This is How a Right-Wing PAC Buys Our Local Election
What started with dividing the community and demonizing the homeless and current city councilors has turned uglier as we draw closer to the election. The money is still pouring in to the โSafe Chicoโ PAC, much of it from outside the community.
So far, they have spent approximately $50,000, most of that in the past month or so, and remember, they have around $220,000 raised, and almost no caps on what or how much they can spend. With around 6 weeks to the election, they have already outspent the TOTAL amount spent by a local PAC in the 2018 election by about 25%.
If you care about fair elections and local control, you should find this alarming. If they spend the money they have already amassed, they will have outspent the largest PAC (also conservative) in the 2018 election by a factor of 5 or 6.
Chico has a cap of on how much candidates can accept from indviduals or businesses - they can't receive more than $500. That cap is in place to prevent this kind of spending having an undue influence on our election process. Sean Morgan tried to get the council to raise that cap a few years ago, and the public outcry put a stop to it pretty quickly. Yet even with these kinds of safegaurds in place, a PAC like "Safe Chico" has the money to change the outcome and circumvent a fair process, and that is exactly what they are doing.
Their ads and mailers have also been extraordinarily misleading - for instance, they sent out a mailer for Kami Denlay (the payment for that is listed as in support of her campaign on their most recent filing) but on the flip side, they included an ad for Steven Breedlove, whom they do not support. Steven is not named in any of their filings, and that is one of the few state requirements with which they must comply - they must state who\what the money was spent in support or opposition of. There is no question that the intent of the mailer is to confuse voters, as well as to split the votes and reduce chances for progressive candidates.
A quick review of the numbers from recent filings:
Ann Schwab - attacks ads: $5800
Rich Ober - attack ads: $2100
Randall Stone - attack ads: $1700
Money paid out to support conservative candidates to date:
Mailers and other ads for Kami Denlay: $16,241
Mailers and other ads for Depeeka Tandon: $8159
Mailers and other ads for Sean Morgan: $4133
Mailers and other ads for Andrew Coolidge: $7955
General Harassment of Councilors who are not up for re-election this round:
Alex Brown: $250
Scott Huber: $250
Karl Ory: $250
Are you getting worried yet? We are.
We need money to spread the word about what is being done to our community - otherwise our chances of countering their misinformation and misleading ads are slim.
๐๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐๐ง ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ ๐๐จ๐ง๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง, ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐๐ง ๐๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ก๐๐ซ๐: https://actblue.com/donate/StandUpChico
Even if you can't afford to donate, you can help us get the word out:
๐๐ก๐๐ซ๐ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญs
๐๐ง๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ค๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ #๐๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ก๐ข๐๐จ, ๐๐ง๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ข๐ซ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐จ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ.
๐๐ข๐ ๐ง ๐ฎ๐ฉ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ง๐๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ฅ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐ญ www.standupchico.com
๐ ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐ง๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฆ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ซ @๐๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ก๐ข๐๐จ
