Pac Men

PAC MEN… Squid loves election season because the snail mail box fills up, giving Squid material for Squid’s vision board (Squid envisions Squidself in the warmest water cephalopods can tolerate, with a piña colada and a bowl of shrimp-flavored popcorn, in case you were wondering).

Squid has gotten nothing in the mail from them yet, but was puzzled to see a new PAC formed that straddles North Monterey County and southern Santa Cruz County: Central Coast Working Families Support Glenn Church and Felipe Hernandez For Supervisor 2026. (Squid’s colleague called the phone number associated with the PAC and left a message for a member, the district rep for Union of Operating Engineers Local 3, but hasn’t heard back. No fundraising is reported yet, a month from the June 2 election.)

Squid doesn’t closely watch Santa Cruz County politics, where Hernandez is seeking re-election, but Squid is curious to see what happens just south of the border where Hernandez’s chief of staff, Ramon Gomez, is challenging Glenn Church to represent District 2 on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.

As of April 18, the most recent reporting period, Gomez has raised $22,400 compared to Church’s $82,600. (For more insider supervisor family tree baseball, Gomez’s donors include his brother, Javier Gomez, who is chief of staff to Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo; Alejo; and Gomez’s boss, Hernandez.) Church’s list of donors includes North County heavyweights (construction magnate Don Chapin) and regional hospitality influencers (Cannery Row Company, Kirk Gafill of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce, Janine Chicourrat of the Monterey County Hospitality Association, Michael Freed of Post Ranch Inn) and ag (Jerry Rava, Ross Merrill, Kent Hibino). There are also plenty of PACs, with appearances from the SEIU, Sheet Metal Workers and Monterey Bay Action Committee – which is another way of funneling money on behalf of hospitality groups).

Over in education, Dan Burns has so far outfundraised Ralph Porras $48,000 to $6,500, or 7-to-1, in the race for Monterey County Superintendent of Schools. (Burns’ donor list also includes unions and associated PACs, the California Teachers Association and Salinas Elementary Teachers Council among them).

All of this was enough to keep Squid’s calculator busy. Squid thought it was way too soon to start thinking about the November election, but some people are already on it. The Board of Supervisors is exploring the possibility of a ballot measure for mansion tax – that is, a 1- to 5-percent transfer tax on property sales over $10 million – and on April 30, Monterey County Citizens for Fair Taxation filed formation paperwork. Squid wonders how much they think would be fair for Squid’s lair.