Wednesday, October 12, 2016
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In Judicial Races...
Susan Townsend Continues to Outpace All in Spending
By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer
Deputy District Attorney Susan Jung Townsend continues to outraise and outspend all other candidates seeking election to the Los Angeles Superior Court this cycle.
Townsend, who is seeking one of four open seats on the Nov. 8 general election ballot, reported raising $114,700 during the most recent reporting period, which opened July 1—three weeks after the primary—and closed Sept. 24. She has raised nearly $750,000 since the beginning of the campaign.
Townsend emerged as the top vote-getter in the June primary with 36 percent of the vote. Her runoff opponent, fellow Deputy District Attorney Javier Perez, drew 32 percent.
The two are seeking Office No. 84, the seat left open when Judge Kathleen Diesman declined to seek reelection.
Family Funds
The bulk of her funding in the current period came from her family real estate business, Trium Investment Group, LLC, which gave $100,000. The company gave $200,000 to the primary campaign.
Townsend reported more than $120,000 in cash on hand at the Sept. 24 cutoff.
Perez, by contrast reported raising less than $25,000 in the current period, for a total of $224,000 since the beginning of the race. He had a little over $40,000 on hand on Sept. 24.
Donors of interest in the period included Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Rogelio Delgado and Lillian Vega Jacobs, who gave $250 each; the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, which gave $1,500; and Aaron Weissman, an unsuccessful opponent of Townsend and Perez, who gave $1,000 in leftover campaign funds.
In the other contests on the November ballot:
•Deputy District Attorney Debra Archuleta has taken a clear fundraising lead over her colleague Steve Schreiner, after they raised similar sums for the primary.
Archuleta’s reported contributions exceed $330,000, but she reported a net negative of $44,000 since July 1, suggesting she has begun paying back the substantial loans that she received from family members. She reported spending just $43,000 in this period, with $40,000 of that going to a single slate mailer.
Her cash-on-hand as of Sept. 24 was $21,000.
Schreiner’s Funding Shrinks
Schreiner, on the other hand, reported raising less than $7,000 post-primary. He reported having $66,000 on hand, but since he loaned himself $100,000 before the primary, it was conceivable he would use much of his remaining funds to repay himself.
Schreiner recently brushed back on reports he was going to quit the race, in light of Archuleta having received 47 percent of the primary vote, to 28 percent for Schreiner. He told the MetNews he was in the race to stay, despite losing a court bid to block Archuleta from being listed as a “Violent Crimes Prosecutor” on the ballot.
Deputy District Attorney Efrain Aceves continues to clearly outspend Alicia Molina. A recent court battle resulted in Molina being listed as an “Attorney at Law,” and Aceves’s attorney in that case predicted that he “has it made” in the balloting as a result.
Aceves reported raising $110,000 in the most recent period, putting him at about $400,000 total, and having more than $40,000 on hand for the stretch drive.
Molina, by contrast, had negative receipts for the reporting period, in which she spent about $5,700, and had a little over $10,000 left on hand.
•Deputy District Attorney David Berger and Deputy Attorney General Kim Nguyen continued to raise and spend actively in their battle for the seat being vacated by Judge Elden Fox.
Berger reported raising $59,000 in the last period, including $50,000 from Eva Djanogly Berger Properties, LLC, and $282,000 total. He had less than $1,000 on hand, however.
Nguyen reported raising $56,000 in the current period, bringing her total to $323,000.
As in the primary, much of that money came from labor unions and from officeholders represented by SG&A, the campaign consulting firm where her husband, Michael Shimpock, is a partner.
Copyright 2016, Metropolitan News Company