Deep Pockets

DEEP POCKETS… It’s that time of year when Squid’s sea-snail mailbox starts filling up again, thanks to the political mailers. In Squid’s lair, your likelihood of being elected has more to do with your place on the food chain than how many sand dollars you keep on hand. In the human world, it seems to be quite closely connected to cold, hard currency, hence fundraising begins in earnest well before campaign season.

In some cases, like that of Congressional District 19, represented since 2016 by Jimmy Panetta, the war chest is so full that nobody has raised enough to offer a remotely serious challenge. There is fellow Democrat Hannah James and Independent Ana Luz Acevedo-Cabrera, who so far report zero dollars. As of Dec. 31, Republican candidate Peter Coe Verbica had $13,481 on hand and Green Party candidate Sean Dougherty $3,339. These amounts are the equivalent of little sand crumbs left behind from a broken sand dollar compared to Panetta’s $4,626,288 in the bank.

(Compare that to neighboring District 18, represented by Zoe Lofgren: She reported $716,844 on hand, also a lot for her district with only Republican Shane Lewis reporting any dollars in the bank at… $16. Barely enough to buy a sandwich these days.)

There are lots of small donors who gave amounts to Panetta like $25, and there are so many PACs – political action committees for Dunkin’ Brands, Gilead Sciences, the National Roofing Contractors Association, Boeing, Blackrock, the American Soybean Association and many more – that donated. A bunch of PACs also gave to Lofgren, with a notable exception. AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, gave nothing to Lofgren last year, but a whopping $96,000 to Panetta, accounting for 15 percent of his 2025 fundraising total.

Meanwhile on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, there’s also some PAC donor action (although humans and small-time local companies are better represented). The PAC for Santa Clara County Employee Management Association gave to two sitting supervisors, Glenn Church and Chris Lopez – weird, since they’re in a different county. Squid was even more intrigued to see supervisors donating to each other, throwing some financial muscle behind their friends and allies on the board.

Luis Alejo gave $5,500 from his 2028 campaign fund to Lopez, and Kate Daniels gave $100 to Lopez, who is unopposed. Alejo’s 2028 committee also gave $1,000 to Ramon Gomez – technically to Gomez’s reelection campaign for North County Fire Protection District board, formed before he decided to run against Church instead.

They say that politics is who you know, but of course it’s also if who you know has cash on hand. Squid will continue watching to see who’s dipping into whose piggy banks.