GILROY
– Collectively, 11 Gilroy City Council and mayoral candidates
have raised more than $69,730 to use in the November election, even
though three of them have yet to gather more than $1,000 each.
GILROY – Collectively, 11 Gilroy City Council and mayoral candidates have raised more than $69,730 to use in the November election, even though three of them have yet to gather more than $1,000 each.
The latest round of campaign financial statements were turned in to City Hall Thursday night. Records show that seven City Council candidates have collected more than $41,000, while the four mayoral candidates have brought in more than $28,730.
Leading the fund raising is mayoral candidate and incumbent Councilman Al Pinheiro with nearly $25,400. Incumbent Councilman Roland Velasco leads City Council hopefuls with more than $19,800 raised.
A decade ago, the highest money raiser in a local election barely cleared $9,000.
“I think a lot of this has to do with union involvement. The union puts money into a campaign and soon the other side thinks they need to put money in,” said Councilman Bob Dillon, who is managing the campaign of Russ Valiquette. “A lot of people are getting involved in the campaign. More involvement by more people means more money.”
Dillon would not elaborate on details, but said the Valiquette campaign decided to increase its number of mailings and other public outreach once involvement heightened, causing its costs to rise.
Valiquette has raised more than $7,300.
Similar to the first round of filings due Sept. 25, the latest round shows a combination of out-of-town, longtime Gilroyan, real estate and business interests making campaign contributions.
One difference this time around, however, is the support City Council candidate Dion Bracco is beginning to receive.
On Sept. 25, only Bracco himself donated to his campaign. Since then, he has collected another $1,643 – $200 of which came from the Don Christopher family.
Christopher is the founding father of the Garlic Festival and owner of garlic packager Christopher Ranch.
“A lot of old-time Gilroyans are starting to back me,” Bracco said. “It feels good.”
One of the longtimers is Eleanor Frusetta, the former owner of Gilroy Travel. Frusetta has not donated to Bracco’s campaign yet, but said Friday she would be supporting him.
“He’s a man’s man. He was raised the old-fashioned way. He’s a just, fair person,” Frusetta said.
As for Bracco’s lack of political experience – he has never run for political office – Frusetta is unfazed.
“What is political experience? There’s no way you can be groomed for City Council unless one person is using you as their puppet,” Frusetta said. “Dion is a fine business man and would be an asset to Gilroy politics.”
Out of town interests continue to fund Gilroy candidates. Valiquette is getting $250 from Los Angeles-based California Real Estate Political Action Committee and San Jose-based Tri-County Apartment Association. Both organizations also supported candidate Velasco.
Incumbent City Councilman and Council candidate Peter Arellano had one of the larger campaign revenue increases this filing period. Arellano had less than $430 collected at the end of September. He brought in $3,493 since then. More than half of his supporters are from outside Gilroy.
The next filing deadline for candidates is not until Dec. 31. However, any candidate receiving or spending more than $1,000 at a time between now and the election has 48 hours to report it.
