Redondo Beach’s District 3 City Council race is entering its home stretch, meaning that the fundraising push for the final run is on. While Sam Kartounian has both the largest sum of money raised as well as the most donors, Candace Allen Nafissi is unquestionably the leader in obtaining donations from the residents of Redondo Beach.
Among the four candidates who have filed reports, the most recent of which are current up to January 17, 60 percent of Nafissi’s campaign donations (18 of 30 unique donations, excluding a donation made by Nafissi to her own campaign) have come from residents of Redondo. Nafissi, who has collected nearly $7,000 in donations, counts Measure B opponents Redondo Residents for Responsible Revitalization, otherwise known as R4, and City Councilman Steve Sammarco among her supporters. That support has been reciprocated, as she has contributed funds to R4’s “No on B” campaign.
Nafissi attributes her collection success to the idea that she is “working mostly for residents of Redondo Beach, and not working for anyone outside of the residents.” Any donations from outside Redondo, she says, are family friends or coworkers supporting her campaign. “I’ve made a conscious effort to represent the community and people of the city,” she says, though she acknowledges that a “handful” are from R4.
Kartounian, who is the money leader among candidates, has received nearly $19,000 in donations dating back to January 2014. But of his 49 donors, Kartounian can only count four from within Redondo Beach’s city limits. The addresses of his donors stretch out as far as Sacramento, with residents from Covina, Anaheim, Pasadena and Montebello among his donors.
The largest donation made to Kartounian’s campaign was a $5,000 donation made by Athens Services, a waste and recycling collection company that is the city’s “exclusive waste hauler that provides all residential and commercial waste and recycling collection services in the City of Redondo Beach,” according to the city’s website.
Christian Anthony Horvath’s filings reflect his desire to run a campaign on a fairly small budget, having gathered $4,770 over the run of his campaign. But unlike the other candidates, Horvath has assistance filing his reports: North Redondo Beach Business Association President John Gran, who is acting as the campaign’s treasurer.
“I asked John to help me out as a person, to help me out as a friend,” Horvath said, when asked if his connection to the president of the NRBBA might seem counter to the idea that he’s running a grassroots effort, which he has said throughout the campaign season. “The way I look at grassroots is that you’re going into something not well-funded, with a lot of unknowns,” he said. “I think it’s important to separate what people do as volunteers from their own personal willingness to help you as a friend.”
“I don’t see any impropriety in asking him to help,” he said. “Integrity is a big thing to me. John has an enormous amount of that.”
Candidate Sandy Marchese has collected nearly $4,000 in donations from outside entities, bringing up the rear in campaign donation numbers among those filing paperwork – the fifth candidate in the race, Eric Coleman, has yet to file a single report during this campaign season.
Update – After press time, Coleman returned a call from the Easy Reader, and explained that his campaign filings had been turned away by the City Clerk’s office for not meeting submission guidelines. He was unaware of the issue until our call informed him of the problem. “I’m running for City Council, I didn’t know I’d have to be an accountant,” he said.
Coleman, to date, has raised $3,000 for his campaign — all from Steve Shoemaker, owner of the Redondo Fun Factory. ER
