Last month, The Coast News published two stories breaking down campaign donations to Encinitas City Council and Mayoral candidates.
An apparent goal of these articles was to highlight the relatively higher percentage of donors from outside Encinitas supporting those considered to be the “progressives”: Destiny Preston, Allison Blackwell and Tony Kranz.
The reporting prompted outrage among members of a local Facebook group. One commenter declared she would never vote for anyone with more donors outside of Encinitas.
Setting aside the absurdity of a $250 donation from any person in or outside of Encinitas swaying a candidate, the only thing the author’s analyses reveals is that a particular candidate has contacts in other cities who are willing to chip in a few bucks to support their friend/family.
The article about the City Council candidates contrasts the contributions to Destiny Preston, which she described as her “family, friends, college alumni circle and professional network,” with those received by District 2 competitor, Jim O’Hara, touting a focus on local donors, including Scott Campbell’s Encinitas Citizens Review Panel, or “ECRP.”
He even quotes O’Hara, saying, “It’s important to bring this back to Encinitas and not have one political campaign outspending another with outside money.”
Whether it was a lack of curiosity or simply a desire to preserve the intended implication of outside influence on Preston, the author failed to confirm the “local resident” bona fides of ECRP. Nor did he apparently make any attempt to obtain the 460 forms recently filed by ECRP to update his analysis.
Had he done so, he would have seen contributions totaling $1,100 from seven Encinitas residents added to the initial $2,000 loan from Scott Campbell — no issues there. However, he completely missed the $9,900 from Andrew Burton, retired, of Bend, Oregon.
It’s reasonable to think that a person who makes a sizable investment in local political races would expect some benefit from doing so. It turns out that Burton owns a small condominium off Leucadia Blvd., purchased in 2017, which he rents out. Notwithstanding a clear desire to impact these races, Burton could not be found on current registered voter listings for Encinitas.
In addition to his generous contributions to ECRP, Burton separately gave the maximum amounts to Ehlers, O’Hara, and Shaffer, as well as equal amounts to EUSD board candidates Monica Lee and Aimee Sproul, for total contributions of $11,150 in support of five Encinitas candidates.
So, when you see the flashy ads on The Coast News’ website touting the “winning team” of Ehlers, O’Hara, and Shaffer and urging “No on Measure K,” click on “Who paid for this ad?”
You’ll see “Encinitas Citizens Review Panel,” which, thanks to the generosity of Andrew Burton of Bend, Oregon, could afford ad buys totaling $6,835 for The Coast News and San Diego Union-Tribune.
The questions to be asked are: Who is this Burton guy, what’s in it for him, and will the people who so vehemently object to outside donors still support these candidates?
Eleanor Musick
Encinitas
5 comments
If Andrew is indeed a “huge supporter of the local businesses in the neighborhood where he lives”, perhaps Christie can explain why he registered to vote in Encinitas only last week (Oct. 7), when there was no prior record of local voter registration for him, and why he made contributions in 5 local races in which he listed a Bend, Oregon address as recently as September. And perhaps she can explain why he purchased a $1.2M home in Bend, Oregon just last year but supposedly lives here. And maybe she can explain why his Facebook page About Info says “Bend, Oregon – current city”.
More importantly, perhaps she can explain why someone who, based on FEC records, does not appear to have made a single political contribution for at least the past 10 years, has a spare $12,000, over 5 times more than any other contributor, to help promote 5 local candidates in Encinitas. Not at all suspicious.
I worry far less about a $3,000 contribution from developer Baldwin & Sons to the PAC supporting the current mayor when I see that the Encinitas Firefighters Association has given $10,000 to the same PAC. I agree, voters should pay attention. More importantly, they should ask what motivates a retired man who, up until a month ago listed an address in Bend, Oregon, to suddenly chip in over $12,000 to influence 5 political races in our city.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that someone who’s seen firsthand what’s happening here is concerned about this race and tired of the rubber-stamp status quo. Eleanor, it’s pretty clear why Andrew donated… things have gotten that bad here!
It seems he’s not backing the incumbents or the new-to-town transplant.
Congrats to Andrew on his retirement and on buying a second home in such a beautiful location!
While multiple $$$ PACs with developers and the “usual suspects” are backing your candidates, there’s just one small PAC supporting independent candidates who genuinely care about our community.
Christie – Rather than making unsupported claims and allegations, try actually looking at the documents, and perhaps even read the article published in the SDUT on the same issue (https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/10/14/candidate-campaigns-pacs-pouring-money-into-encinitas-mayoral-race/)
There are three PACs active in this election:
Encinitas Citizens Review Panel, which supports the 5 candidates mentioned in my original letter — it raised a total of $13,000: $3,100 in contributions and loans from 7 local residents plus $9,900 from Andrew Burton of Bend, OR.
Encinitas Citizens United in Support of Tony Kranz for Mayor 2024, which (obviously) supports Kranz. It has raised a total of $23,750: $5,750 in contributions from 5 local residents , $10,000 from Encinitas Firefighters Association, $3,000 from developer Baldwin & Sons, and $5,000 from Western States Regional Council of Carpenters.
Protect our Legacy Encinitas, which supports the sale tax increase. It has raised a total of $7,000: $2,000 in contributions from 2 local residents, and $5,000 from Encinitas Firefighters Association.
The actual numbers reveal that there are not boatloads of money pouring in from developers to any campaign. The two developer/organizations that donated to the Kranz-supporting PAC gave less combined than what Burton gave to ECRP. Under your assumption that these donors are making an investment with hopes of future gain, what’s in it for Burton? Are we to believe he’s just some altruistic guy with loads of money to give away to city and school board campaigns in a city where he plans to move but wasn’t even registered to vote until last week? And are we to believe that after an apparent lifetime of political indifference (at least financially), he’s suddenly awakened and is here to save the city and our schools from themselves?
And by the way, look at the biggest contributor to these PACs: Encinitas Firefighters Association, for a total of $15,000. They clearly stand to gain from passage of Measure K – Encinitas citizens would also reap the benefit. It’s also interesting that the Encinitas Firefighters Association provided more than $16,000 to support Julie Thunder and Bruce Ehlers in the 2022 City Council races. Gotta wonder why the reversal on Ehlers. Shouldn’t we trust the firefighters ?
Something doesn’t seem right! My perception is all of a sudden certain people are trying to trot out whoever this Andrew Burton is and create the narrative he’s a “local” donor. Like on the corner with everyone holding up campaign signs you had Scott (I think that’s his name) share quite loudly and obviously “that’s Andrew Burton our biggest donor” even though nobody asked when some guy was walking around. There’s the comment below from whoever Christie is “congrats on retirement and the SECOND home…”
While this is just small town politics, it does seem like there’s a cover-up. Otherwise perhaps those involved could be transparent and share this Andrew’s history in the city. How he came to be a supporter of the PAC. Did he meet the candidates personally and if so at what point in time, prior to making campaign contributions. He retired according to Christie. Did he work in Encinitas? If he’s such a local proponent why does nobody but a select handful of people know who he even is.
Eleanor is being misleading. She starts her opinion by talking about “individual” donors but quickly pivots to analyzing Political Action Committee (PAC) donations to mislead voters.
What’s funny is if she, Destiny, or even Allison spent any time in Leucadia, they’d likely know Andrew. He’s a huge supporter of the local businesses in the neighborhood where he lives.
What Eleanor hopes you won’t notice are the HUGE donations flooding into the PACs supporting her preferred candidates, including Mayor Kranz. And guess who those donors are? Developers! Lots of them, including Baldwin & Sons. That’s what voters should really be paying attention to!
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