Benicia Patch
By JB Davis
February 2, 2012
Supervisor Linda Seifert raised $22,560 dollars between July 1, 2011 and the end of the year while her only declared rival in the race for the newly redrawn Second District Supervisor race, Benicia school trustee Steve Messina raised $14, 820.
Over half of Messina’s contributions came from three $2,500 contributions. Herman G. Rowland, the Chairman of the Board of Jelly Belly and Margaret Ferrari Rowland and self employed jewelry designer and Republic Services of Phoenix, AZ each made one of the large donations.
Messina also received a $1,000 contribution from Environmental Stewardship and Planning, a Sacramento based environmental planning firm. According to the firm’s website Republic Services is one of their clients.
Messina also raised $2,400 in contributions of $99 or less.
Messina’s biggest expenditure last year was $790 to Purple Cow Websites of Rio Vista. None of the costs of his first mail piece were included in the statement that was due on January 31.
He ended 2011 with $13,255.
Seifert’s campaign received three contributions of $1,000, one from Jim and Susan Syar, owners of Syar Industries, one from CC and Regina Yin who own a McDonald’s franchise and the last from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Seifert raised $2,860 in contributions of $99 or less and also loaned her campaign $10,000.
Her largest expenditure was to The Next Generation, a political consulting firm based in Oakland, CA.
Seifert ended the year with $47,460 in the bank.
The next campaign finance statements are due on March 22.
Seifert and Messina are the only two candidates who have so far declared they are running for the seat Seifert first won in 2008 when she defeated former Benicia City Councilman and long time Supervisor John Silva in a landslide.
If no other candidate runs for the seat, the contest will be decided in the June 5 primary election. If another candidate decides to run and no one receives 50 percent of the vote on June 5, the top two vote getters will run in the November general election.
If there’s something in this article you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, call editor JB Davis at 707-628-0051 or email him at benicia@patch.com.
