In the last 10 days, an Independant Expenditure Committee (IE) called "Citizens for Transportation Funding" has mailed out 3 hit-pieces against Rue Furch. I will address some of the more glaring flaws in a later post. But if you think people vote with both their ballot and their checkbook, consider who pumped thousands of dollars to support Carrillo at the last minute:
Berg Holdings $22,500
-Skip Berg is the developer who wants to create a commercial complex at Port Sonoma, open a giant gravel mine along the Eel River, developer of the Infineon Raceway, and is a business associate of Doug Bosco.
Pro Transport $10,000
-a bit of a mystery;an ambulance/medical transport company, during a time of a pitched battle for the ambulance service franchise in Sonoma County.
Syar Industries $8,000
-the last of the big Russian River gravel miners, who got the Board of Supervisors to overturn the Planning Commission shut down of current terrace mining. Rue led the charge on the Commission that led to a 3/2 vote by the Commission to end terrace mining. Syar now wants to expand in-stream gravel mining in addition to continuing terrace mining.
Sonoma County Alliance PAC $6,000
-the key business group that includes developers, builders, lenders, real estate, contractors, corporate ag, and so on.
Doug Bosco $5,000
Former Congressman, early sponsor of Carrillo, and business associate of Skip Berg in gravel, development, and exporting north bay garbage to Nevada (no joke, comment if you want me to start a seperate thread on that)
Eric Koenigshofer $2,000
-political mentor of Carrillo and lobbiest for Preservation Ranch
North Coast Builders Exchange $1,600
-self evident
Nor. Calif. Engineering Contractors $1,600
-self evident
Kendall Jackson $1,666
All this info is public record at the County Elections office. If I can get them scanned, I will post them this evening.
It is suspected, but not confirmable until Monday, that the +$20K from Skip Berg is the largest single donation from an individual ever pumped into a Sonoma County Supervisorial race in history.
In an earlier thread, I outlined the political leanings of Robert Bone, who is the Treasurer of this IE Committee. His last big local push was to replace Lynn Woolsey with Mike Martini (former Executive Director of the Son. County Alliance) in 2002 (with the support of many of the names above). He also has consistently supported US Senator James Inhoffe (check Wikipedia for a chilling look at a Red State reactionary).
Both Rue and Carrillo have got IE Committees working on their behalf, and both run seperately from the campaigns. Rue has strong support from unions and environmentalists; Carrillo has strong support from developers/investors. The two candidates both sound green, but the development money and progressive money knows which was has voted green.
These groups/organizations have chosen the candidates that best fit their agenda for the future of Sonoma County. So how do individual voters see that choice? If developers/gravel miners/timber are lining up behind one candidate, and unions/environmentalists/human service groups behind another, who would you choose to stand with?