National Democrats are bringing out some heavy hitters to raise money for Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, as he seeks re-election in the newly drawn 3rd Congressional District.

Several Republicans have declared candidacy there, but the National Republican Congressional Committee has named Colusa County Supervisor Kim Dolbow Vann, 36, of Arbuckle, as its “Young Gun” to try to pick off Garamendi.

So Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel, D-N.Y., will join Garamendi for a fundraising luncheon Saturday, Feb. 25 at the San Francisco home of attorneys and real estate developers Valli and Bob Tandler. Besides the Tandlers, the host committee includes deep-pocketed Democratic mainstays Roselyne Swig, Mary and Steve Swig, and Richard Baum. Tickets range from $250 to $2,500.

I spoke with Israel on Tuesday morning for a yet-to-be-published story, and we briefly discussed Garamendi’s race. Israel, of course, said he likes Garamendi’s chances: “John has spent his time fighting for the middle class in Congress, he’s put together a strong campaign and he’s got five Republicans tearing each other apart.”

But the NRCC has anointed Vann as its standard bearer, and NRCC Executive Director Guy Harrison predicted to me Tuesday that “it’s going to be a tight race” between her and Garamendi. Vann has raised her profile by being active in state and national counties’ associations, and – if you factor in some outstanding debts – finished 2011 with about $159,000 ready to spend. Garamendi, who turns 67 two weeks from tomorrow, has about $278,000 unencumbered and ready to spend.

He’s Bay Area no more – his old 10th District had included the heart of Contra Costa County, but now he hopes to represent Solano County, Lake and Colusa counties, and the Yuba-Sutter area. The NRCC notes Garamendi, who was lieutenant governor and insurance commissioner before his election to Congress in 2009, never carried this area when running for statewide office. Yet the new district’s voter registration favors Democrats by about nine percentage points, and Garamendi has an incumbent’s advantage in fundraising and name recognition.

The money race in East Bay state legislative contests reveals a handful of early leaders in the open seats, according to campaign finance reports filed this week.

Democrat and Oakley Mayor Jim Frazier, one of five declared candidates in the new open Assembly District 11 seat, substantially out-raised his opponents by threefold as of Dec. 31, 2011, the end of the last reporting period.

In Assembly District 18, the new western Alameda County seat, Alameda Councilman Rob Bonta and AC Transit board member Joel Young, both Democrats, reported similar numbers and outpaced the other two declared candidates.

In Assembly District 20, which includes Union City and San Leandro, Democrat and Hayward Councilman Bill Quirk has a large financial lead but largely due to a personal loan.

Savvy observers will rightly note that the filing period doesn’t open until Feb. 13 but the most successful candidates are often those who get an early start and  lock down contributions and endorsements.

Here’s a cash rundown for East Bay state legislative candidates:

Assembly District 11: New district in east Contra Costa County and large swath of  Solano County

• Jim Frazier, Democrat and Oakley mayor: $109,709 in total contributions; $97,874 cash in the bank; and loans of $2,500.
• Patricia Hernandez,  Democrat and chief negotiator at Union of American Dentists and Physicians, Rio Vista: $38,050 in total contributions; $30,349 cash in the bank; and no loans.
• Gene Gantt, Democrat and retired fire chief, Benicia: $29,404 in total contributions; $28,510 cash in the bank; and no loans.
• Len Augustine, independent and former Vacaville councilman: No filing.
• Mike Hudson, Republican and Suisun City councilman: No filing.

Assembly District 14

• Susan Bonilla, Democratic incumbent, Concord: $211,666 in total contributions; $40,735 in the bank; no loans.

Assembly District 15

• Nancy Skinner, Democratic incumbent, Berkeley: $358,626 in total contributions; $400,066 in the bank; and no loans.

Assembly District 16

• Joan Buchanan, Democratic incumbent, Alamo: $101,500 in total contributions; $7,188 in the bank; loans unpaid from 2008 campaign of $100,000.
• David Haubert, Republican and Dublin Unified School District trustee: $46,624 in total contributions, $42,601 in the bank; no loans.

Assembly District 18 (New open seat in western Alameda County including Oakland, Alameda, San Leandro.)

• Rob Bonta, Democrat and Alameda councilman: $161,883 in total contributions; $132,239 in the bank; and loans of $7,500.
• Abel Guillen, Democratic and Peralta Community College District Trustee: $118,584 in total contributions; $107,040 in the bank; loans of $13,650.
• Kathy Neal, Democrat and Alameda County Democratic Central Committee member: $47,029 in contributions; $30,946 in the bank; and loans of $4,750.
• Joel Young, Democrat and AC Transit District board member: $154,078 in total contributions; $171,827 in the bank; and loans of $50,000.

Assembly District 20 (open)

• Sarabjit Cheema, Democrat and New Haven Unified School District trustee: No filing.
• Mark Green, independent and Union City councilman: No filing.
• Jennifer Ong, Democrat and eye doctor, San Leandro: $126,892 in total contributions; $93,734 in the bank; loans of $48,100.
• Bill Quirk, Democrat and Hayward councilman: $170,156 in total contributions; $134,717 in the bank; and personal loan of $96,000.

State Senate District 7

• Mark DeSaulnier, Democratic incumbent, Concord: $269,760 in total contributions; $217,754 in the bank; no loans.

State Senate District 9

• Loni Hancock, Democratic incumbent, Berkeley: $335,174 in total contributions; $272,377 in the bank; no loans.

Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton – who’s running in the newly drawn 9th Congressional District – raised $250,974 and spent $86,847.58 in the fourth quarter, finishing 2011 with $780,339.54 cash on hand and no debts.

Republican challenger Ricky Gill, 24, of Lodi – whom the National Republican Congressional Committee in August named a “Young Gun” for his aggressive organizing and fundraising – had gotten off to a hot start last year, raising more than $429,030 in the second quarter and more than $225,000 in the third quarter.

But Gill’s pace continued to slow in the fourth quarter: He raised a net of $124,188.65, loaned his campaign another $67,460.97 (bringing his self-financing total so far to almost $143,000), and spent a net of $1,910.14. He finished 2011 with $837,617.67 cash on hand but $142,839.73 in outstanding debts – a net bankroll of $694,777.94.

And new voter registration data released today by the Secretary of State’s office shows the new 9th District is 44.6 percent Democrat to 35.8 percent Republican; that’s an edge McNerney didn’t have in 2010 when seeking re-election in his old 11th Congressional District, which was 39.3 percent Republican to 39.0 percent Democrat.

Is the Young Gun getting outgunned?

I’d reported here weeks ago that former Obama Administration Ro Khanna of Fremont raised an eye-popping $1.2 million in the last quarter of 2011, his first quarter of raising money to run for the 15th Congressional District seat – even though he says he won’t challenge incumbent fellow Democrat Rep. Pete Stark and so probably won’t run until 2014.

Today was the deadline for filing year-end campaign finance reports, so now we can see how others in that district did.

Stark’s campaign raised $88,156 and spent $52,803.50 in the fourth quarter, finishing 2011 with $579,826.10 cash on hand and no debts.

Alameda County prosecutor and Dublin Councilman Eric Swalwell – another Democrat who hopes the newly drawn district’s lines and the top-two primary system can make him into a giant-killer – raised $65,357.36 and spent $44,410.41 in the fourth quarter, finishing 2011 with $89,072.87 cash on hand and no debts.

And state Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, who hasn’t committed to whether she’s running this year or not, raised $161,835 and spent $14,116.55 in the fourth quarter, finishing 2011 with $147,718.45 cash on hand and $22,714.56 in debts – a net bankroll of $125,003.89.

Republican Independent Chris Pareja of Hayward – who ran against Stark in 2010 as a write-in, backed by some Tea Party elements who felt Republican nominee Forest Baker wasn’t conservative enough – told me this afternoon that his campaign has been “in exploratory mode,” has not yet passed the $5,000 threshold that triggers the need for a quarterly report, and won’t start fundraising in earnest until February.

Republican candidate Elizabeth Emken of Danville today rolled out the finance committee members she hopes will help her raise the wherewithal to take on U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein this year.

“Last week, Elizabeth kicked off her campaign and received very enthusiastic support from around California. Since then, we’ve put together some of the state’s most successful Republican fundraising professionals to form her finance team,” Emken campaign manager Jeff Corless said in a news release. “Feinstein’s weakness has landed her on the national target list, and Elizabeth Emken’s finance team shows we’re very serious about raising the funding needed to contest this seat. We’re looking forward to a vigorous campaign in the coming months.”

Here’s the team:

Joanne Davis, finance director – Davis most recently served as chief financial officer for Carly Fiorina’s unsuccessful bid to unseat Barbara Boxer in 2010; earlier, she raised tens of millions for candidates and causes including President George W. Bush, the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, the Republican National Committee, the California Republican Party, gubernatorial candidates Bill Simon and Richard Riordan, then-Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Charissa Abbay-Gonzales, Los Angeles/Central Coast regional finance director – Abbay-Gonzales is president of On Target Fundraising and Events, with past clients including the gubernatorial campaigns of Meg Whitman, Richard Riordan and Bill Simon.

Jennifer Fitzgerald, Orange County regional finance director – Fitzgerald is the founder and CEO of CL7 Communications, Inc., a political communications and fundraising firm, with past clients including Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign, Gov.Arnold Schwarzenegger, Meg Whitman’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, Rep. John Campbell, Rep. Ed Royce and the California Women’s Leadership Association.

Jean Freelove, San Diego regional finance director – Freelove has been San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders’ fundraising adviser for seven years and also has raised money for various state lawmakers, city councilmembers and county supervisors. She was part of Carly Fiorina’s 2010 U.S. Senate campaign and now assists the National Republican Senatorial Committee and House Speaker John Boehner with San Diego-area fundraising.

I haven’t yet seen Emken’s year-end FEC report, for which the filing deadline is later today, but her camp advises me not to expect much because she was in exploratory mode until just last week; today’s finance-team rollout marks the start of her concerted fundraising effort. Then again, Emken already had formed a campaign committee, hired staffers and launched a website at the end of November, writing on the GOP information clearinghouse FlashReport.org that she’s “running for U.S. Senate because my children need me to.”

Spokesman Tim Clark told me in November that Emken – who lost $200,000 of her own money on her June 2010 House GOP primary bid, in which she finished fourth in a field of four – isn’t planning to self-finance this campaign. Since then, Mark Standriff – formerly the state GOP’s spokesman – has taken over Emken’s campaign communications.

Emken isn’t the only Republican candidate in the race: Santa Monica businessman Al Ramirez rolled out his exploratory committee just last week. Ramirez got about 2 percent of the vote in the 2010 GOP primary seeking the nomination to unseat Boxer – a very distant fourth behind Carly Fiorina, Tom Campbell and Chuck DeVore – but told the Los Angeles Times last week that he now has more experience and better relationships with state party leaders.

Feinstein, 78, won a 1992 special election to the U.S. Senate and then was re-elected in 1994, 2000 and 2006, but her poll numbers portend a somewhat tougher fight in 2012. And although Feinstein’s campaign reported a $9.2 million bankroll as of Sept. 30, some or even most of that money may have been embezzled by Democratic campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee, who was arrested in September by the FBI.

President Barack Obama will be in San Francisco to raise campaign funds on Thursday, Feb. 16.

There’ll be a reception at a location yet to be named (when he did something like this last April, it was at the Masonic Auditorium on Nob Hill), featuring a performance by Grammy-winning performer Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave fame. Tickets will cost $100 for general seating; $1,000 for preferred seating; and $7,500, which includes preferred seating and an individual photo with President Obama (but you can have additional people in your photo at a cost of $2,500 per head).

There also will be a much smaller, 60-person dinner (like the one he did last April at salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff’s house) at the San Francisco home of novelist Robert Mailer Anderson and his wife, Nicola Miner, at $35,800 per person. The president will make remarks and take questions at this event, for which the food will be prepared by Michael Tusk, chef and owner of Quince and Cotogna. The dinner will include a musical performance too, but the artist hasn’t been named yet.

As I’d reported when Vice President Joe Biden was coming to town this month, donors can choose to buy a $10,000 package that will include admission and a photo at the President’s bigger event on Feb. 16; admission and a photo at First Lady Michelle Obama’s not-yet-scheduled March event; and entry into other events between now and November. (It’s only $7,500 if you forego the photo with the president.)

As usual, the first $5,000 of a contribution will go the president’s reelection campaign, with half earmarked for the primary election and half for the general. The rest – up to $30,800 – will go to the Democratic National Committee, although the donor can designate that money for a specific recipient somewhere.

I’ve just sent the White House my pool report on Vice President Joe Biden’s fundraising luncheon in San Francisco’s financial district. Read the full report, after the jump…
Read the rest of this entry »

A national good-government watchdog group is launching a coast-to-coast campaign to have voters urge Congress to reverse the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and limit political spending by amending the U.S. Constitution.

Common Cause’s “Amend 2012” campaign will aim to place initiatives on this November’s ballots – either by gathering petition signatures or through legislative action – that would urge Congress to act. A constitutional amendment will take years to pass, coming far too late to stem the tide of money that’s already flooding this year’s election, but organizers say this effort at least will give outraged voters a voice and inject the issue into November’s vote, forcing candidates to take a position on it.

The effort initially will focus on signature-gathering drives in Colorado, Montana and Massachusetts; that might expand to Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio and Washington.

Derek Cressman, Common Cause’s Sacramento-based western regional director, said California’s size and schedule make it “an awfully steep lift” to gather enough signatures in time to put such a measure on November’s ballot. Instead, the campaign is exploring having the state Legislature or local governments do so.

“We’re in effect creating a road map for voters to demand a national referendum on reversing Citizens United,” Common Cause board chairman Robert Reich – the former U.S. Labor Secretary and current University of California, Berkeley professor – said on a conference call with reporters this morning.

“Reform is not going to happen from the inside because the insiders all benefit from the current system,” Reich said. “It’s our view that it will take a constitutional amendment to take our country back and restore confidence in our democracy.”

The proposed amendment would affirm that only people – not corporations – are people, and that campaign spending can be limited.

Common Cause President and CEO Bob Edgar said Americans all across the political spectrum “have lost faith in Washington, they don’t think the government works for them anymore.” It’s that “need to be heard above the noise” that first fueled the Tea Party, and more recently the Occupy movement.

“I’d like to think we’re part of the ‘Occupy Democracy’ movement,” Edgar said.

“Undoubtedly, the protestor momentum is part of this,” Reich agreed, noting he has spoken at several Occupy events in recent months; among them was the Nov. 15 Occupy Cal event on Sproul Plaza. “What I hear over and over again is that we have to take back democracy.”

Edgar said gathering petition signatures or lobbing state legislatures to put measures on state ballots will be “a true grassroots effort, built from the bottom up” but also will carry costs. “We don’t have enough, we need more money, we are raising money” to support this campaign, he said.

But he said he’s confident that super PACs’ exorbitant spending as this year progresses will help loosen people’s wallets. “As more people get to know of the concern, more resources will be coming forward.”

Just a few weeks into the presidential primaries, Reich noted, “we’ve already got super PACs run by the candidates’ friends and former staffs spending millions. All this is making a mockery out of our campaign laws and contribution limits, and it’s undermining democracy.”

Vice President Joe Biden will be in San Francisco next Wednesday for a fundraising luncheon, the first of three events which eventually will bring the First Lady and President Obama to town later this quarter.

The Jan. 18 luncheon at the Bently Reserve on Battery Street will cost $2,500 per person, or $5,000 for admission to both the luncheon and a photo reception; $7,500 gets a couple into both events, while $10,000 gets all that plus a pre-reception clutch with Biden.

Or, donors can pony up $10,000 now for a package that gets them not only this luncheon but also one with First Lady Michelle Obama in March and a third event with President Obama sometime within the first quarter as well.

As usual, the first $5,000 from each donor goes to the Obama Victory Fund 2012 – $2,500 each for the primary and general elections – and anything above that goes to the Democratic National Committee.

A former Obama Administration official from Fremont has achieved a rare milestone by raising more than $1.2 million for a House campaign in a single quarter – a full election cycle ahead of when he says he’s actually likely to run.

Ro Khanna, 35, a Democrat, isn’t filing his fourth-quarter campaign finance report with the Federal Election Commission until Monday, but was kind enough to give me an exclusive advance look at the numbers. He says he raised $1,221,857 from a total of 923 donors in this first three months of his campaign, including $897,000 from Northern California and $357,000 from the high-tech community (including people who work at more than 175 different companies). All of this money came from individual contributions; he has banked no PAC money. He ended 2011 with $1,142,955 in the bank.

Unless I missed something in looking back through FEC records, I don’t think any non-incumbent House candidate in the nation has raised more in his or her opening “out-of-the-gate” campaign quarter in the past decade. In fact, I see only two or three instances in which a non-incumbent House candidate raised more than that in any single quarter since 2000. For additional context, Roll Call was excited this past week that Iowa’s former first lady raised a third of what Khanna did during the same time period.

“I’m honored that so many people are supporting our message of a strong economy and a great America,” he said in an e-mail today. “I will strive to be worthy of their support and will work to strengthen America’s competitiveness, innovative capability, and manufacturing base.”

What’s more, he raised all this money so far ahead of when he says he intends to use it. Khanna – who in August finished a two-year stint as a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Commerce Department, and is now at Silicon Valley legal powerhouse Wilson Sonsini – has his eye on the newly drawn 15th District now represented by Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont. Stark is now seeking re-election to his 21st term in the House, but Khanna has been telling me for months and repeated to me last week that he won’t take on Stark; rather, he’s anticipating that this next term will be Stark’s last, and he’ll run for the open seat in 2014.

Of course, all that would change in a hurry if Stark were to change his mind and not seek another term this year.

Stark, 80, does already face a Democratic challenger in this cycle: Dublin councilman and Alameda County prosecutor Eric Swalwell, 31, who – although I’ve not seen his fourth-quarter filing yet – is certainly not posting anything near numbers Khanna has. Swalwell’s trying to make up for that with a great deal of exuberance and shoe leather, tirelessly working the district at every opportunity to raise his profile. He hopes to cash in on the district’s new orientation – including a lot of new territory on the other side of the East Bay hills – and on the fact that this is the first regular House primary using the “top-two” system (in which the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to November’s general election).

But it’s an uphill battle against so veteran an incumbent, and if Swalwell doesn’t pull it off in 2012, he’s going to have one extremely well-funded and solidly backed opponent on his hands should he try again in 2014. (And I’m not talking about Ellen Corbett, who also must be looking upon Khanna’s numbers with dismay.)

Khanna made this killing mainly with big eventsl – an exclusive Oct. 18 soiree at the Portola Valley home of venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, netting about $440,000; a more grassrootsier event Nov. 19 in Hayward, netting about $220,000; and a Nov. 30 event at the Woodside home of former Symantec CEO John Thompson (the same site as one of President Obama’s big-ticket fundraisers in September), netting about $200,000.

“This shows the level of support we have in the local community given that one of our most successful events was in Hayward. We are mobilizing many local leaders who have never participated in politics before,” he said today.

Among the cast of characters dropping by those events were House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco (with whom Khanna has been building bonds ever since his ill-advised 2004 primary challenge to Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo); Gov. Jerry Brown; former U.S. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta; Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto; Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose; plus state and local officials. His donors are a who’s-who of usual Democratic deep pockets, like John Doerr, Penny Pritzker, Susie Buell, Marc Benioff and Marc Andreessen. In short, he’s showed he has buzz where it counts.

“I am most excited by the ideas and energy brought to our campaign by some of our nation’s greatest innovators such as Reid Hoffman, Marc Andreessen, and Peter Thiel,” Khanna said today. “I learned a lot about what America needs to create an ecosystem for innovation in the 21st century.”