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Re: SMART and Measure Q - Contributors
Author: Jason
Date: 11-01-2008 - 22:47
SMART supporters raise $500,000
Opponents of Measure Q say their $90,000 is enough to defeat train
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 4:12 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 4:12 a.m.
The campaign for a Sonoma-Marin commuter train raised nearly $500,000 this year, more than five times the amount collected by opponents of the proposed 70-mile SMART train.
Donations of $10,000 to $30,000 from about a dozen business or business groups -- including the California Association of Realtors, Kaiser Permanente and Northbay Corp. -- accounted for about one-third of the $499,878 in contributions to the North Bay Transportation Alliance, the group supporting Measure Q.
The measure needs two-thirds approval Tuesday from voters in Sonoma and Marin counties to enact a quarter-cent sales tax to fund the rail line from Cloverdale to Larkspur.
"We are doing everything we can to reach the voters," said Cynthia Murray, co-chairwoman of the alliance backing the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit project, known as SMART.
The pro-SMART campaign has mailed four fliers to voters and has volunteers walking the streets in the larger cities, including Santa Rosa, Windsor, Novato and San Rafael, Murray said.
Two years ago, the rail campaign raised about $332,000 and lost.
North Bay Citizens for Effective Transportation, campaigning against the rail tax, lags far behind financially with $90,719 in contributions this year, according to campaign finance statements.
More than half of the group's campaign cash came from San Rafael resident Peter Palmer, who donated $50,000. Caicos Investments of Wil-lits gave $20,000.
Mike Arnold, an opposition leader, said he was unfazed by the cash disparity. His group beat SMART two years ago with just $35,000, and raised 2½ times more money this year, he said.
SMART narrowly lost in 2006, with about 65 percent of the two-county vote, just 1.4 percent short of the required two-thirds mark. Sonoma County voters gave the train 70 percent approval, but a 57.5 percent assent in Marin stopped the tax.
Arnold said that in 2006, his group could only afford to send fliers to Marin households, and that Sonoma voters "didn't hear anything negative about the train."
The group sent mailers to both counties this year, he said.
And they got the extra cash because of SMART's own action, Arnold said. SMART filed a suit in August contending that some ballot measure arguments by the anti-rail group were misleading, and a judge agreed Sept. 2.
Parker, who had given $10,000 to the Marin group in 2006, was annoyed by the verdict and asked the group, "How much do you need?" Arnold said.
Parker contributed $50,000 in two payments on Sept. 18 and 24, according to the financial reports.
Arnold contends that the recession, with fears of job losses and mortgage foreclosures, will discourage voters from approving a sales tax.
The impact hits harder in Sonoma, he said, because it has a greater concentration of construction and service industry jobs than Marin.
Murray said the rail system will create jobs and pump millions of dollars into the local economy. "It's our own local economic stimulus package," she said.
During the Great Depression, she noted, the Golden Gate Bridge was built.
Opponents of Measure Q say their $90,000 is enough to defeat train
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 4:12 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 4:12 a.m.
The campaign for a Sonoma-Marin commuter train raised nearly $500,000 this year, more than five times the amount collected by opponents of the proposed 70-mile SMART train.
Donations of $10,000 to $30,000 from about a dozen business or business groups -- including the California Association of Realtors, Kaiser Permanente and Northbay Corp. -- accounted for about one-third of the $499,878 in contributions to the North Bay Transportation Alliance, the group supporting Measure Q.
The measure needs two-thirds approval Tuesday from voters in Sonoma and Marin counties to enact a quarter-cent sales tax to fund the rail line from Cloverdale to Larkspur.
"We are doing everything we can to reach the voters," said Cynthia Murray, co-chairwoman of the alliance backing the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit project, known as SMART.
The pro-SMART campaign has mailed four fliers to voters and has volunteers walking the streets in the larger cities, including Santa Rosa, Windsor, Novato and San Rafael, Murray said.
Two years ago, the rail campaign raised about $332,000 and lost.
North Bay Citizens for Effective Transportation, campaigning against the rail tax, lags far behind financially with $90,719 in contributions this year, according to campaign finance statements.
More than half of the group's campaign cash came from San Rafael resident Peter Palmer, who donated $50,000. Caicos Investments of Wil-lits gave $20,000.
Mike Arnold, an opposition leader, said he was unfazed by the cash disparity. His group beat SMART two years ago with just $35,000, and raised 2½ times more money this year, he said.
SMART narrowly lost in 2006, with about 65 percent of the two-county vote, just 1.4 percent short of the required two-thirds mark. Sonoma County voters gave the train 70 percent approval, but a 57.5 percent assent in Marin stopped the tax.
Arnold said that in 2006, his group could only afford to send fliers to Marin households, and that Sonoma voters "didn't hear anything negative about the train."
The group sent mailers to both counties this year, he said.
And they got the extra cash because of SMART's own action, Arnold said. SMART filed a suit in August contending that some ballot measure arguments by the anti-rail group were misleading, and a judge agreed Sept. 2.
Parker, who had given $10,000 to the Marin group in 2006, was annoyed by the verdict and asked the group, "How much do you need?" Arnold said.
Parker contributed $50,000 in two payments on Sept. 18 and 24, according to the financial reports.
Arnold contends that the recession, with fears of job losses and mortgage foreclosures, will discourage voters from approving a sales tax.
The impact hits harder in Sonoma, he said, because it has a greater concentration of construction and service industry jobs than Marin.
Murray said the rail system will create jobs and pump millions of dollars into the local economy. "It's our own local economic stimulus package," she said.
During the Great Depression, she noted, the Golden Gate Bridge was built.
