Challengers for county supervisor seats out-fundraise incumbents.

Former Salinas Mayor and radicchio mogul Dennis Donohue officially announced just last month that he was taking on two-term County Supervisor Jane Parker in the 2016 election.

But he'd already been quietly campaigning for months and fundraising, to the tune of $165,000 as of Dec. 31, according to the latest campaign finance reports. 

It's a large sum, and comes from a total of just 22 donors, mostly large agribusiness companies. The Nunes Company gave $20,000, Church Brothers gave $15,000, Taylor Fresh Foods gave $10,000 and D'Arrigo Bros. gave $5,000, among others.

Parker raised $148,000 last year, from more than 100 individual donors who mostly gave in the $100-300 range.

Those include State Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, who donated $275. Parker also received a gift of $2,000 from the Democratic Women of Monterey County, and $200 from Marina City Councilman David Brown's campaign committee.

Parker and Donohue will face off in June; in the two-way race between the two Democrats, the primary election will be decisive, and there won't be a need for a November run-off for District 4 (which includes Marina, Seaside and part of Salinas).

District 1, which covers most of urban Salinas, is also shaping up to be a spendy race.

Incumbent Fernando Armenta faces challenges from Assemblyman Luis Alejo, who is terming out this year, and Salinas City Councilman Tony Barrera, who challenged Armenta four years ago and unexpectedly made a solid second-place showing.

(In this three-way race, unless one candidate earns more than 50 percent of the vote in the June primary, the top two will go to a run-off election in November, meaning more time for campaigning and political spending.) 

Alejo raised $100,000 last year, far exceeding Armenta ($39,000) and Barrera ($2,500). 

Alejo also has the advantage of statewide leverage: All of his campaign cash to date comes from his 2014 Assembly campaign committee. (He was actively fundraising last year, collecting $182,000 for his 2018 State Senate campaign.)

Armenta's donors include elected officials, businesses and unions.

Among them: $150 from Anna Caballero, who is running to succeed Alejo in the Assembly (against Alejo's wife, Karina Cervantez Alejo); $250 from former County Supervisor Lou Calcagno; $100 from his chief of staff and Soledad City Councilman Alejandro Chavez; $250 from Chevron; $1,000 from the Don Chapin Company; $1,400 from Mark Kelton, the developer of Ferrini Ranch, which Armenta voted to approve but is currently being litigated; and $1,000 from Gary Tanimura, executive officer of T&A.

Barrera has never been much of a fundraiser. He knew from the get-go he would be out-fundraised and out-endorsed in this three-way race, but even with Alejo in it, said he'd go for it: "If Jerry Brown came to District 1, I would still run because it’s in my heart," he told the Weekly in December, after Alejo announced he would run.

In District 5, which covers the Monterey Peninsula, the Big Sur coast, Carmel Valley and the Highway 68 corridor, incumbent Dave Potter has a balance of $36,000, after raising $87,000 last year and spending about $52,000. 

His donors include County Economic Development Director Dave Spaur; Tanimura & Antle CEO Rick Antle; and Prunedale contractor Don Chapin, who also runs the conservative-leaning PAC Salinas Valley Leadership Group. 

Potter also got money from several medical marijuana-related businesses, including a Carmel Valley collective and Ethnobotanica, a dispensary in Watsonville; Quail Lodge; the Monterey County Vacation Rental Alliance which advocates for short-term rentals; Cannery Row Company; and contractor Monterey Peninsula Engineering (owned by county GOP spokesman Paul Bruno).

Mary Adams, who retired last year from her position as CEO of United Way to run for supervisor, is challenging Potter. 

She raised more than $94,000 last year, with a $89,000 balance as of Dec. 31, more than twice the incumbent.

Her donors include dozens of individuals, among them former County Supervisor Karin Strasser Kauffman, and just a few businesses including D'Arrigo Brothers. 

Adams also got $1,000 each from San Ardo rancher Mary Orradre and from Margaret Duflock, a South County rancher who donates so much political cash she is required to be registered as a major donor with the Monterey County Elections Department, and who bankrolled Sheriff Steve Bernal's campaign in 2014 with $150,000.

Adams' largest single donor was Brigitte Wasserman of Carmel Valley, who gave $10,000. Wasserman serves on the board of the Boys & Girls Club, and with her late husband in the '60s, opened private boarding schools for emotionally troubled teenagers.