Congressman Salud Carbajal announced in April that he raised more than $566,000 in the first three months of 2017, with at least 70 percent of those contributions coming from his district, the 24th Congressional District, along the Central Coast.
Carbajal was officially sworn in for a two-year term in January and began raising money for his re-election campaign. Raising money is a constant ordeal for members of Congress, who spend several hours on it each day. In 2013, The Huffington Post first published a Power Point presentation of a model schedule given to freshman Democratic representatives recommending they spend four hours each day on raising money.
Tess Whittlesey, Carbajal’s communication director, told the Sun that this is “somewhat of an exaggeration,” but also noted that the new congressman isn’t exempt from such a task.
“It’s something that Salud wants to see reformed in Congress,” Whittlesey said.
Time is of the essence too, according to Whittlesey, since Carbajal only has two years to raise money and pass laws. In the meantime, challengers are free to campaign and raise money leading up to the 2018 election. One has already emerged, according Federal Election Commission (FEC) records: Morro Bay civil engineer and Republican Michael Erin Woody.
So far, however, support for Carbajal doesn’t seem to be waning; he led fundraising efforts for his 2016 campaign. In an April 11 statement, Carbajal called the “grassroots” momentum humbling. Of the $445,120 in support he received, $345,230 of it came from donors within his district with an average contribution of $1,809.
Most of these contributions came in the form of $25, $50, and $100 donations.
The rest—$99,890—came from donors outside the district (according to listed cities on the filings) from as near as Oxnard to as far away as the East Coast. The average contribution in this group was $1,203, although there were many smaller donations as well.
Carbajal also received an additional $117,600 from various political action committees.
Per Federal Election Commission rules, an individual may only contribute a maximum limit of $2,700 to a federal candidate or their campaign per election. Although, they may also contribute an additional $2,700 to the candidate’s compliance fund—a special account used for legal and accounting expenses. Elections law doesn’t prohibit out-of-district contributions.
Most of the outside smaller donations mainly came by way of ActBlue, a Democatic online fundraising organization in Somerville, Mass. The company streamlines the way people contribute money to political campaigns via the internet. According to The New York Times, ActBlue “has led the movement” in this regard because it makes donations easy and common. As of May 5, ActBlue had raised more than $1.6 billion online since 2004, according to its website.
Susan Bridges, the wife of actor Jeff Bridges, donated $500 to Carbajal’s campaign, listing her employer as Asis Productions Inc., which is Bridges’ movie production company.
Other notable contributors include Seinfeld and Veep actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who has been active in Democratic politics for decades, donated $2,700.
Carbajal’s campaign received a $2,500 donation from Congressman Jared Polis, who represents Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District and is also the first openly gay member of Congress. Both Polis and Carbajal serve on the LGBT Caucus, which Carbajal joined in February.
Los Angeles-based office tower mogul Dan Emmett contributed $5,400. Emmett became one of Southern California’s largest office landlords with his company, Douglas Emmett Inc., a publicly traded corporation that started in 1971 and recorded $742.5 million in revenue in 2016, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. His wife, Rae, donated $1,000.
Numerous philanthropists outside the district made maximum $5,400 contributions to Carbajal’s campaign, including Manhattan Beach’s Mary Looker; Los Angeles’ Rick and Tina Caruso; and Marsha and Jay Glazer, who also donated $1 million to UC Santa Barbara in 2007 to establish an endowed chair in the university’s Jewish studies program.
S. Donald Sussman, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based hedge fund manager, donated $5,400 to Carbajal.
According to opensecrets.org, Sussman and his organization, Paloma Partners, came in third (behind Republican donor Sheldon Adelson) in the list of top 10 biggest political donors to outside groups in 2016, donating more than $34 million.
But Rep. Carbajal isn’t relying solely on outside contributions to fund his re-election campaign. In the April 11 statement, he called on more of his constituents to pitch in.
“More Central Coast residents are politically engaged than ever before, and that is reflected in the strong local support for our campaign,” he said.
Staff Writer David Minsky can be reached at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 11-18, 2017.