David Alvarez gets corporate money but not from trial lawyers

Special election shuffle

Fundraising in the April 5 special election battle to replace Democrat Lorena Gonzalez, who earlier this year quit her seat in the state Assembly, is underway, with ex-city councilman and mayoral candidate David Alvarez picking up $4900 from the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association PAC on February 24. In addition, Alvarez collected $2500 from FairPAC, Sponsored by the Civil Justice Association of California on February 25.

That group of corporations, including car makers and big tobacco, has been promoting a statewide initiative to cap attorneys’ contingency fees, and has recently come under fire in a 15-second video by the Consumer Attorneys of California. “After exposing the powerful corporate interests hiding behind the dark money interest group ‘Civil Justice Association of California,’ we are warning Californians about what’s at stake: access to justice,” said the lawyer group’s CEO Nancy Drabble in a statement cited February 7 by the Sacramento Bee. “Automakers Ford, General Motors, Tesla, Hyundai and Volkswagen have teamed up with the corporations responsible for tobacco deaths to block access to our courts and avoid accountability for their wrongdoing.”

Alvarez also got $1000 from Republican Mission Valley developer Tom Sudberry on February 28. He is facing off against fellow Democrat Georgette Gómez, another ex-member of the city council, who lost out to Sara Jacobs in a 2020 race for the House of Representatives. On February 18, Gómez received $4000 from state Senator Ben Hueso’s Board of Equalization 2022 campaign committee. (Termed out of his senate seat, Hueso is currently challenging fellow Democrat Mike Schaeffer for the Board of Equalization spot.) Additionally, on February 28 Gómez got $9700 from the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees labor union.

Food for Atkins

State Senate Democrat and Pro Tem Toni Atkins continues to parcel out cash left over in her 2020 reelection campaign fund, gathered from a host of special interests. On February 3, Atkins gave $40,500 to the California Democratic Party. Additionally, on February 9, Atkins, running for Lieutenant Governor in 2026, kicked in $2000 to the Sonoma County Democratic Party. Atkins still has plenty left in the 2020 fund, which reported a cash balance of almost $1.3 million as of December 31, 2021. Besides that, on February 10, Atkins’s so-called ballot measure committee, which ended 2021 with $241,014, took in $25,000 from CREPAC, the political action committee of the state’s real estate lobby. In addition, sizable donations to Atkins’s 2026 Lieutenant Governor kitty came from the charter school backing Govern for California Network Committee, with $9800 on February 24, and the same from Santa Rosa Rancheria, a Lemoore gambling operation, on February 16.

Besides making its campaign gift to her, Govern for California picked up dinner tabs for Atkins and her chief of staff Nick Hardeman, costing $275 each at San Francisco’s Spruce Restaurant on October 19 of last year, the group’s lobbying disclosure filing shows.

“Spruce holds a highly coveted Michelin star and was recognized with Esquire Magazine’s ‘Best New Restaurant in America’ award, received Food & Wine Magazine’s ‘Best New Wine List’ award, and maintains a Wine Spectator ‘Grand Award’, the magazine’s highest honor,” per the bistro’s website.

Kevin’s no-show

While ex-San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer continues to bide his time on the sidelines of this year’s California gubernatorial primary, potential rivals are rounding up new money. GOP state Senator Brian Dahle, from the far north reaches of the state, got $32,000 from lumber operator Russ Hawkins of Dahl’s hometown of Bieber on February 16. In addition, Dahle transferred $50,000 from his 2020 state senate campaign account into the fund for his campaign for governor on February 8. “During a panel discussion on wildfire at the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference in Anderson, Calif,” reports Western Farm Press, “Dahle said his goal is to get 200,000 people to donate $1 a day to give him the funding he’ll need for a statewide campaign.

He believes he can ride what is expected to be a Republican wave in congressional and state elections in November.” Dahle added: “This is not climate change that’s causing all these problems” with fires, blaming bad forestry management. “So many Californians left last year that U-Haul ran out of trucks,” he told the Redding Record Searchlight. “If 200,000 people ... will sign up, we will beat back the socialist special interests that have funded California’s pathetic decline from greatness for 25 years of one-party rule.” Faulconer, on the other hand, has so far this year collected no money for a 2022 run, filings show.

— Matt Potter (@sdmattpotter)

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