Cash up front

San Diego politicos spent the last month of 2009 raising money for the 2010 election season. Contributors included the California Medical Association, which gave $7800 to San Diego city councilman Ben Hueso’s Democratic assembly bid. The assembly campaign of Democrat ex–city councilwoman Toni Atkins, running in another district, received the same.

La Jolla’s Donald Cohn — who provided a free apartment to then–San Diego mayor Pete Wilson in 1982, when he was in the midst of a divorce and running against Jerry Brown for the U.S. Senate — gave $10,000 to Democrat Brown’s gubernatorial exploratory committee. Rancho Santa Fe’s Martin Wygod, chairman of WebMD, and wife Pamela contributed a total of $101,600. Cubic Transportation Systems gave Brown a total of $25,000.

La Jolla’s Peter Farrell, executive chairman of ResMed Inc., gave $12,950 to Republican Steve Poizner’s campaign for governor. Cognex executive Robert Shillman gave Poizner $10,000, as did La Jolla’s Ann Agnew Woolley. Contractor Douglas Barnhart gave $5000.

Democrat Chris Kehoe, termed out of her state senate seat next year, is gathering cash for a prospective 2012 assembly race. Contributing $7800 was Pathway Genomics, a Sorrento Valley–based outfit offering a $199 DNA test kit that allows customers to “trace your ancestral path,” according to the firm’s website. Another offering, costing $299, provides information on “risk markers” for prostate and breast cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and “many more.”

Meanwhile, on December 23, the San Diego County GOP picked up $25,000 from Sempra Energy, bringing the utility giant’s grand total for 2009 to $28,500.