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In the span of a month, Pleasanton mayoral candidate and current Councilmember Jack Balch raised over $11,000 in political donations, bringing his campaign coffers to $95,000 overall in monetary contributions this election season, according to his most recently submitted campaign finance statements.
While his previous statements showed that he contributed almost $1,500 from his own money, plus over $34,500 from a City Council 2024 campaign committee, more people continue to contribute to his campaign compared to incumbent Mayor Karla Brown.
During the same period between Sept. 22 to Oct. 19, Brown only raised an additional $1,575, bringing her total contributions this year $38,848, according to her campaign statements.
The Secretary of State requires campaigns that have raised more than $2,000 in donations to file campaign finance forms known as a Form 460 four times per year – twice during campaign season, along with annual and semiannual reports. All told, available forms list the names of donors and how much they have contributed to a campaign from Jan. 1 to Oct. 19.
In Pleasanton, the city also adopted an ordinance in 2021 for voluntary campaign contribution and expenditure limitations. Mayoral candidates who pledge to uphold these limitations cannot receive a cumulative donation amount of $1,000 or more from any person and cannot spend more than $30,000.
“There is a public interest in keeping large contributions out of local politics by decreasing the maximum contributions being made to candidates running for local office,” according to the ordinance language. “By meeting residents, business owners and community members in person, candidates will not need to rely as heavily on mass media communication, and therefore campaign expenditures can be voluntarily reduced.”
Pleasanton city clerk Jocelyn Kwong told the Weekly that Brown was the only mayoral candidate to take voluntary pledge.
Kwong said Brown signed a pledge form with the city during the nomination period — those forms are not governed by the Fair Political Practices Commission, which is why they don’t show up online on the state-mandated campaign finance records.
Brown’s recent Form 460 falls in line with those pledges she took as her largest donation during this last statement period came from the Livermore Pleasanton Firefighters Local 1974 PAC, which donated $950.
Similar to her previous campaign filings, apart from the union donation her other three donations ranging from $50 to $300 came from three Pleasanton residents. Her previous filings showed that most of the money she raised this election season came from her previous mayoral campaign in 2022, during which she ran unopposed.
Balch on the other hand continues to see more and more donations after having raised over $80,000 as of the previous campaign finance statements.
During this most recent period covering Sept. 22 to Oct. 19, the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce’s Business And Community Political Action Committee showed its support for Balch by donating $2,000 to his campaign.
The Northern California Carpenters Regional Council POWER PAC, based in Sacramento, also donated $1,000 in October, according to his 460 filings. Similarly, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 595 PAC Small Contributor Committee, also based in Sacramento, donated $1,000 to his campaign.
Apart from those union donations, the other highest contribution during this last period was a $1,000 donation from Pleasanton resident Gretchen Zaballos-Scherer. Other than that, Balch continued to see other smaller donations of anywhere from $100 to $500 come mostly from Pleasanton residents.
The only non-resident who donated to Balch’s campaign this round was Brian Hughes, a Fremont resident who donated $500.
On the expenditures side, Balch spent a total of just over $70,000 this entire year — this last campaign finance period he spent just over $32,000. Most of his expenditures went to The Tucker Group, a political consultant group based in Pleasant Hill.
According to Balch’s Form 460 filing from this last period, he paid the group $13,496 for campaign literature and mailings and $2,500 for campaign consultancy. Another separate payment of $13,610 was also made to the group for campaign literature and mailings.
A lot of Balch’s other expenditures went to Meta for “campaign paraphernalia”.
Brown, on the other hand, has spent much less this election cycle. According to her most recent Form 460 filing, she spent a total of about $26,100 this entire year — this past filing covering from Sept. 22 to Oct. 19 showed she spent $10,835 on mostly posters and mailers.
And as it turns out, some of the signs that Brown spent her campaign money were reportedly stolen from several residents’ front yards.
According to a press release from Pleasanton Voters — a grassroots organization focusing on informing voters about local elections, which has endorsed Brown this year and in the past — “sign-stealing thieves” have taken more than 50 signs supporting Brown’s mayoral campaign.
The organization said the signs have been randomly disappearing throughout the city but mostly in the downtown area. Multiple homeowners have submitted photos of their empty signs supporting Brown and have even submitted two video recordings showing people taking signs from the yard.
“This appears to be a last-ditch effort by one or more of the candidates or campaigns,” Pleasanton Voters president Kelly Cousins said in the press release that alleged signs of incumbent Councilmember Valerie Arkin in the District 2 race were also stolen. “It certainly doesn’t sync with the city’s brand as a ‘Community of Character’, and it has criminal implications too.”
According to the press release, a case has been filed with the Pleasanton Police Department so that others can report these alleged thefts to the police.
Even though Cousins did not call out his campaign by name, Balch took to social media to address rumors blaming him and his campaign for the sign stealing.
“I am disappointed to hear that accusations are being directed at my supporters and campaign team,” Balch wrote in a Facebook post Oct. 27. “Casting blame without evidence is not only irresponsible but harms our community, our neighbors.”
He said that is not what his campaign is about and that he has “no tolerance for such actions”.
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