From: Norma Fox
To: Elizabeth Patterson
Subject: Update on Benicia's November 2007 Election Money
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:45:11 -0700

Even though our November 2007 election is long behind us, the money continues to roll in.

You may recall the last set of campaign finance reports, with a cutoff date on election day, Nov. 6, 2007, showed total election expenditures of $240,570 by candidates and PACs combined (67% of that from outside money, and 35% of that spent by independent PACs).

The new campaign finance reports, covering 11/7/07 - 12/31/07, have been submitted to the City Clerk's office, and they show a total of $57,600 [note corrected amount is $57,600] in new POST-election contributions to candidates and PACs (90% of that was from outside money, and 75% of that was contributed to PACs).

These post-election contributions are used to pay for expenditures that were made by means of informal credit arrangements, or to pay off self-loans. To some degree this may be reasonable, but when the amounts are excessive, it's an unfortunate system from the voter's point of view, because voters do not get to know who the contributors are before they go to the polls.

Here are some highlights from these recent campaign statements (covering 11/7-12/31/07):

Post-election contributions to PACs:

Benicia Local Govt. Acctability Coalition (BLGAC-PAC), a PAC with ties to Seeno and the building trades, reported new contributions of $33,000 between 10/30 and 12/7. This was used to pay for sleazy and dishonest last-minute mailers attacking Patterson and promoting Whitney. The money was contributed in large chunks by the same small-time construction-related businesses (mostly located in Seeno-land around Pittsburgh, Antioch, Byron, etc.) that contributed to this same PAC in the previous reports.

Calf. Citizens for Excellence in Govt. (CCEG-PAC), a PAC with ties to Valero and refinery-related businesses, reported new contributions of $10,000 between 11/15-11/21. $7,500 of that was straight from Valero Refining Co! In the previous reports from this pro-Whitney PAC, they received contributions from various small-time refinery-related businesses in the local East Bay, but none directly from Valero itself.

[It makes one wonder if these small-time companies (who probably don't even know Patterson or Whitney) may have business contracts with Valero and Seeno, and perhaps they may receive extra slush funds in their contracts to spend on these political contributions for people they don't even know.... just speculation of course!]

Post-election contributions to the candidates:

Strawbridge wrote-off his outstanding debt of $1,477, to close out his campaign reporting. He also contributed $250 to Schwartzman and $250 to Hughes.

(Why are Hughes and Schwartzman still receiving campaign contributions? Well, both of them made loans to their campaigns after their Nov. 2005 elections to pay off their campaign debts, so now they're still receiving contributions to pay off their personal loans.)

Elizabeth Patterson received $5900 between 11/12-12/24 (in many small local contributions) to pay off her outstanding campaign debt, a debt that was incurred in the last days of the campaign in order to respond to the last minute smear mailer by the pro-Whitney BLGAC-PAC.

Tom Campbell received about $200 (from local contributions) shortly after the election to help pay off a $5,800 personal loan he made to his campaign before the election.

Bill Whitney received $5000 from Valero PAC on 12/20, and $3000 from the Vallejo Plumbers & Steamfitters Local on 1/11/08.

Mike Ioakimedes received $500 from Valero PAC on 11/13/07.