From kevin-[at]-wolfandassociates.com Mon Mar 1 15:13:07 2004
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 13:25:15 -0800
To: Recipient List Suppressed: ;
From: Kevin Wolf <kevin-[at]-wolfandassociates.com>
Subject: Update on Davis Election Hijacking - Help call off the
developer's Get Out the Vote Drive
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
Hi Davis neighbors,
By now, everyone of you who has a listed phone number and is a voter
has probably received calls from a professional phone bank urging
your support for Stan Forbes or Mike Harrington. Developer Steve
Guidero, who has interests in the Shriner property on Covell and
other properties surrounding Davis apparently wants to stop Covell
Village so that his properties can be developed instead. He seems to
believe that his best means to do that is to support Stan and Mike
and harm Don Saylor. No one has reported any support for Don from
Guidero's calling efforts yet Guidero listed Don as a beneficiary of
his independent expenditure. If you read Sunday's Enterprise or Bee,
you can see how effective listing Don was at confusing the issue.
If you said you told the phone banker that you supported Stan or
Mike, you will receive calls today and tomorrow urging you to vote.
I told the caller that I was a supporter of Mike so I can monitor the
ongoing calls they make (I am not supporting Mike, Stan or Don. My
letter to the editor with my endorsements is below.) Today I
received a reminder call to vote tomorrow. Some of the calls will not
mention any candidates. Some will. It depends on how strongly you
told them you supported the candidate. Guidero told me that his
strategy in spending $21,000+ on this independent expenditure
campaign is to get Mike and Stan's supporters to vote on election
day. His stated purpose is to get Davis voters to support a "fair
and balanced process." Over 30% of voters are not expected to vote
tomorrow. Whoever gets their voters to the polls will likely win. It
will be a very tight election and this strategy, I fear, will succeed
in changing the outcome of the election.
So here is what we urge you to do.
1. Call Steve Guidero and ask him to stop. His cell phone number is
916-803-2900. Tell him what you think of his efforts to sway city
elections to benefit his future development plans.
2. Tell everyone you can who is behind this effort to get people to
vote for Mike and Stan. At least they should be aware of it.
3. Ask Mike to better explain his relationship with Steve Guidero.
Ask Mike how many times he has met with Guidero around the Shriner
Property proposal that he supported and around the Binning Tract
development proposal that Mike supported. What were the extent of
conversations between Mike and Guidero? (Note: I asked Steve Guidero
this and he told me that any conversations he had in the past are
irrelevant to his present activities and he would not answer my
question.)
4. Ask Mike to clear up his funky campaign statements. Mike has
listed over $6000 in loans to his campaign for office rent and
expenses he lent to his campaign between Feb. 14 and 26. That
clearly is an error. Usually a donation of one's own offices is an
in-kind contribution and not a loan. And how come this wasn't listed
in previous statements? He has made over $9000 in loans to his
campaign so far (see http://www2.dcn.org/dcn/vip/mar04/council/).
He has over $8000 in unaccounted for money as of the Feb. 25 filing.
This is important because we have people who will state in a sworn
affidavit that callers from the 5G Consulting Group told them that
Mike Harrington's campaign was behind the calls (see email and
summary below.) The reason the city has requirements for campaign
reporting is so that the public can figure out what a candidate is
doing with their funds in a timely manner. Now we won't know until
after the election what Mike spent his loans and donations on. And,
because they are loans, he can collect contributions after the
election to pay himself back. Many people, me included, believe that
this is an unfair in that it can hide who is backing a campaign until
after an election. And it creates a terrible image of the donors
make direct contributions to the candidate's personal bank accounts.
5. Get everyone you know to vote tomorrow so that this is a fairer election.
Thank you.
Kevin
P.S. Steve Guidero returned my call today. He said that he is the
owner and an officer of the 5G Consulting Group. He told me that Stan
Forbes and Mike Harrington have nothing to do with his efforts and
that there is absolutely no connection between his expenditures and
their campaigns. He also said that someone else could be calling for
Forbes and Harrington and saying that they are with the 5G Consulting
when they aren't as means to harm these candidates. He says his
callers would not tell anyone that they are calling on behalf of or
for the candidates.
P.S.S. In my email yesterday, I took Stan Forbes to task for failing
to report contributions under $100. His treasurer called me and said
that it was her fault. She is new at being treasurer and City Clerk
Bette Racki only provided her with the state forms which only require
reporting details about contributors of $100 and above. Bette should
provide better direction to candidate treasurer's and help review
their first filings for errors so that they learn. I trust Stan on
this.
1. On Sunday Barbara West (753-2868) said that the phone bank caller
(Justin) said he was calling on "behalf of Mike Harrington." When
Barbara asked him "Directly on behalf?", he replied "Yes". When she
asked who was he hired by, he said 5G Consulting.
2. From Myra Jennings (She said I could share it with others.)
"I am following the City Council election with great interest. This
morning, Sunday, Feb 29, I received a call soliciting my vote for
Mike Harrington. The caller told me his name was Archie Townsend. I
asked if he lived in Davis and he said he could not divulge that information.
I, then, asked if he was calling from Davis. He told me
he was calling from a central calling center and could not divulge
the location. I asked him for the name of the company for whom he
worked. He responded that he was working for the Campaign for Mike
Harrington. I asked if the Campaign was paying his salary and he
replied that he could not divulge that information. I explained that
this did not give me confidence in the candidate and I would be
withholding my vote for this candidate based on my lack of
confidence. I asked if his company was in contact with the candidate
and would pass this information to the campaign. He replied that he
would pass the information to his supervisor and his supervisor would
pass this information to the campaign. I then asked to speak to the
supervisor and spoke with Bruce Shaw. I asked Mr. Shaw the name of
his company and the location and he replied that for security reasons
he could not divulge that information, but that 5-G Consulting
contracted his employer to make the calls. When asked if he would be
in contact with the candidate's campaign, he answered affirmatively.
Mr. Shaw agreed that his company is interested in producing
successful outcomes for candidates and repeatedly assured me that he
would be in contact with the candidate."
Sincerely,
Myra Jennings
1404 Secret Bay St.
Davis, CA
758-3963
3. My letter to the editor in support of City Council candidates.
Dear Editor
This year we have a great group of city council candidates. Only
three will win so vote wisely. Here are my choices.
Sue Greenwald deserves reelection because she works hard, has great
intellectual capacity, is willing to change her mind with quality
information, and consistently goes well beyond the call of duty for
our city.
Donna Lott has impressed me with her willingness to tell people what
she thinks, even when she knows that they will not like her answer.
She has a great deal of experience that will provide with a clear
voice and a positive vision.
Stephen Souza will bring a thorough knowledge of city economics,
solid progressive values, and a proven willingness to work hard and
listen. He supports neighborhoods, cares about students and renters,
and will bring positive energy to the council chambers.
These candidates will be great elected representatives. As all the
candidate do, I too urge you to support Measure P and keep our city
finances working for all of us.
Kevin Wolf
4. Other candidates and ballot measures I am supporting.
Mariko Yamada for Supervisor. I like David Sandino and think he
would be a good supervisor but Mariko is better for many reasons,
including that she is doing a great job in the office as the
appointed replacement for David Rosenberg.
Dennis Kucinich for President. We need to broaden the debate in the
Democratic Party about health care, defense, trade, Iraq, Homeland
Security, corporate taxes and malfeseance and more. Dennis can get
15% of the votes in our Congressional District and send a delegate
for him to the national convention. The ultimate Democratic Party
winner will benefit from the horse race continuing. And from Dennis'
messages being heard.
Prop. 55 - Yes. Our schools infrastructure across the state nees the
investment. Without this bond, many students will be distracted
because of over crowding, lack of proper heating and cooling, etc.
Prop. 56 - Yes. A small minority of one third of the legislators
should not be able to stop the majority. 55% still protects the
minority but not the extreme end of the minority.
Prop. 57. - Yes. I am holding my nose and voting Yes on this because
people who benefit from schools and governemnt programs will suffer
in too many ways if the bond fails and 15% in additional cuts have
to be made.
Prop. 58. - Yes. I don't see the need for this but it could help
stop future financial fiascos from occurring. |