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