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Despite its reputation as a particularly affluent Tri-Valley community, the race for three seats on Danville’s Town Council is seeing relatively minimal cash flow this election season with four candidates in the running.
Campaign finance reports are in for local candidates following an Oct. 24 deadline for filings for the most recent reporting period between Sept. 22 and Oct. 19, marking the final comprehensive reports that will be made available ahead of Election Day next week.
Longtime incumbent Newell Arnerich, who is seeking an eighth term in office in the upcoming election, has raked in the most cash of any of the four candidates with a total of $15,486.84 raised as of Oct. 19, $3,143.34 of which was raised during the most recent reporting period.
Arnerich’s top contributions in the most recent period were $1,000 each from the California Real Estate PAC and San Ramon resident Uri Eliahu, as well as $500 from Alamo resident and real estate developer Brad Blake.
Fellow incumbent Renee Morgan raised the second most in campaign contributions, with $13,899.53, $6,789.50 of which came during the most recent reporting period. Morgan’s top contributions during that period were $1,500 from the IBEW 302 Community Candidates PAC, as well as $1,000 each from the California Real Estate PAC, San Ramon Valley Local 3546 Firefighters, and Danville resident Joseph Callaway, and $500 from the Plumbing Industry Consumer Protection Fund.
First-time candidate Mark Belotz has raised a total of $8,675 over the course of his inaugural campaign for office through Oct. 19, $1,450 of which was from the most recent filing period. $1,000 of that was from the California Real Estate PAC, with the remainder coming from three different Danville residents.
Fellow newcomer Julia Gillette has not reported any contributions over the course of her campaign as of Oct. 30.
The relatively minimal campaign contributions are in spite of an ordinance adopted by the town in 2022 following a State Assembly bill that went into effect the previous year establishing campaign contribution limits across the state for municipalities without their own regulations.Â
With the door still open then for local governments to establish their own campaign contribution regulations, Danville’s 2022 ordinance ensures that “there shall be no limit on monetary contributions from a person or campaign committee to a candidate for Town Council.”
