Assemblymember Mark Leno has boosted his campaign
for the District 3 Senate seat with a $100,000 personal loan .
Photo by Luke Thomas
By Luke Thomas
May 12, 2008
In a move suggesting the Senate District 3 fundraising-well may be running dry, Assemblymember Mark Leno has given his election campaign a financial shot in the arm in the run-up to the June 3 primary election, Fog City Journal has learned.
According to documents filed with the California Secretary of State, Leno loaned his campaign $100,000 from personal funds on May 10.
Leno dismissed suggestions his campaign is running out of money.
“It’s a statement of my commitment,” Leno explained to Fog City Journal. “I have been in this race 14-months and I’ve raised about a million dollars. We’re coming into the last week and I’ve got to do everything necessary to make sure Joe Nation doesn’t run off with this with just two months of campaigning.”
Former Assemblymember Joe Nation and Leno are tied in a statistical dead heat ahead of embattled incumbent Senator Carole Migden, according to polls commissioned by Leno and Nation.
Late campaign filings filed with the Secretary of State show Nation, who entered the race February 9, has raised $232,000 since March 15. During the same time period, Senator Migden – who loaned her campaign $100,000 on March 20 – has raised $251,000.
With his personal loan, Leno’s total fundraising since March 15 totals $241,000.
Pointing to Nation’s list of corporate contributors that includes Coca-Cola, PG&E, and private healthcare interests, Leno said, “Joe Nation has big corporate interests filling his campaign coffers. Pharmaceutical companies, the insurance industry… I think there may be some oil money as well. So, that’s what I’m up against.”
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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The Hunger Site
May 13, 2008 at 7:45 am
I would suggest that what he is also “up against” is a wall of concern raised by his refusal to challenge Newsom’s priorites and inhumane cuts in Health and Human Services, plus his apparent support of Prop G.