In the last three months, 3rd District supervisorial candidates Bruce Porter and Joan Hartmann both raised about $150,000. As of 9/24, Hartmann had $73,891 cash on hand; Porter has $53,620. But the cash amounts do not include the $33,500 Porter has raised since, including large checks from seven people (among them developer Michael Towbes and vineyard owner Kevin Gleason) and $15,000 from the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association (which has donated $40,000 total). In the past week, Hartmann received $1,500 in reportable contributions from the electrical workers union.
Hartmann has received big bucks from two chapters of labor union SEIU ($70,000), billionaire Peter Sperling ($10,000), Assemblymember Das Williams ($23,000), and freeway-widening opponent Ron Pulice ($5,000). Big donors for Porter include Solvang resident Lee Rosenberg ($40,345), former supervisor Brooks Firestone ($23,000), and pro-business group Buellton First ($20,700). As for in-kind donations, Porter received $16,500 for polling results paid for by oil companies (which pledged $60,000 total) whereas Hartmann received $15,423 from a group that in 2014 funded Measure P, the failed ban on unconventional oil drilling in Santa Barbara County.