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Eleanor Thompson is known in the Iron Triangle neighborhood as an advocate for youth and their safety. What’s less known is that she is motivated to work for the young people of Richmond by her own childhood experience. Thompson was born in Arkansas but moved to Arizona when she was six. By the time she was 14, she had lost both her parents and entered a foster home with her two younger sisters, then 13 and 12. Despite being the…
Armed with a Ziploc bag full of bookmarks and a compliment, Mike (Ali) Raccoon Eyes Kinney moves quickly from house to house “slinging paper.” As an experienced precinct walker, he gives himself 15 seconds to assess each porch before he decides whether to deliver the thin strip of paper emblazoned with a “WE LIKE MIKE!” slogan, his picture and the words “Candidate for Richmond City Council 2012.” If the doorstep is too cluttered, he won’t go near. There might be…
Mark Wassberg finishes the knot with his teeth and steps back from the chain-link fence. He stands quietly for a moment and inspects his work as a wave of cars passes by. It’s a warm cloudless afternoon a month before Election Day and two posters emblazoned with the message MARK WASSBERG 4 CITY COUNCIL gleam in the sun. Wassberg is running a decidedly low-budget, low-profile campaign for City Council. On the ballot, he left his candidate statement blank. He’s raised…
Committees backed by the American Beverage Association have spent $3.5 million total to defeat measures proposing one cent per ounce taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages in Richmond and El Monte, CA.
A campaign finance amendment filed Tuesday by City Council candidate Nat Bates shows that he has received more than $32,000, far more than the $1,420 he listed in his original campaign disclosure statement on Friday. Campaign disclosure statements filed by the Chevron-funded committee Moving Forward show Bates also benefited from $90,000 on campaign mailings and billboards spent by the committee on his behalf. The amended disclosure elevates Bates to second in the list of candidates with the most funds raised…
The Texas-based movie theater chain Cinemark USA Inc has joined the campaign against Richmond’s Measure N, adding nearly $107,000 in non-monetary contributions against the measure between July 15-Sept. 30, according to campaign statements filed with the City Clerk. During that period, Cinemark was one of two contributors to the Community Coalition Against Beverage Taxes, which has spent $2.2 million this year in opposition to Measure N. CCABT’s other — and largest — contributor is the American Beverage Association, a lobby…
The Chevron-funded campaign committee Moving Forward spent more than $100,000 in support of council candidates Gary Bell, Nat Bates and Bea Roberson between Aug. 9 and Sept. 28, campaign disclosures filed with the City Clerk show. Moving Forward’s money comes solely from a $1.2 million contribution from Chevron.
The Community Coalition Against Beverage Taxes spent $1.8 million dollars on efforts to defeat Measure N between July 1-September 30, more than four times what it spent on the campaign in the six months between January and July. Campaign contribution statements filed with the city clerk Friday show that the CCABT, a local group funded mainly by the American Beverage Association, received $1.39 million in total contributions between July and September and spent $1.84 million on its efforts to defeat…
The campaign signs read, “More sports + less sodas = healthy kids.” A tax on sugar sweetened beverages is designed to raise money to provide opportunities for our young people to participate in healthy organized sports. It promises to yield benefits that are priceless to our community, including an increase in both the mental and physical health of our youth. A beneficial byproduct of this improved mental and physical well-being is a decrease in crime, as children are busy and…