Bitbadal Labor’s Best Bet in District 10?

Labor gave two endorsements for the District 10 City Council race, but unions’ preferred option is burning up dollars while their second choice took the lead in campaign fundraising.

Campaign finance forms made public Thursday show planning commissioner Edesa Bitbadal, a former staffer for Councilmember Kansen Chu, took the lead in fundraising among the six candidates competing for the seat representing Almaden and Blossom Valley. Reports show that from Jan. 1 through March 17, Bitbadal, who received an open endorsement from labor, raised $86,765.

Meanwhile, Brian O’Neill, who received the primary endorsement from the South Bay Labor Council, raised $27,233 in this time period, including $13,000 he loaned himself. Most of that money didn’t last long. O’Neill spent $17,498 during the first 11 weeks of the year. He similarly burned through money raised in December.

Campaign disclosure forms show the other four candidates in District 10—the only open seat this year because Nancy Pyle will be termed out—also raked in tens of thousands of dollars during this period.

Financial advisor Johnny Khamis brought in the second most money with $41,078 in contributions, including $20,000 he loaned himself. San Jose Unified school board member Leslie Reynolds came in third in terms of campaign contributions at the end of 2011, raising $33,155 this year, including a personal loan of $20,000.

Denelle Fedor, chief of staff for Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio, raised $21,475 during the first period of the year, while sports broadcaster Robert Braunstein raised $8,240.

In the District 2 race, incumbent Ash Kalra raised about $15,000 since the beginning of the year, while challenger Tim Murphy, a high-tech engineer who formerly served as a councilman in Hudson, Ohio, has raised no money.

District 4 incumbent Pierlugi Oliverio collected $121,157 from about 500 donors, while his opponent, attorney Steve Kline, raised $16,032 during the same period—$8,000 coming from a personal loan.

In District 8, incumbent Rose Herrera reported raising $48,771 since the beginning of the year, while her two challengers collected far less. Jimmy Nguyen collected $5,680 and Patricia Martinez-Roach raised $5,494.

One Comment

  1. Political dirty tricks?

    I set out on a tour of all the District 10 candidate websites.

    I did a Google search and found a link to Robert Braunstein’s website.

    When I clicked on the link, McAffee anti-virus intervened with a screaming, in-your-face warning about the site being infected with a nasty virus.

    Is this just sloppy website construction, or are sinister forces poisoning the public’s sources of information?

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