for a total of only $9,900?”

The City could not, or would not take time to help.  City Attorney Heather McLaughlin replied, “Your questions are more properly addressed to the FPPC.  The city doesn’t get into substantively analyzing the reports.”

Left to my own conclusions, I’d guess that a total of $9,900 had been spent on phone calls as of Oct. 13, and was simply reported three times on the separate forms to show the PAC’s intent to support CS & LL and to oppose Kari Birdseye.  The additional $6,689 on video smears against Birdseye brings the total spent as of Oct. 13 to $16,589, leaving $87,611 in the PAC’s account for future campaign efforts.

"Push poll", Benicia City Attorney Heather McLaughlin, Benicia City Council, Benicia Vice Mayor Steve Young, EMC Research, Kari Birdseye, Research America, Valero Benicia Refinery

Benicia will file “push poll” complaint with Fair Political Practices Commission

Repost from the Vallejo Times-Herald
[Editor: See also Kari Birdseye responds to negative ads, and her Facebook ad: Kari Birdseye cannot be bullied or bought.  – R.S.]

Benicia council directs staff to file complaint over “push poll”

By JOHN GLIDDEN, October 17, 2018 at 6:08 pm

BENICIA — City Attorney Heather Mc Laughlin has been directed by a unanimous vote of the council to send a formal complaint to the state about a recent polling survey in the city.

The vote took place during the City Council’s closed session on Tuesday.

Mc Laughlin will send the complaint to the California Fair Political Practices Commission after the polling firms, hired by Valero Benicia Refinery, refused to provide a copy of the questions.

City officials believe the survey may have violated the city’s municipal code when the callers failed to state that the survey was a political call. Research America and EMC Research, which were contacted to conduct the survey, said, through their attorney, that the calls were not political and thus didn’t require a disclaimer or “paid for” notice.

Vice Mayor Steve Young spoke during the open session portion of Tuesday night’s meeting and said the issue could be resolved if Valero simply provided a copy of the questions asked to about 250 residents.

“It’s easy to put to rest,” Young said about Valero providing the questions.

The council earlier this month directed Mc Laughlin to obtain the questions and other items related to the survey after Young and other residents reported receiving one of the survey calls in late September.

Young called the survey a “push poll,” which is a survey used to influence the respondent instead of collecting factual information.

The polling companies, through their lawyer, further said 256 randomly selected likely voters from within Benicia were contacted from Sept. 6 to Sept. 20 to participate.

During her investigation, Valero admitted to paying for the survey.

The Times-Herald has asked Valero repeatedly for a copy of the questions but the company has ignored those requests.

“It’s their property,” Young further said Tuesday night about the survey questions.

He said Valero’s failure to provide information about the survey forces the City Council to act.

“We’re put into the position of having to take the next step to protect our own ordinance,” he added.

"Push poll", Benicia City Council, Kari Birdseye, Local elections, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero Services Inc.

Kari Birdseye responds to negative ads

Repost from the Vallejo Times-Herald
[Editor: See also BirdseyeForBenicia.com.  – R.S.]

Birdseye responds to negative ads

By JOHN GLIDDEN October 16, 2018 at 6:34 pm
Kari Birdseye

“People and companies go negative when they are afraid.”

Benicia City Council candidate Kari Birdseye responded Tuesday to questions asked by this newspaper after a special committee was formed to oppose her campaign.

As of Tuesday afternoon, financial records submitted to the Benicia City Clerk’s Office show that $124,000 has been pumped into the committee, which was also formed to support fellow council candidates Lionel Largaespada and Christina Strawbridge.

Records show that the Valero Benicia Refinery has contributed $14,200 to the committee named: Working Families for a Strong Benicia, a Coalition of Labor, Industrial Services Companies, Public Safety and Local Leaders Supporting Christina Strawbridge and Lionel Largaespada and Opposing Kari Birdseye for Benicia City Council 2018.

The other funding sources are a number of union PACs.

“Valero and their friends are afraid of a candidate whose priorities include diversifying our tax base, promoting access to clean air and clean water and being a good neighbor at City Hall,” Birdseye wrote in an email to the Times-Herald.

The committee paid for a series of political phone calls to Benicians. A phone script was provided with the expenditure report given to the clerk’s office. It shows that if a respondent reported he/she may vote for Birdseye, the caller was to say that Birdseye is a “yes man for the mayor,” and not an independent thinker.

“I’m not sure if that phrase was meant to be a misogynistic slight but it is,” Birdseye wrote in her email. “I’m a woman, with a brain of my own. I’m nobody’s yes person. I will do my homework, listen to Benicians and make my own decisions based on what I think is best for our community.”

She also repudiated the claim that she isn’t an independent thinker.

“I’m a critical, strategic thinker with years of experience in management, finances and leadership,” she added. “I’m the last person who wants to give oxygen to the lie being spread about the Mayor and Vice Mayor building their shadow government, but if you look at the Vice Mayor’s voting record, he also is an independent thinker.”

The committee also bought digital advertisements to convince Benicia voters that Birdseye would be bad for the city.

Birdseye said Valero’s committee reminded her of when Chevron pumped millions of dollars in to the Richmond’s City Council race in 2014 — and lost.

“Outside influences are pouring more than $100,000 into our Benicia race, where all the candidate campaign money combined doesn’t equal that,” she said. “It is wrong, unfair and Benicia deserves better.”

Birdseye, Largaespada, Strawbridge, and Will Emes are all running for two open seats on the five-person Benicia City Council this fall. The two incumbents, Alan Schwartzman and Mark Hughes, have both declined to seek re-election to the council.