On Election Eve, See These Latest Campaign Contribs/Largest Spending Totals In Race For LB-S.E. L.A. County State Senate District
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(Mar. 25, 2019, 6:40 p.m., updated 8:20 p.m.) -- As of 5:00 p.m. March 25, the CA Secretary of State's website indicates that since Jan. 1, the campaigns of Lynwood City Councilman Jose Solache, Bell City Councilman Ali Saleh and South Gate Councilwoman Denise Diaz have all spent more than LB Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez's campaign has spent in pursuit of a state Senate seat that includes over half of LB and parts of several S.E. L.A. County cities.
But that's not the whole story. Gonzalez has also had a de facto advantage of $1.1 million spent to elect her a campaign committee she doesn't control, self-titled the "Coalition to Restore California's Middle Class, Including Energy Companies Who Produce Gas, Oil, Jobs and Pay Taxes." It's warchest, built through 2017 and 2018, has come from contributions by mainly major oil companies that the committee used to support electing a number of CA legislators. To see its 2017-2018 contributors, click here. On January 29, 2019, with the LB-area state Senate district seat in play, the committee's warchest grew with a $1 million contribution from Valero Energy Corporation (San Antonio, TX) and on Feb. 7, 2019 with a $500,000 contribution from CRC Services LLC (Houston, TX). As of March 11, it had spent $1,136,742 in an independently run campaign to support electing Gonzalez.
And she's effectively benefited from independent expenditures by "Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO Council on Political Education" since late February totaling over $175,000 indicated here.
And another independent PAC supporting Gonzalez ("Proven Progress PAC; A Committee Supporting Lena Gonzalez for Senate 2019") has spent $35,865.52 since between Jan. 1 and March 9 to send Gonzalez to Sacramento...and it received $21,000 more in contributions since then (detailed here.).
The other candidates have been swamped by spending by Gonzalez or independently supporting her by a favor of at least five to one.
Scroll down for further.]
To "Follow the Money," we chose the four candidates who'd spent the largest amounts in pursuit of the state Senate seat. It's ultimately ballots cast, not money spent, that decides who wins elections...and as in many things, money must be spent wisely. Ask yourself: did any of the mailers you received from the candidates persuade you? If not, what did?
To jump to details of contributions since March 9 to the candidates' individual campaigns, click the candidate names below. These contributions are in addition to Jan 1-March 9 totals indicated below:
LB Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez: As of March 9, reported spending since Jan. 1 $169,443, and had $247,481 cash on hand remaining with $91,556 in unpaid bills
The contributions listed since March 9 only show sums of $1,000 or more because the candidate's don't have to disclose smaller amounts until the next complete financial report.
Although voter-rich Long Beach is the largest city in the state Senate district, to our knowledge, none of the ten other active candidates facing LB Councilwoman Gonzalez chose to distinguish themselves from her to LB voters by raising issues over votes she cast while on the LB City Council (perhaps assuming there'll be a runoff and they'll be one of the two candidates in it.
Seven Dems (Lena Gonzalez, Ali Saleh, Jose Solache, Denise Diaz, Leticia Vasquez Wilson, Ana Maria Quintana, Chris Garcia) and one Repub (Jack Guerrero) hold elective offices in the S.E. L.A. County state Senate district in which roughly 55% of voters are registered Democrats, about 28% "decline to state" and approximately 12% are registered Republicans.
If any candidate gets 50%+1 ballots cast in the March 26 election, there won't be a runoff. If no one gets over 50%+1. the two highest vote getters will proceed to the June 4 runoff.
COUNCIL ON AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATIONS CALIFORNIA PAC (CAIR-CA PAC)
LONG BEACH
CA / 90802
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
1263363
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$1,500.00
INITIAL
3/15/2019
3/15/2019
2367530-INC130
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
JHONY SAKR
LOS ANGELES
CA / 91604
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
VILLAVERDE COLLECTIVE
OWNER
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$1,000.00
INITIAL
3/12/2019
3/13/2019
2366681-INC113
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
KADDO JAMES
LOS ANGELES
CA / 90004
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
REALTOR AGENT
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$250.00
INITIAL
3/11/2019
3/12/2019
2366587-INC109
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
VIVIANE NTANIOS
LOS ANGELES
CA / 90064
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
AUTOPRO SERVICE CENTER
MECHANICAL ENGINEER
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$1,700.00
INITIAL
3/11/2019
3/12/2019
2366587-INC108
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
CHOI BO SUNG INC.
LOS ANGELES
CA / 90006
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$2,700.00
INITIAL
3/25/2019
3/25/2019
2368573-INC159
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
CHRISTOPHER PAK
LOS ANGELES
CA / 90010
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
2GCPAK, LLC
ARCHITECT
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$2,000.00
INITIAL
3/23/2019
3/23/2019
2368512-INC154
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
BULLETIN DISPLAYS, LLC
LONG BEACH
CA / 90805
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$1,400.00
INITIAL
3/20/2019
3/21/2019
2368379-NON153
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
HENRY S. ATTINA
LONG BEACH
CA / 90802
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
HENRY S. ATTINA
REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$4,700.00
INITIAL
3/21/2019
3/21/2019
2368379-INC151
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
MICHAEL T. TAKAHASHI
LONG BEACH
CA / 90802
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
ATTS PROPERTIES LLC
MEMBER
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$4,700.00
INITIAL
3/21/2019
3/21/2019
2368379-INC150
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
MICHAEL SOTO
LAKE ELSINORE
CA / 92532
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
ENVIROCARE REMEDIATION
BUSINESS OWNER
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$2,500.00
INITIAL
3/18/2019
3/19/2019
2367938-INC132
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
GARMENT LINE, INC.
VERNON
CA / 90058
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$1,000.00
INITIAL
3/14/2019
3/14/2019
2367069-INC128
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
M.O.M.S INC.
DAWIE
FL / 33314
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$3,000.00
INITIAL
3/13/2019
3/13/2019
2366684-INC123
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
TAIDE LARA
BELL
CA / 90201
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
SG REALTY
REALTOR
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$1,000.00
INITIAL
3/19/2019
3/19/2019
2368035-INC191
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
CHRISTOPHER DAKOVICH
CHINO
CA / 91710
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
CHRISTOPHER DAKOVICH
ACCOUNTANT
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$4,700.00
INITIAL
3/19/2019
3/19/2019
2368035-INC190
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
WILLDAN GROUP, INC.
ANAHEIM
CA / 92806
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$1,000.00
INITIAL
3/16/2019
3/18/2019
2367673-INC187
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
DENISE DIAZ
SOUTH GATE
CA / 90280
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
APRENDA Y AHORRE DINERO
SMALL BUSINESS OWNER/ SOUTH GATE CITY COUNCIL
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$7,000.00
INITIAL
3/16/2019
3/16/2019
2367565-INC185
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
YURY AKOPYAN
MARINA DEL REY
CA / 90292
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
COMPLETE CARE COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER
CEO
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
$2,200.00
INITIAL
3/13/2019
3/13/2019
2366820-IDT92
NAME OF CONTRIBUTOR
CITY
STATE/ZIP
ZOHAIR OWEIS
IRVINE
CA / 92614
ID NUMBER
EMPLOYER
OCCUPATION
LAN WAN ENTERPRISE
VP COO
AMOUNT
TYPE
TRANS. DATE
FILED DATE
TRANS #
-$3,300.00
AMENDMENT #1
3/15/2019
3/19/2019
2366656-INC189
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