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