As COVID-19 lockdown lifted, mayoral fundraising delivered better results

How much of a hit has the coronavirus pandemic inflicted on San Diego political fundraising? Based on a comparison of first-half 2020 campaign contributions versus the 2016 take, a sizable but not overwhelming one, partially ameliorated by a lockdown-free June.

Final numbers now posted online by the city clerk's office for the first six months of 2020 show that mayoral candidate Barbara Bry made the most of what has turned out to be a brief break between local Covid-19 waves.

As the San Diego lockdown largely lifted beginning June 1, the Bry campaign and an ostensibly independent political committee backing her mayoral bid pulled in a total of $366,219. Gloria, on the other hand, managed to come up with considerably less during June's lockdown hiatus, $159,418.

Bry's total haul benefited from higher individual giving levels, including $10,000 from Mission Valley developer and Trump convention delegate Tom Sudberry, which went to Success San Diego in Support of Barbara Bry, a committee not bound by the city's $1150 campaign contribution maximums.

Maximum donors to Bry's official campaign fund, known as Barbara Bry for Mayor 2020, included $1150 each from La Jolla lobbyist Matthew Peterson, Ben Arnold of Southern Realty Development, Aaron and Dan Feldman of developer Sunroad Enterprises, developer Chris McKellar, mega-apartment mogul Stuart Posnock, and contractor Douglas Barnhart, along with Barnhart-Reese partner Tamela Reese.

The largest single June contributors to Todd Gloria for Mayor 2020 included Mission Valley landowner Lawrence Cushman, lobbyist Richard Ledford, lawyers Charles Christensen and Krista Cabrera, ex-city manager, now developer Jack McGrory, Lynne Gorguze, wife of ex-councilman and current House Democrat Scott Peters, and Steve South, president of the EDCO trash hauling giant. Each came up with maximum donations of $1150 each. Peters kicked in the same.

Cybele Thompson, who quit her job in July as director of the city's Real Estate Assets Department following a stinging report about the handling of the controversial Sempra high-rise deal, gave $100 to Gloria on June 25.