Campaign Filings Show Large Funding Gap In Riverside Unified Trustee Race

Campaign finance filings submitted earlier this month show Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) Trustee Area 1 incumbent Noemi Hernandez Alexander has outraised and outspent her two opponents by tens of thousands of dollars this election cycle.

“I needed to fundraise early, consistently and actively before and throughout the campaign season,” Hernandez Alexander said in an email to The Riverside Record. “That is the work that is required to make the necessary money to pay for mailers, ads, literature and signs.” 

Since the start of the year, Hernandez Alexander’s campaign has received just shy of $58,500 in monetary and non-monetary contributions. Both Duffy Atkinson and Jinane Annous have raised less than $10,000.

Earlier this year, Annous filed paperwork stating that she expected her campaign would both receive and spend less than $2,000 this year. Because her campaign has remained under that threshold, she is not required to file detailed campaign finance reports.

In an email to The Record, Annous said her campaign has remained under the $2,000 threshold, because she made the “conscious decision” to not solicit money.

“To me, running for school board is not about how much money you can raise or how much you can spend,” Annous said. “I understand that financial resources can provide an advantage in an election, but I believe the trust and confidence of the community must be earned, not purchased.” 

Campaign filings submitted at the end of June showed that Atkinson put $550 of his own money into the campaign. Since then, filings show he has received two $1,000 contributions from a local business owner and political action committee. 

In a phone call with The Record, Duffy said that his most recent campaign finance filing, due mid-October, showed that he had received about $6,000 in contributions. However, as of Thursday, that filing was not available in the Riverside County campaign finance portal.

Hernandez Alexander’s filings showed that she had received $30,000 from the Riverside City Teachers Association (RCTA) in June and $9,000 from four labor union political action committees. Hernandez Alexander said that, for the teachers union, she applied for an endorsement, was interviewed by the group and requested the maximum amount she could receive. 

“This opportunity was not unique to me, my opponents had an opportunity to interview,” she said. “RCTA chose me to endorse and support, and for that I am sincerely grateful to our hard working teachers.”

As for the labor union dollars, she said that they were from a large coalition of working-class residents residing within the Riverside community and that she was “blessed to have the support.” 

Atkinson, however, said contributions from labor unions were “problematic.”

“I think that the campaign contributors on any campaign will tell you where the intentions and political focus of the candidate lies,” Atkinson said.

In 2022, the last time the seat was up for election, Hernandez Alexander received about $48,000 in contributions while Atkinson received approximately $14,500, according to campaign filings.