As wards were redrawn recently, and longtime council member Jenny Brekhus is being termed out, a crucial, unpredictable primary is taking place currently for our new Ward 1, now encompassing downtown, much of 4th street, UNR, parts of University Ridge, and the Spaghetti Bowl.
Contribution and expenses reports for the January to March 2024 period show a casino and developer backed non elected incumbent currently in a different ward receiving and spending much more than her opponents, a candidate favored by the local Latino political machinery getting money from a controversial charter school company and a people’s champion candidate getting dozens and dozens of individual contributions.
The Ward 5 selected councilwoman now running in an election Kathleen Taylor has received $42,327 in January through March contributions, while spending a whopping $49,507. As we previously reported, she received over $100,000 in contributions last year, filling up her coffers to stay on Council.
Notable recent contributions for Taylor come from the casino affiliated, from “Circus an Eldorado Joint Venture” ($5,000), Cindy Carano ($250), and Cal Neva ($1,000), the developer realm, including S3 Development ($1,000), mortgage lender Alpen Mortgage ($1,500), marketing company Nevada Trip Partners ($2,500), and the Builders Association of Northern Nevada ($2,500), the Kaempfer Crowell law firm ($2,500), NV Energy ($1,500) and Savage and Son ($1,000).
Taylor’s spending has gone mostly to Dietz Media and Marketing, Las Vegas based G8 Political LLC, Tom Clark Solutions and Tiffany East PR, who always does well come campaign season.
There’s also a $562 charge to Samsung and a $500 one to Stripe and $40 to the City of Reno.
One of her two opponents Frank Perez, a former chair of the Washoe County Library Board, raised $22,457 while spending $15,897. A big check for him came from the controversial for profit charter school education company Academica Nevada ($2,500), while another big chunk of change came from IUOE Stationary Engineers Local 39 Nevada Voice ($5,000). He’s spent most of his money with Google, Changing Dynamics Political Consulting, Stripe, ActBlue, Reno Type, USPS, Southwest Airlines, Tissot Solutions, Señor Tequila’s Mexican Kitchen and Cantina, Mari Chuy’s and Costco.
There’s also 12 small charges of $15 and less at Cafe con Papi.
Lily Baran, meanwhile, a champion of progressive causes, has received $10,025 while spending $4,180.
Her contributions come entirely from individual donors, over 100 of them, many of them familiar in advocate circles and from public comment speakers at the city and county level.
Her spending has gone notably to Darren Archembault ($600) (correct spelling should be Darren Archambault) and several other individuals.
Each candidate has misspellings for some donors or recipients and several companies use different names in their contributions, which can make these campaign financial disclosures less clear cut sometimes in terms of figuring out who is getting and who is giving out lots of money during local campaigns. Still for Ward 1, the lines are clear. It remains to be seen who will have the winning formula in what we see as a very competitive race.