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Santa Cruz City Council Campaign Contributions List Shows Where the Big Money is Going
The official list of campaign donors confirms what has been no secret in this year's Santa Cruz City Council election: it's a battle between four big money conservative candidates and four grass roots progressives. All four of the conservative candidates have each raised about twice the amount of money the progressives have and they are funded by wealthy contributors.
Progressive candidates Chris Krohn, Drew Glover, Steve Schnaar and Sandy Brown, also known as the "Brand New Council" slate, show moderately funded campaigns (except for Sandy Brown, who is not on the list).
On the other side, wealthy conservative Democrats have been spending large amounts of money on a slate of their own: Martine Watkins, J.M. Brown, Cynthia Mathews, and Robert Singleton. These four candidates have stated platforms that advocate for a considerably more conservative city council than the "Brand New Council".
The progressive wing of the Democrat party in Santa Cruz is called the People's Democratic Club of Santa Cruz County. They have endorsed Chris Krohn, Drew Glover, Steve Schnaar and Sandy Brown.
The conservative wing of the Democrat party in Santa Cruz has endorsed Martine Watkins, J.M. Brown, Cynthia Mathews, and Robert Singleton, and has contributed a large sum of money to the conservative slate.
Martine Watkins is getting the big Boardwalk money. The notorious anti-union conservative Charles Canfield, the CEO of Seaside Co., donated $350 to her, and so did Tom Canfield, the Vice President of Seaside Co.
Robert Singleton is the candidate most supported by Republicans, Santa Cruz right wingers, and conservative business interests. Old school conservative Louis Rittenhouse is funding him and so is Analicia Cube.
The contributions list shows Take Back Santa Cruz founder Analicia Cube is using her maiden name Analicia Lesnowicz. With her husband's history of defrauding financial clients, it is understandable she would be walking back the Cube name. In 2002 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found Emmanuel P. Cube, aka "Dexter" Cube, defrauded customers when he worked as a securities trader for J.W. Barclay & Co.
Lesnowicz/Cube is on record as donating $350 to Robert Singleton.
Anti-homeless businessman and attorney Caleb Baskin, the child of a very wealthy local family, has thrown his big money at Cynthia Mathews. In the past Baskin has made some very offensive remarks about the homeless population and he has literally called for a suspension of civil rights in downtown Santa Cruz to eradicate the homeless, which makes his endorsement of Mathews particularly interesting.
Outgoing Santa Cruz City Council member Pamela Comstock has thrown the maximum contributions to the conservative slate. Comstock is also one of the founders of Take Back Santa Cruz and as a council member she voted for virtually every discriminatory, anti-homeless measure that came before her, even wanting to completely ban recreational vehicles from being able to park in Santa Cruz.
Conservative Democrats Ryan Coonerty and Zach Friend, who are both county supervisors, have donated considerable funds to the conservative slate. As elected county officials they each earn more than $100,000 per year, paid by taxpayers of course.
Conservative Santa Cruz City Council member David Terrazas, who was re-elected in 2014 and will be serving with whomever is elected this year, donated considerable funds to the conservative slate.
More information about the progressive slate of candidates:
http://www.brandnewcouncil.com/
On the other side, wealthy conservative Democrats have been spending large amounts of money on a slate of their own: Martine Watkins, J.M. Brown, Cynthia Mathews, and Robert Singleton. These four candidates have stated platforms that advocate for a considerably more conservative city council than the "Brand New Council".
The progressive wing of the Democrat party in Santa Cruz is called the People's Democratic Club of Santa Cruz County. They have endorsed Chris Krohn, Drew Glover, Steve Schnaar and Sandy Brown.
The conservative wing of the Democrat party in Santa Cruz has endorsed Martine Watkins, J.M. Brown, Cynthia Mathews, and Robert Singleton, and has contributed a large sum of money to the conservative slate.
Martine Watkins is getting the big Boardwalk money. The notorious anti-union conservative Charles Canfield, the CEO of Seaside Co., donated $350 to her, and so did Tom Canfield, the Vice President of Seaside Co.
Robert Singleton is the candidate most supported by Republicans, Santa Cruz right wingers, and conservative business interests. Old school conservative Louis Rittenhouse is funding him and so is Analicia Cube.
The contributions list shows Take Back Santa Cruz founder Analicia Cube is using her maiden name Analicia Lesnowicz. With her husband's history of defrauding financial clients, it is understandable she would be walking back the Cube name. In 2002 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found Emmanuel P. Cube, aka "Dexter" Cube, defrauded customers when he worked as a securities trader for J.W. Barclay & Co.
Lesnowicz/Cube is on record as donating $350 to Robert Singleton.
Anti-homeless businessman and attorney Caleb Baskin, the child of a very wealthy local family, has thrown his big money at Cynthia Mathews. In the past Baskin has made some very offensive remarks about the homeless population and he has literally called for a suspension of civil rights in downtown Santa Cruz to eradicate the homeless, which makes his endorsement of Mathews particularly interesting.
Outgoing Santa Cruz City Council member Pamela Comstock has thrown the maximum contributions to the conservative slate. Comstock is also one of the founders of Take Back Santa Cruz and as a council member she voted for virtually every discriminatory, anti-homeless measure that came before her, even wanting to completely ban recreational vehicles from being able to park in Santa Cruz.
Conservative Democrats Ryan Coonerty and Zach Friend, who are both county supervisors, have donated considerable funds to the conservative slate. As elected county officials they each earn more than $100,000 per year, paid by taxpayers of course.
Conservative Santa Cruz City Council member David Terrazas, who was re-elected in 2014 and will be serving with whomever is elected this year, donated considerable funds to the conservative slate.
More information about the progressive slate of candidates:
http://www.brandnewcouncil.com/
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Matthews is no progressive! She made that clear at the renters' forum.
"Lesnowicz/Cube is on record as donating $350 to Robert Singleton."
Been telling people all along Singleton is a TBSC candidate but so is Matthews along with Walkins and Brown. Don't be fooled this election; vote for real progressives real change. We need a new vision for SC's future no more status quo or worse city council members.
"Lesnowicz/Cube is on record as donating $350 to Robert Singleton."
Been telling people all along Singleton is a TBSC candidate but so is Matthews along with Walkins and Brown. Don't be fooled this election; vote for real progressives real change. We need a new vision for SC's future no more status quo or worse city council members.
PredPol is the Santa Cruz based company that markets "predictive policing" software to police departments, which a recent study has shown only serves to amplify racial bias.
The PredPol business was launched in 2012 by attorney Caleb Baskin and then Santa Cruz Councilman Ryan Coonerty, who is now a County Supervisor. They raised more than $1 million to fund it. Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend, then a police analyst with SCPD, worked to test the early PredPol software with the Santa Cruz Police Department in 2011.
Not only did these government officials profit off of their work with the City of Santa Cruz, they partnered with the dubious Baskin to create racist police software.
"According to a study to be published later this month in the academic journal Significance, PredPol may merely be reinforcing bad police habits."
https://mic.com/articles/156286/crime-prediction-tool-pred-pol-only-amplifies-racially-biased-policing-study-shows
The PredPol business was launched in 2012 by attorney Caleb Baskin and then Santa Cruz Councilman Ryan Coonerty, who is now a County Supervisor. They raised more than $1 million to fund it. Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend, then a police analyst with SCPD, worked to test the early PredPol software with the Santa Cruz Police Department in 2011.
Not only did these government officials profit off of their work with the City of Santa Cruz, they partnered with the dubious Baskin to create racist police software.
"According to a study to be published later this month in the academic journal Significance, PredPol may merely be reinforcing bad police habits."
https://mic.com/articles/156286/crime-prediction-tool-pred-pol-only-amplifies-racially-biased-policing-study-shows
Caleb Baskin's firm is listed as council for the "Landlord" of the Beach Flats Garden, the Boardwalk, showing yet another connection between all of these big money interests.
Posted here/or go to the last page of the document on the web for that info:
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2813884/Beach-Flats-garden-lease-unsigned.pdf
Posted here/or go to the last page of the document on the web for that info:
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2813884/Beach-Flats-garden-lease-unsigned.pdf
I believe that you guys, in general, have a very very very leftist political stance. We'd both agree with that, no? And there's nothing wrong with that; were all entitled to our viewpoint and opinion.
But, akin to Trump preaching to his base and failing to expand his support? I think you do the same thing when you make the stretch of labeling the above folks as "conservative democrats". By any measure outside of Santa Cruz and Berkley, they're about as liberal of Dems as any. And the use of "big money" to try and color some of the donors? When it's a couple of hundred dollars? Again, you preach only to your already converted choir.
And prior posts trying to portray the donations as "outside money" was equally specious...and went undefended when I asked for substantiation of that claim.
I'll stick with the (evil!) Trump analogy: stop braying jingoisms and instead tell me what the superior policy stances of your candidates are to convince me to vote for them. So far, that is lacking.
But, akin to Trump preaching to his base and failing to expand his support? I think you do the same thing when you make the stretch of labeling the above folks as "conservative democrats". By any measure outside of Santa Cruz and Berkley, they're about as liberal of Dems as any. And the use of "big money" to try and color some of the donors? When it's a couple of hundred dollars? Again, you preach only to your already converted choir.
And prior posts trying to portray the donations as "outside money" was equally specious...and went undefended when I asked for substantiation of that claim.
I'll stick with the (evil!) Trump analogy: stop braying jingoisms and instead tell me what the superior policy stances of your candidates are to convince me to vote for them. So far, that is lacking.
according to http://www.manta.com/c/mtc7w1w/hq-solutions
But Analicia says she's an owner of HQ Solutions. So if HQ Solutions is a sole proprietorship, then Analicia gave $700. But if HQ Solutions is a 50-50 partnership, then Analicia gave $525 and Dexter gave $175. Either way, Analicia is over the limit.
There seems to be no listing for HQ Solutions in the county's ficticious names database nor is there any listing in the California Secretary of State's business database. If HQ Solutions is a real business, they made some sort of business registration violation. Even if it isn't, they made some sort of campaign disclosure violation.
Same thing with Matthew Slatter and Slatter Construction. They each gave $350. He says he's a Principal of Slatter Construction. He must be over the limit, too. At least Slatter Construction Inc. is registered in the Secretary of State's database.
If he has any integrity, candidate Robert Singleton should return $350 from HQ Solutions and $350 from Slatter Construction.
But Analicia says she's an owner of HQ Solutions. So if HQ Solutions is a sole proprietorship, then Analicia gave $700. But if HQ Solutions is a 50-50 partnership, then Analicia gave $525 and Dexter gave $175. Either way, Analicia is over the limit.
There seems to be no listing for HQ Solutions in the county's ficticious names database nor is there any listing in the California Secretary of State's business database. If HQ Solutions is a real business, they made some sort of business registration violation. Even if it isn't, they made some sort of campaign disclosure violation.
Same thing with Matthew Slatter and Slatter Construction. They each gave $350. He says he's a Principal of Slatter Construction. He must be over the limit, too. At least Slatter Construction Inc. is registered in the Secretary of State's database.
If he has any integrity, candidate Robert Singleton should return $350 from HQ Solutions and $350 from Slatter Construction.
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