Dial M, not for money

Sacramento City Council District 2 candidate Allen Warren has loaned $121,000 to his own election campaign. Warren gave himself $17,000 in August, and another $50,000 at the end of September, according to the latest campaign-finance reports.

His opponent, Rob Kerth, won the primary but is slipping behind in the money race. Kerth raised nearly $58,000 in the last period, bringing his total for the year to about $155,000. With Warren’s small fortune and smaller chunk of contributions from supporters, the developer-turned-candidate has raised $237,000 this year.

Warren has the personal wealth to finance his own election campaign despite owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid property taxes (see “North by northeast” SN&R Frontlines, May 10), and despite being bogged down in lawsuits with creditors, who are suing him for unpaid bills (see “Justice and Warren” by Nick Miller, SN&R Frontlines, September 20.)

Regular readers know that SN&R has, from time to time, raised questions about Warren’s financial and legal troubles. That’s because this sort of thing seems to be relevant when considering a man’s qualifications for public office—after all, Warren wants to help hold the city’s purse strings. But Warren dismisses questions about his money messes by saying that SN&R reporters and editors just don’t know anything about how business works.

True enough. Probably don’t understand politics, either. Because the more Bites sees of Warren’s financial history and his candidacy, the less any of it makes sense.

Last weekend Bites ran into Efren Gutierrez, candidate for the Sacramento charter commission. He summed up why you should vote for the charter-commission ballot question, Measure M.

“You have [The Sacramento] Bee, the mayor, the fire department and police department all saying no [on Measure M]. What a group of fellows! When they get together, you’ve got to wonder what’s going on.”

What’s going on is that particular group of fellows didn’t get the vote they wanted on strong mayor. At the same time, some of the unions don’t like Measure M because the charter works fine for them now—what with binding arbitration and the like—why mess with a good thing? Same with the Sacramento Metro Chamber. SN&R editors are against it because, well, Bites doesn’t really know why. They’ve gone all Bee-lite on this one. Both editorial boards complain that the charter commission will be a “distraction.” These busy editors have more important things to think about, apparently, than our city’s constitution: Please don’t distract them. They also say the process will be dominated by special-interest-backed candidates with their special-interest-backed agendas.

Maybe. Let’s see. Here’s all of the special-interest money flowing into the charter-commission campaign in its entirety, according to the last campaign filings:

The Metro Chamber made a $1,500 donation to Phyllis Newton and gave $3,000 to Shane Singh. It also gave $600 each to Bernard Bowler, Brock Littlejohn and Greg Anderson. The Associated Builders and Contractors and Western Electrical Contractors Association, both of which fight against union-friendly policies like project labor agreements, gave $1,500 to Littlejohn and Anderson, and $600 to John Hodgson. Hodgson also pulled in $1,500 from the Associated Builders, as did Bowler. Singh and Newton also scored $1,200 and $600, respectively, from another business, the Sacramento Region Builders PAC.

Those are your business-flavored special-interest candidates. Maybe union influence is more your cup of tea. The Sacramento Building Trades Council poured $1,500 each on Susan Patterson, Tamie A. Dramer, Alan LoFaso, Terry Schanz and Anna Molander. Two sheet-metal workers unions gave $2,000 to Dennis Canevari. Finally, Sacramento City Unified School District board member and Democratic mover Patrick Kennedy donated $600 to Dramer and Patterson, and another $1,000 to Catherine Lopez.

That’s it. That’s less than Allen Warren blew at Julius clothing while his own business was going down the tubes. (No, really. It is.)

Out of 54 candidates for charter commission, only 20 have raised any money at all. Many of those used a personal credit card to pay for their ballot statements or raised a handful of small donations. About a dozen got money from big labor or business PACs—and those typically got just enough to cover the cost of their ballot statements. Feel free to not vote for them if you think that money make them union stooges or whatever. Most candidates are forgoing ballot statements and relying on Facebook or word-of-mouth campaigns. Not exactly the special-interest slugfest we were warned about by the hand-wringing editorial boards.

Don’t worry, though. When Measure M is defeated and strong mayor is on the ballot, the special-interest money will really start flowing. Hopefully, that won’t be too distracting.