Fundraising Gap Between Berkeley Mayoral Candidates Widens

With 28 days until the Nov. 8 election, Berkeley mayoral candidate and City Councilman Laurie Capitelli has more than twice the amount of cash to spend on the race than his fellow candidate, City Councilman Jesse Arreguín. And he has 15 times as much to spend as City Councilman Kriss Worthington, who is also running to replace outgoing Mayor Tom Bates.

From July 1 to Sept. 24, the reporting period of the most recent campaign finance filings, Capitelli reported that he raised $31,288, bringing the total amount he has raised since 2015 to around $104,000. He still has $76,700 on hand for the rest of the race.

Arreguín raised $19,461 in that same period, for a total raised of about $69,000. Arreguín has $30,375 on hand.

Worthington has raised $5,804 in that period and has spent $810, leaving him with $4,994.

Ben Gould, a graduate student running for mayor, raised $2,585 from July 1 to Sept. 24, bringing his total to $8,885.

Naomi D. Pete reported she had raised $85, but she did not write down who gave the donation.

Guy “Mike” Lee, Bernt Wahl and Zachary RunningWolf did not file any campaign finance statements, indicating they had not raised any funds.

Some of the donors who contributed $250 to Capitelli include Lakshmireddy Lakireddy, the owner of Everest Properties; Susie Medak, executive director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Steven Goldin, CEO of Swerve, a furniture company; Elizabeth Echols, a former Assembly candidate; Glen, Diane and Kari Yasuda, the family who owns Berkeley Bowl; Mike Alvarez-Cohen, the director of UC Berkeley’s Innovation and Commercialization department; Peter and Steven Read, whose family owns Grocery Outlet and who are building an apartment complex on the site of the former grocery store; and the PACs of the International Brotherhood of Local Workers Local 595 and the Sheet Metal Workers Local 104. Other donors include Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos website; David Teece, chairman of the Berkeley Research Group; and Matthew Taecker, an urban planner who helped get the new hotel at Shattuck and Center approved.

Some of Arreguín’s donors include former Mayor Shirley Dean, who gave $250; Alejandro Soto-Vigil, a Rent Board member and aide to Worthington, who donated $250; Lisa Bullwinkel, who produces many events around Berkeley, gave $200. San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos donated $50. Paul Hogarth, a campaign manager for Daily Kos, gave $100. Ellen Hahn, the mother of District Five candidate Sophie Hahn, gave $100, and Sophie’s sister gave $250. Cathy Campbell, a BUSD teacher and the head of the teachers union, donated $100. Ann Leonard, the executive director of Greenpeace, donated $50, according to campaign filings.

Some of the people who donated $250 to Worthington include Becky and Michael O’Malley, the founders of the Berkeley Daily Planet; Boona Cheema, the former director of BOSS; and Patricia Wall, the executive director of the Homeless Action Center.

Some of Gould’s donors include City Councilwoman Lori Droste, who donated $250, and City Councilwoman Susan Wengraf, who donated $100. (They had previously donated to Capitelli.)

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