The 10 candidates running for Riverside City Council Ward 2, 4 and 6 seats have raised nearly $500,000 combined this year for the June 2 election, according to the latest campaign finance filings.
Some hopefuls have received thousands from political action committees (PACs) and businesses, while others focused their efforts on individual contributions.
Ahead of Tuesday’s election, The Riverside Record compiled data from each candidate’s campaign finance filings, breaking down how much they’re bringing in and how much they’re spending.
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Ward 2
In a four-way race filled with rising politicians, Gracie Torres has come out on top, raising just shy of $100,000 since January. That’s in addition to the more than $45,000 her campaign received last year, according to campaign filings.
Torres’ biggest donations came from local firefighter, police and trade union PACs. She has also received hundreds of donations from residents throughout the Inland Empire.
In an email to The Record, Torres said she was grateful for the contributions because, as a working mother of three, she did not have the ability to self-fund her campaign.
“Riversiders know my track record of fighting for residents, small businesses and working families and not for politics or access,” she said. “My decisions have always been guided by what is best for the people I serve, and that will continue to be my approach on the [Riverside] City Council.”
Her campaign has also spent the most compared to the other Ward 2 candidates, with more than $50,000 going to San Bernardino-based political consultant firm Move the Needle Campaigns, according to campaign filings.
Aram Ayra started the year with just over $35,000 in his campaign coffers. He also received an additional $15,790 between January 1 and May 16, and contributed an additional $23,664 to his own campaign this month in two separate contributions, according to campaign filings.
“Like many first time candidates running against well-funded interests, I have also put some of my own savings into the campaign to make sure we can communicate directly with voters,” Ayra told The Record via email. “The unfortunate reality is that city council campaigns in Riverside have become far too expensive, especially in a city with no local campaign contribution limits.”
His second-largest contributor to date has been Ward 2 Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes’ state assembly campaign, which donated $5,000, followed by family members and local union PACs. His campaign’s biggest expense was flyer and website design done by Bergmann Zwerdling Direct, according to his filings.
Mike Vahl started the year with a little under $4,000 and received nearly $15,000 in contributions this year, according to campaign finance filings, though his reports did not include a detailed breakdown.
Vahl also missed the February, April and May California Fair Political Practice Commission campaign finance deadlines, submitting the required paperwork for the three periods earlier this week.
In an interview with The Record, Vahl said he loaned his campaign $4,000 and the rest of the funding came from small-dollar donations from friends, family and local business owners who believed in his message. He added that he wasn’t aware of the required deadlines, saying his campaign manager was responsible for handling the filings.
“All I know is that he told me yesterday, he said, ‘Hey, I’m turning in some of these campaign stuff, I need you to meet me at City Hall, so you can sign them,’” Vahl said. “I wasn’t really aware of this or anything.”
Christen Montero started the year with less than $2,000 in the bank and has since received roughly $8,000 in contributions, including a $2,500 donation from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC, according to her campaign filings.
As reported in her latest filing, her campaign has spent more than $21,000, including $12,000 to Evinco Strategies, a political consulting firm out of San Diego.
Montero did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Record.
Ward 4
As the only incumbent vying for reelection, Councilmember Chuck Conder started the year with $53,688, according to campaign finance filings.
Since then, he has received an additional $80,479 in campaign contributions, about a third of which were for $1,000 or more.
Many of the larger contributions came from local union PACs and local businesses — including a combined $6,000 contribution from manufacturing company owner Gordon Bourns this month, a combined $3,000 from Walter’s Automotive and $2,000 from the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce PAC.
Conder also received a $2,500 donation from Farmhouse Collective owner Beverly Bailey one week after he voted against accepting a $20.1 million state grant for a permanent supportive housing project proposed a few blocks away from her business Farm House Collective.
In an email to The Record, Bailey confirmed she had donated to Conder’s campaign, but said it was not related to his vote or any specific council action.
“We are residents of Ward 4 and have contributed to numerous politicians over the years as part of our civic engagement,” Bailey said. “It was simply one of many political contributions our family makes to candidates we choose to support.”
Conder did not immediately respond to The Record’s request for comment.
According to his campaign filings, Conder’s campaign also spent tens of thousands of dollars on political consultants, direct mail services and digital advertising. In total, his campaign has spent nearly $120,000 between January 1 and May 16 of this year.
In comparison, challengers Jessica Qattawi and Rich Vandenberg both ran much smaller campaigns. Vandenberg started this year with about $11,000 in the bank and raised an additional $14,000 between January 1 and May 16, according to his filings. Qattawi started the year with negative $50, and was able to bring in about $5,000 between January 1 and May 16, according to her filings.
Vandenberg’s largest contribution was a combined $7,500 between portable amusement park owner Davey Helm and the company itself. He also received a $1,500 donation from the United Domestic Workers of America Action Fund.
Qattawi’s funding came mostly from small-dollar donors, along with two $1,000 contributions from Inland Empire-based business owners.
Both candidates, in separate phone calls with The Record, said they knew it would be difficult to compete with Conder in terms of money, so they instead opted to raise awareness about their campaigns through other means.
Vandenberg has primarily spread his message through canvassing, he added, knocking on more than 12,000 doors.
“I thought I knew what people needed and wanted, but you don’t really know until you get to someone’s front porch,” Vandenberg said. “I’m grateful for the humble campaign we’ve run — it really has been a grassroots campaign — and without it I might not have learned what I’ve learned.”
Qattawi said that she has used social media and her leadership roles in local community groups to help spread the word about her campaign.
“Even though it was the harder way to run my campaign, I knew it was the right way,” Qattawi said. “This is how every campaign should be run; it should be funded by the people.”
Ward 6
Unlike the other two races, Ward 6 does not have any candidates with six-figure campaigns.
Of the three candidates, Oz Puerta has raised the most, starting the year with $2,700 in the bank and getting just shy of $40,000 in additional contributions since January. Nearly 70% of the contributions came from local PACs, business owners and residents. The remaining 30% he funded himself.
Puerta said in an interview with The Record he felt it was necessary to put some of his own savings to help kickstart his first-ever campaign. Since then, he said his campaign’s core message of creating a business-friendly environment as a means to help the community grow has resonated with those who have contributed to his campaign.
“I’m connecting businesses to the community, and I’m getting the community to know their local business owners, because when people shop local, the tax dollars stay local,” Puerta said. “When the community supports a business, a business is strong enough to support its community right back.”
Luis Hernandez, on the other hand, said he refused to accept funding from corporations and business-related PACs because of his community-first philosophy with most of his campaign’s contributions having come from residents. He also received a $3,000 contribution from Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes’ campaign and $1,500 from an environmental justice group. According to campaign filings, Hernandez ended last year with about $1,200 in the bank and has raised just shy of $12,000 as of May 16 of this year.
He added that his ideals have made it more difficult to raise funds, especially within a working class community, but said he felt comfortable in his ability to stretch a dollar.
“My focus is on serving the residents,” Hernandez said. “If you’re taking contributions from business PACs, developers, things like that, your true focus isn’t on serving the residents as best as you can.”
Norma Berrellez, who has missed several chances to meet residents face-to-face, started this year with no money and has received nearly $18,000 in campaign contributions as of May 16, according to campaign filings.
More than half of her contributions were from local police and sheriff’s unions while the rest were from individuals.
Berrellez did not immediately respond to The Record’s request for comment.
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