Update: King withdraws from Santa Clara County supervisor race
Joe Simitian's quest to retake his former seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is benefiting from a strong lead in cash raised, newly released campaign-finance documents show.
Simitian, a former Palo Alto mayor who is now in the final year of his term in the state Senate, has raised more than $96,000 as of the end of 2011, compared to about $55,000 raised by his rival, Kathleen King. Simitian and King are vying for the seat currently held by Liz Kniss, who is termed out and is seeking to return to her former seat on the Palo Alto City Council.
Simitian's campaign funds came from a broad range of contributors, including local developers, businesses, labor unions, individual donors and other political campaigns. The campaign of Alan Lowenthal, Simitian's colleague in the state Senate, gave Simitian's campaign $500, as did the Senate campaigns of Juan Vargas and Kevin de Leon.
Former Palo Alto Mayor Gary Fazzino contributed another $500 to Simitian's campaign, while Councilwoman Nancy Shepherd gave $100.
Simitian also drew $500 contributions from various unions, including the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, the California Nurses Association and the California Professional Firefighters. He also received $500 contributions from several major companies, including Applied Materials and Union Pacific Railroad.
Palo Alto developers also chipped in. Charles "Chop" Keenan and Roxy Rapp each donated $500, while Jim Baer gave Simitian's campaign $300.
Simitian also loaned $10,000 to his own campaign.
King, a former Saratoga mayor who now serves as executive director of the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, drew much of her campaign cash from health-care professionals, businesses and residents in the central and southern parts of the county, including Saratoga, San Jose and Campbell.
She received $500 contributions from top executives at various Saratoga companies, including ME Fox and Co., PMG and Cirrus Logic. Michele Bolton, owner of Executive Edge Consulting in Campbell, contributed $500, as did the company's chief operating officer, Lloyd Bolton.
Nutritionist Nancy King contributed another $500 to King's campaign, while Paul Taylor, chief executive officer of Momentum for Mental Health gave $100.
The campaign-finance documents also show Simitian outspending King by a two-to-one margin. He had spent $14,924 as of Dec. 31, compared to King's $7,471.
Cupertino Councilmen Kris Wang and Barry Chang are also running for Kniss' seat, but their campaign-finance documents were not filed online.
Comments
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:20 am
on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:20 am
Joe Simitian is on the Senate's Finance Committee .. and this is what we end up with--
John Chiang says California's cash will dry up if officials don't act
Web Link
California has not fared well with Simitian in Sacramento. Palo Alto's finance problems can be traced to the years when Simitian was on the Council.
Simitian shows not fiscal common sense. He seems to have been "purchased" by special interests, and serves his master faithfully.
Midtown
on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:36 am
on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:36 am
Joe Simitian has spent 12 years representing us in Sacramento, and has done NOTHING to help us with High Speed Rail, nor the onerous ABAG housing allocations that would like to turn much of Palo Alto into High Density Housing.
12 years, and the state budget has deficits.
Prior to that Joe promised and spent Palo Alto's budget to where Palo Alto has to cut services - look at the ballooning liability for the generous Medical Benefits for retired city employees.
And looks who's donating to his campaign - developers (who like the profits from high density housing), unions (who benefit from all those benefits). Applied Materials government affairs guy is Gary Fazzino, so Gary is using Applied Material's money and his own to donate to Joe Simitian's campaign.
We don't need a recycled politician from Sacramento who won't represent our district, and who will spend us into bigger deficits.
another community
on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:41 am
on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:41 am
Simitian has been in Sacramento a long time, is adequately bright, and is a member of the majority party, so has been well positioned to give us legislation dealing with the hard stuff, like the state's financial pickle. But no. Instead, we got nanny bills and a train to nowhere, and the tough stuff was left undone. Too bad for us, and too bad for Santa Clara county if this career politician gets elected as supervisor.
Menlo Park
on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:46 am
on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:46 am
Why doesn't he get a real job and stop feeding from the public trough?
Remember him saying once that he didn't know what he would do if he were not reelected. Let's let him find out.
Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:57 am
on Feb 1, 2012 at 10:57 am
Of course he leads in fund raising. Just another career politician being fed by his cronies, backroom deals, and special interests. Business as usual will always result in business as usual. Just another uninspiring retread.
Palo Verde
on Feb 1, 2012 at 11:44 am
on Feb 1, 2012 at 11:44 am
SO----
Simitian returns to Santa clara , Kniss returns to Palo Alto
Same ol, Same ol, Same ol
Can't we get somebody new??
We're going backwards in time.
SB
another community
on Feb 1, 2012 at 12:54 pm
on Feb 1, 2012 at 12:54 pm
Time for change, Simitian has served long enough. Let's give someone young a chance to serve. Simitian is a life long politician moving from seat to seat and done little for the community.
East Palo Alto
on Feb 1, 2012 at 7:04 pm
on Feb 1, 2012 at 7:04 pm
Please look at the positive things Joe Simitian did while in the Senate. I am sure he has learned a lot about how to get bills through the State Legislature. He was very successful. He has always been available to our community and held town hall meetings to keep all of us informed. You are going to need his expertise in the coming years. I supported Joe for the Assembly and the Senate because he worked on issues that effected everyone in California.
Community Center
on Feb 4, 2012 at 10:24 pm
on Feb 4, 2012 at 10:24 pm
It's time for Joe to go. Throwing the future education of generations of California youth so we can have an obscenely expensive train few will ride, and everyone will pay for for decades to come, is just plain stupid. Joe clearly loves his union campaign donations much much more than doing anything useful in Sacramento.
Joe, Jerry Moonbeam, Rich Gordon, and the lot that still think that HSR is the best thing since the wheel have to go. Vote the lot out.