In the last days in the race for Oakland mayor, a Los Angeles investor with plans to ship coal into the city’s harbor has donated $550,000 for candidate Ignacio De La Fuente.
The contribution by JMB Capital has helped fuel the $1.2 million in spending by independent expenditure committees among four top candidates to the November ballot, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
De La Fuente, Treva Reid, Loren Taylor and Sheng Thao, all current or former City Council members, lead a pack of 10 candidates, one of which will be elected on Nov. 8.
The bulk of independent campaign cash comes from labor interests backing Thao and business interests backing De La Fuente. Unlike campaign-controlled donations, independent committees aren’t limited to money they can raise for ads, election mailers, rallies and foot soldiers to get the word to voters.
Taylor and Thao now lead the race, according to an Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce poll. A surge in independent cash supporting Thao could alter the finish in her favor.
Independent expenditure committees supporting Thao have spent at least $701,000 this year – much of it produced by “Working Families for a Better Oakland,” a committee backed by labor unions.
Taylor and Reid, however, have seen $16,000 spent on their campaigns this year by an independent committee that splits its support between the two of them and De La Fuente.
De La Fuente is second to Thao in outside spending, with at least $527,000 spent on his behalf this year from donors seeking to bring coal shipments to the city’s harbor and a national realtors’ association that lobbies for development.
Developers aiming to build an export terminal have spent years tied up in lawsuits with the city over whether coal could be shipped from the West Oakland harbor, near neighborhoods with higher levels of polluted air.
De La Fuente’s most significant source of outside spending is a committee, “Californians for Safer Streets,” primarily backed by Jonathan Brooks of the Los Angeles-based investment firm JMB Capital, which would operate the coal terminal.
Brooks has contributed $550,000 to the committee, almost all of it in the past week alone. The committee has raised $691,000 this year.
De La Fuente, who has promised to bring big developments to Oakland, won’t say whether he supports the coal terminal.
“I will work to try to attract any kind of business I can to create jobs and any kind of tax base,” De La Fuente told the Mercury News. “But I don’t know what those developments will be. … I’m open for business, my friend.”
Talk of coal money pouring into the mayoral race drew a rally in front of City Hall, where environmental advocates spoke out fiercely against a De La Fuente election. The longtime political veteran took it in stride.
“I will not get bullied into taking positions for political reasons,” De La Fuente said.
When it comes to money raised by their campaigns, the tables are more evenly balanced, according to the Mercury News.
Taylor and Reid have raised at least $376,000 and $113,000 in direct contributions through Oct. 22, while Thao and De La Fuente have brought in $285,000 and $224,000, respectively.
— Dana Bartholomew
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