These Big Bucks Sources Just Boosted Gonzalez Senate Bid By $80,000+
LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. Support independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.
(Feb 13, 2019, 11:10 a.m.) -- LBREPORT.com's "Follow the Money" coverage provides below the names of entities and individuals who within a recent five day period made campaign contributions totaling over $80,000 to support electing LB Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez to a LB-Huntington Park state Senate seat.
Candidate Gonzalez's latest campaign contributors detailed below include the LB Police Officers Ass'n PAC, the Apt. Ass'n California Southern Cities, the UniteHere union (among several union PACs), Mayor Garcia's remaining 2018 re-election campaign warchest, Bob and Nancy Foster (LB Mayor 2006-14 and spouse) and election campaign committees of SF state Senator Scott Wiener (author of pro-housing development land use legislation that in cases preempts some local decisionmaking) and the state Senate district's immediate-past state Senator, Ricardo Lara.
[Scroll down for further.]
The campaign contributions listed immediately below (Feb. 5-9) include those received at or after a Feb. 7 downtown LB fundraiser organized by LB Mayor Robert Garcia which by our unofficial reckoning netted the Gonzalez 2019 campaign $84,200 between Feb. 5-9. Those sums come on top of $20,400 in early contributions to the Gonzalez 2019 campaign between Jan. 23-Feb. 1, also listed below.
Sponsor
Sponsor
Lena Gonzalez for Senate 2019 (1415216)
Date
Contributor
Amount
Feb. 9, 2019
Long Beach Collective Ass'n
$4,700
Feb. 9, 2019
Samuel A. ("Skip") Keesal, Esq.
$1,000
Feb. 8, 2019
Josh Lowenthal
$1,000
Feb. 8, 2019
James Eleopoulos (Signal Hill, "Big E Pizza" owner)
$2,500
Feb. 8, 2019
District Council of Iron Workers Political Action League
$2,500
Feb. 8, 2019
Patrick O'Donnell (Assemblyman)
$2,000
Feb. 8, 2019
Int'l Longshoreman Warehouse Workers Union PAC Local 13
$3,500
Feb. 8, 2019
Re-Elect Scott Wiener for State Senate 2020 (San Francisco)
$1,000
Feb. 8, 2019
Ricardo Lara for Insurance Comm'r 2018
$4,700
Feb. 8, 2019
Stephanie Graves (Pres. Lee Andrews Group, Los Angeles)
$1,000
Feb. 8, 2019
Matt Knabe (Lobbyist, Englander, Knabe & Allen
$1,000
Feb. 7, 2019
Michael Tumanjan (Tumanjan Homes, Palos Verdes Estates)
$1,000
Feb. 7, 2019
Garcia for Mayor 2018
$4,700
Feb. 7, 2019
Elaine Hutchison (Mgr., Paragon Equities)
$1,000
Feb. 7, 2019
Uprite Construction (Irvine, CA)
$4,700
Feb. 7, 2019
Apt. Ass'n CA Southern Cities
$2,500
Feb. 8, 2019
KOA Consulting (Huntington Beach)
$2,500
Feb. 7, 2019
Unite Here Local 11
$2,000
Feb. 7, 2019
Vasquez for Downey City Council
$1,000
Feb. 7, 2019
Nilda Langstron (Harbor Breeze Exec.)
$1,000
Feb. 7, 2019
Shooshani Developers
$1,000
Feb. 6, 2019
Nancy Foster
$1,000
Feb. 6, 2019
Robert Foster [lists himself as "consultant"; was LB Mayor 2006-14]
$1,000
Feb. 6, 2019
CA State Council of Service Employees
$8,800
Feb. 6, 2019
LB Police Officers Ass'n PAC
$4,700
Feb. 6, 2019
LB Police Officers Ass'n PAC [two separate transactions]
$4,700
Feb. 6, 2019
SA Recycling
$4,000
Feb. 6, 2019
Kambiz Babaoff (Ensemble Developments)
$1,000
Feb. 5, 2019
Kevin Peterson (P2S Inc., Engr.)
$1,000
Feb. 5, 2019
Nat'l Union of Healthcare Workers Candidate Committee
$2,300
Feb. 5, 2019
Gail Pla (Cordoba Corp. partner)
$4,700
Feb. 5, 2019
George Pla (Cordoba Corp. CEO)
$4,700
Feb. 5-9, 2019 = $84,200
PLUS these early contributions:
Lena Gonzalez for Senate 2019 (1415216) [Early contributions]
Date
Contributor
Amount
Jan. 23, 2019
M Strategic Communications, LLC
$1,000
Jan. 23, 2019
Jamarah Hayner (JKH Consulting CEO)
$4,700
Jan. 23, 2019
Stephanie Graves, Los Angeles (Lee Andrews Group President)
Kyle Kazan (Beachfront Property Mgm't Real Estate Mgm't)
$1,000
Jan. 28, 2019
Michael Tumanjan (Tumanjan Homes, Palos Verdes Estates)
$1,000
Feb. 1, 2019
Susan Rubio for Senate 2022
$2,500
Feb. 1, 2019
Lola's Mexican Cuisine, Long Beach
$1,000
Jab 23-Feb. 1, 2019 = $20,400
Sponsor
As of Feb. 12, the CA Secretary of State's website lists three active pro-Gonzalez campaign committees. They include "Lena Gonzalez for Senate 2019" (listed above) and "Lena Gonzalez for Senate 2020" (contributors below.) The two committees, both run by the Gonzalez campaign, are separate but the candidate can move money between them. (Whoever wins in 2019 will have to seek re-election in 2020.) There's also what appears to be an independent expenditure committee supporting Gonzalez, formed by persons or entities unclear at this point -- "Proven Progress PAC, A Committee Supporting Lena Gonzalez for Senate 2019." It hadn't listed any contributions as of Feb. 12.
Lena Gonzalez for Senate 2020 (1414677)
Date
Contributor
Amount
Jan. 18, 2019
Compulink Mgm't Center, Long Beach
$1,000
Jan. 18, 2019
So. Cal Pipe Trades Dist. Council #16
$9,300
Jan. 18, 2019
Dale P. Warner LL (Hamburger Mary's Restaurant owner)
$1,000
Jan. 21, 2019
Frank Suryan, Newport Beach (Lyon Living CEO)
$4,700
Jan. 23, 2019
United Food & Comm'l Workers Union Local 324 PAC, Buena Park
$4,700
Jan. 23, 2019
UFCW Western States COuncil Candidates PAC, Buena Park
$8,500
Jan. 23, 2019
M Strategic Communications, LLC
$1,000
Jan. 28, 2019
Int'l Longshoreman Warehouse Workers Union PAC Local 13, San Pedro
$5,000
As of Feb. 4: $35,200
Proven Progress PAC; A Committee Supporting Lena Gonzalez For Senate 2019 No disclosed contributions as of Feb. 12
Sponsor
Sponsor
Eight other Dem candidates besides Gonzalez entered the race, along with 2 Repubs and 1 Green. The full ballot candidate list is here LB Councilman Al Austin's name will remain on the ballot although he's announced he's ended campaigning for the seat without endorsing any specific Dem to date (LBREPORT.comm coverage here.)
Voters in roughly half of Long Beach, the largest city within the district, will have an opportunity to choose on March 26.
The CA Sec'y of State's website indicates voter registration in the LB-Huntington Park state Senate district is roughly 55% Dem, 28% "Decline to State" and just under 12% Repub. If no single candidate receives 50%+1 on March 26, the two highest finishers (regardless of Party) proceed to a June 4 runoff.
Support really independent news in Long Beach. No one in LBREPORT.com's ownership, reporting or editorial decision-making has ties to incumbent Long Beach officials, development interests, advocacy groups or other special interests; or is seeking or receiving benefits of City development-related decisions; or holds a City Hall appointive position; or has contributed sums to political campaigns for Long Beach incumbents or challengers. LBREPORT.com isn't part of an out of town corporate cluster and no one its ownership, editorial or publishing decisionmaking has been part of the governing board of any City government body or other entity on whose policies we report. LBREPORT.com is reader and advertiser supported. You can help keep really independent news in LB similar to the way people support NPR and PBS stations. We're not non-profit so it's not tax deductible but $49.95 (less than an annual dollar a week) helps keep us online.