Fremont Campaign fundraising (Mayor)
By Matt Artz
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 1:24 pm in Fremont, Mayor's race, Uncategorized.
I’ve been looking at campaign finance filings for the first half of this year. Here are the leaders for Mayor in terms of how much money they have on hand.
Bob Wasserman $78,396
Steve Cho $50,302
Gus Morrison $15,108
Some quick observations: It pays to have the support of Fremont’s biggest sugardaddy, Former Assemblyman John Dutra. Wasserman has Dutra’s endorsement and received a total of $3,000 from people named Dutra.
Wasserman received the most donations (208) of which exactly 50 percent came from Fremont people or businesses. A lot of people with Indian surnames gave him money. No sign of anyone with direct ties to the A’s contributing.
Among those giving to Wasserman were:
Suzanne Chan, who Wasserman is endorsing for Council
Richard Frisbie, who is the planner behind Patterson Ranch project
NUMMI
Ray Tong, a developer who wants to build a Berkeley Bowl-style supermarket (He gave money to Cho too)
Kaenyama Sushi - The sushi restaurant/night club that has had some trouble with the cops.
Cho received donations from 174 people, of whom 126 were based in Fremont. A lot of his financial support seems to be coming from Asians. His list of contributors included three Changs, Lees and Lins. He also received money from four Lius and six Shihs, two whom live at the same address.
As for Morrison, all 32 of his donors are based in Fremont, and 24 of them are retired.
More to come in the print edition
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August 5th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
How does one go about making a donation to these campaigns? As far as I know and can find on the net, Cho is the only mayoral candidate who has a website. If you have URL’s for the other candidates, can you please share them? Also, where are their campaign offices? Do you have to attend a campaign event to make a donation or what? It would also behelpful to check their websites to see their positions on various issues. Thanks!
August 8th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Fremont Lifer: Save your money yet. Lets see who stays standing, and then in the end decide on who really has a nickle worth of a campaign going on. At the present I see a lot of posturing.All talk and no substance.
Money Advantage-Wasserman,
Street Smart Advantage-Morrison- I would never rule him out. He is after all the comeback kid.
Asian Vote Advantage and split the vote and sneak-in advantage-Cho.
A lot of jockeying for support and the power brokers old and new, and some really new desperate ones, are having a field day pulling strings of the poor candidates, only to probably abandon them in the end, when their own street credo is at stake and it gets too hot. Like it always happens. One would think that that the new political era would teach them to take a cue, that the politics of the past era is so passe^.
This is a bizzare election. And its going to get crazy.
Endorsements arent making sense either. Cross Pollination plentiful, so who is really endorsing who? Just heard Cho’s campain manager Yee endorsed Chan for City Council who has endorsed Wasserman for Mayor. Now someone please explain how that makes sense. I never thought I would come to a blog to get an answer, but I gave up thinking about that one. So enlighten me please, thou holy one! even the not so holy one’s.
August 8th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Coldfremont wrote…
“Endorsements arent making sense either. Cross Pollination plentiful, so who is really endorsing who? Just heard Cho’s campain manager Yee endorsed Chan for City Council who has endorsed Wasserman for Mayor. Now someone please explain how that makes sense.”
Perhaps it is because there is a difference between the two offices, that of council member and mayor and Mr. Yee is basing his endorsement on whom he feels will be best suited for that particular office.
August 9th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Andrew,
Thanks for clarifying. But doesnt Mr Yee undermine his own candidates credibility. Usually that sends a very wrong message. Appears spineless to me. Seems it takes the thunder away from his candidate for Mayor. How does he say his candidate is the best for Mayor when someone he has endorsed is stumping for Wasserman. I think he did a great disservice to his own candidate. Might cost Mr Cho a number of votes.But lets see. I hope it doesnt. Otherwise it might be guilt he is going to have to carry for a long time.