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Candidates in this year’s San Ramon Valley elections for Danville and San Ramon councils and the school board are in the midst of campaign season, with early campaign finance data showing them working with budgets funded largely by relatively small donations from local community members – in some cases, including one another.
Campaigns throughout the state have filed campaign finance forms listing donors and amounts they’ve received between July 1 and Sept. 21, many of which are now public following a Sept. 26 deadline for that data, which is the first of two deadlines for campaign finance disclosure ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
All campaigns that have garnered more than $2,000 in donations are required by the Secretary of State to file a Form 460 four times per year – twice during campaign season, along with annual and semiannual reports.
Below are highlights for campaign contributions for the local candidates in the San Ramon City Council and mayoral races, the Danville Town Council, and the San Ramon Valley Unified School District Board of Education.
Danville Town Council
Four candidates are in the running for three seats on the Danville Town Council, consisting of incumbents Renee Morgan and Newell Arnerich and newcomers Mark Belotz and Julia Gillette, the latter of whom has not filed the Form 460 for the most recent reporting period – which is not required for candidates who have raised less than $2,000 in contributions. Gillette has not reported any campaign contributions so far.
Of the four candidates, filings for Arnerich’s campaign – in which he is seeking an eighth consecutive term in on the council – show the highest number of donations, amounting to $12,333.50 over the course of his campaign, $8,583.50 of which was raised between July 1 and Sept. 21.
High profile donors to Arnerich’s campaign include Kathy and Ed Chiverton – the former of whom served as longtime executive director for Danville-based Discovery Counseling Center – who contributed $250, as well as the campaign for District 2 county supervisor and former Danville councilmember Candace Andersen for $200. Deputy District Attorney Mary Knox, who ran an unsuccessful campaign to replace District Attorney Diana Becton in 2022, also donated $100 to Arnerich’s campaign.
Arnerich also saw contributions from two of his fellow candidates during the most recent reporting period. Belotz donated $250 personally, with Belotz’s and Morgan’s campaigns each paying $431.25 for reimbursements for joint advertisements.
Morgan, the other incumbent, has received a total of $7,110.03 in contributions throughout the course of her campaign, $4,056.65 of which was during the most recent reporting period. Those contributions include $100 from Arnerich, $200 from Andersen’s campaign, and $250 from Belotz, as well as $100 from Knox.
Arnerich donated a total of $200 to Belotz’s campaign, which has raised $7,225 to date, $5,325 of which was from the most recent reporting period, with sitting mayor Karen Stepper also contributing $250. Andersen contributed $200 as an individual donor, with Knox also contributing $100.
San Ramon city races
Mayoral candidate and District 2 councilmember Mark Armstrong – the only sitting elected official running in San Ramon this year – reported a total of $19,302.97 in campaign contributions, $4,092 of which were during the most recent reporting period. He received $250 from Kathy Chiverton, and $200 from District 1 councilmember Scott Perkins, whose term is set to expire at the end of the year.
Armstrong’s opponent, entrepreneur and political newcomer Chirag Kathrani – who entered the race at the last minute following a deadline extension spurred by incumbent mayor Dave Hudson’s decision not to seek reelection – has received a total of $10,326 during the course of his relatively short campaign. The top contributor to his campaign has been Pleasanton-based Mangal LLC, a wholesale food distributor that Kathrani co-founded. Mangal’s contributions amount to $6,000, including a $2,500 loan.
The two candidates for the District 1 council seat set to be vacated by Perkins – Vasanth Shetty and Robert Jweinat – also finalized their decisions to run and launched their campaigns amid a deadline extension triggered by no incumbent seeking reelection in that race. Shetty’s campaign has raised drastically more funds so far than Jweinat’s so far – a total of $14,820.06 compared with Jweinat’s $600.
Jweinat’s contributions amount to $100 each from six different donors, including Perkins. Jweinat’s campaign finance form does not list where any of his donors live.
Shetty’s donors have contributed amounts ranging from $95.03 to $1,001, many of which are listed as being from Silicon Valley and the greater Tri-Valley region, with only one listed as being a San Ramon resident. Some donors’ cities of residence are not specified in the filings; Shetty told DanvilleSanRamon on Thursday that a dozen of those were San Ramon residents.
SRVUSD Board of Education
Current board president and Area 3 trustee Laura Bratt’s campaign has garnered a total of $5,210 in contributions as of Sept. 21. $2,000 of that is from the San Ramon Valley Education Association, the district’s teachers union, as well as $1,000 from the San Ramon Valley Democratic Club. Chiverton is also an individual donor to Bratt’s campaign with a $250 contribution. Bratt’s challenger for the Area 3 seat, Sukriti Sehgal, reported not raising any money for her campaign as of Sept. 21.
Area 2 trustee Shelly Clark, the other incumbent in the race, has received $23,777.99 in campaign contributions so far, all of which were reported between July 1 and Sept. 21.
That includes a total of $8,555.38 in monetary contributions from SRVEA, as well as non-monetary contributions in the form of campaign services from the union, plus $2,000 from the San Ramon Valley Democratic Club. A majority of Clark’s donors, however, are individual San Ramon Valley residents, including $200 from Chiverton, who lives in Alamo, and $100 from Michelle Petersen, also an Alamo resident and a candidate in 2022 for the Area 1 seat that is now occupied by Jesse vanZee.
Clark’s challenger, Karin Shumway, has garnered the most campaign contributions of any SRVUSD candidate in this year’s election so far, with $38,071.00 to date, $29,345.00 of which is from the most recent reporting period.
While a majority of contributions to Shumway’s campaign – ranging from $100 to $5,000 – are individual residents of the San Ramon Valley and greater Tri-Valley region, several contributions are from Utah residents, amounting to $2,200 from three different contributors. Shumway’s top contribution was $5,000 from Danville resident Keith Dyer.
Danville and San Ramon each have their own public portals to access campaign finance information. Campaign finance information for SRVUSD is available at the county portal. The next form 460 filing deadline for local races is Oct. 24, for the period between Sept. 22 and Oct. 19.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect San Ramon City Council candidate Vasanth Shetty’s statement that 12 of his donors listed in the filings without an address specified are San Ramon residents.
