|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Thousands of dollars have continued to pour into the four campaigns for the two open Pleasanton City Council from first responder unions, political action committees and even area local CEOs and investors who are showing their support for their respective candidates.
The Secretary of State requires campaigns that have raised more than $2,000 in donations to file campaign finance forms known as a Form 460 four times per year – twice during campaign season, along with annual and semiannual reports. All told, available forms list the names of donors and how much they have contributed to a campaign from Jan. 1 to Oct. 19.
And while the majority of the four City Council candidates for District 2 and District 4 saw most of their donations come in the past couple of filing periods, District 4 candidate Vivek Mohan saw the highest amount of contributions come during this last filing period.
According to Mohan’s Form 460 statement, from Sept. 22 to Oct. 19, the planning commissioner raised $28,471 — during the previous filing period he had only received a single $1,000 donation. However, the majority of his recent contributions did come from his own pockets; according to his filings he donated $11,000 to his own campaign.
But apart from that, most of his other contributions came from a considerably large base of CEO’s, investors and business owners.
According to his most recent filings, his largest donation was $3,000 which came from an investor and Pleasanton resident named Anu Gadre. His second largest donation was $2,000 from resident Hiten Dave, CEO of Back on Track Physical Therapy in Pleasanton.
He also received a $1,500 donation and a separate $1,000 donation from two investors — other CEOs or investors donated anywhere from $500 to $900.Â
All of his recent donations came from Pleasanton residents — with the exception of one Livermore resident who donated $100. However, there was also a $990 donation that came from Wendy’s of the Pacific, in Modesto.
Fellow District 4 candidate and Planning Commissioner Matt Gaidos, on the other hand, has stayed right around where he was last time after having raised a dollar short of $2,000, bringing his total contributions this election season up to $20,612.Â
The full-time Alameda County prosecutor was recently endorsed by the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce’s Business And Community Political Action Committee, which according to recent filings, showed its support for his campaign by donating $1,000. The Livermore-Pleasanton Firefighters Local 1974 union also donated $500 to Gaidos’ campaign during this recent filing period.
Apart from those two major donations, Gaidos saw a few other large donations come from Pleasanton resident Barry Jollette who contributed $500 to his campaign. Two attorneys — one from Fremont and one from Hayward — each also donated $250 and $500 respectively to his campaign.
In the District 2 race, retired Pleasanton police Capt. Craig Eicher has continued to outpace his opponent having raised just under $3,450 during September and October, according to his recent campaign filing statement.
Eicher has now raised a total of $16,545.
According to his statement from Sept. 22 to Oct. 19, his largest donation this past filing period was $1,000 that came from the California Real Estate Political Action Committee CREPAC, based in Los Angeles. Eicher also saw about a dozen individual donations from Pleasanton residents with the highest donations being $750 from Pleasanton resident Richard Pugh and $500 from Pleasanton resident Robert Widmer.
District 2 Incumbent Valerie Arkin has continued to see lowest contributions numbers compared to the other three council candidates; Arkin was the only candidate who took a voluntary pledge regarding voluntary campaign contribution and expenditure limitations, according to Pleasanton city clerk Jocelyn Kwong.
In Pleasanton, the city also adopted an ordinance in 2021 for voluntary campaign contribution and expenditure limitations. Council candidates who pledge to uphold these limitations cannot receive a cumulative donation amount exceeding $1,000 from any person and cannot spend more than $24,000.
According to her recent campaign filing statement, Arkin raised $1,550 during this past filing period and has raised a total of $9,350 this entire election cycle. She spent just under $5,900 of her donations during this past filing period.
Her two major donations this period were a $500 donation from the Livermore-Pleasanton Firefighters Local 1974 and a $1,000 donation from the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce’s Business And Community Political Action Committee.
Amador Valley boys' basketball hit with penalties, put on probation over player ineligibilitySeptember 5, 2026 10:38 am
