When a progressive PAC takes a cue from the business playbook, they might give the establishment a run for its money.

Good afternoon. 

Sara Rubin here, after checking my mailbox and gathering up another armload of glossy campaign mailers. Because I enjoy snail mail as a rule, I’m actually delighted to have something in the mailbox every day, even if I’ve already voted. But someone has to pay for all of those mailers and the postage—and in the final days before Election Day, expect to see even more. Both candidates for District 4 Monterey County supervisor, Wendy Root Askew and Steve McShane, continue reporting late campaign contributions almost daily. They’ve collectively raised more than $850,000 before this election cycle even wraps up, according to campaign finance reports. 

If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. Consider, by comparison, 2018 when two supervisorial seats were contested. In District 3, Alejandro Chavez and Chris Lopez raised a collective $242,000; in District 2, incumbent John Phillips and challenger Regina Gage raised $440,000. In 2016, two candidates for District 4 raised $705,000.

McShane, who is a member of Salinas City Council and works in the fertilizer industry, has out-fundraised Askew by more than double, with multiple large gifts from a wide swath of agribusiness. That includes local gifts—$7,000 from Braga Fresh Family Farms, $7,600 from Rava Ranches $5,000 from Norcal Harvesting, $3,500 from Scheid Vineyards—and some non-locals, like $2,000 from Allies Farms in Santa Monica and $2,500 from Morgan Hill-based Agro-Thrive.

Throughout the campaign, McShane has touted his business experience. If elected, it would also tip the geographic representation of the board; For decades, the District 4 seat has been held by someone who lives on the Monterey Peninsula. 

Askew’s donor base is mostly individuals, with several union donations. Among her largest contributors is retiring supervisor Jane Parker, who has donated $18,000. (Parker is also Askew’s boss; Askew works as an aide on her staff.) 

Askew’s largest gift, $21,000, comes from the Monterey County New Progressives, a PAC that Parker helped launch last year along with two other local elected officials, George Riley of Monterey Peninsula Water Management District and Regina Gage of Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System. 

Part of the PAC’s mission is to enable prospective candidates who are unable to tap into the election machinery known widely as “the establishment.” PAC President Constance Murray says, “It’s about finding people who have principles and aren’t being bought off.”  

Murray notes that it’s not about partisanship—she’s a Democrat who has voted for Republicans, she says, because she thought they were better candidates. “It’s about finding people who put community first, and are about doing the most good for the most people in a progressive way. It's about choosing people with the right kind of values, and the PAC is values-driven,” she says.

The new committee has just gotten off the ground, and Askew’s campaign represents its largest contribution. But they’ve also given $1,000 each to the water board campaigns of Amy Anderson and Karen Paull, as well as Seaside City Council candidate Alexis Garcia Arrazola and Salinas City Council candidate Anthony Rocha. 

For Parker, it’s about helping make candidates viable who might otherwise not be able to run a serious campaign. “Every time I have run I have been outspent,” she says. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t win. When we made contributions, we tried to gauge what is the right amount to make a decent difference in their campaign.” 

Part of the Monterey County New Progressives’ future plans includes not just financial support but technical training to help encourage diverse voices—young people, candidates of color, LGBTQ+ candidates—run for office and be taken seriously. 

It’s an oddly counterintuitive way to empower candidates who are willing to oppose the status quo: Use the status quo system of campaign contributions and PAC influence to give them a leg up. But until we have serious campaign finance reform, it might be the best that progressives can come up with. 

-Sara Rubin, editor, sara@mcweekly.com