Update: This story has been updated to include independent expenditures by East Bay Working families made in support of both Jimenez and Robinson’s campaigns.
Campaign finance records released last week show that three of the five mayoral candidates have accepted contributions from businesses that are under contract with the city or its housing authority: Ahmad Anderson, Demnlus Johnson and incumbent Eduardo Martinez.
While some California cities, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, limit candidates from accepting such donations there isn’t a law in Richmond prohibiting it.
Candidates are legally required to report donations of $1,000 to $2,500 within 24 hours of receiving them. They are also required to file records showing all contributions by certain dates during elections, and the first reporting deadline was Thursday. The reporting requirement is to give the public insight into who is financially supporting which candidates and is a clue as to where those candidates may be seeking funding.
Richmond is holding its first primary election June 2 after voters in 2024 approved a ballot measure bankrolled by the Richmond Police Officers Association (RPOA) and the city’s local trades unions.
In March, Martinez received $1,000 from Pinole resident Mary Wika, CEO of Bay Hawk Inc., a general engineering contracting company. In November, Bay Hawk entered into a two-year $275,200 contract with the Richmond Housing Authority, which the Richmond City Council oversees, to do paving, sidewalk and walkway restoration work. Martinez voted in favor of the contract.
Martinez’s acceptance of Wika’s donation appears to violate the Levine Act, a state law limiting practices often referred to as pay-to-play. The law bans elected officials from receiving contributions of more than $500 within 12 months (both before and after) entering into an agreement with a contractor valued at $50,000 or above.
Martinez told Richmondside that he wasn’t aware he accepted a contribution from the CEO of a business that had recently contracted with the city, and was unaware of the Levine Act. While the law only requires Martinez to return $500 of the contribution, he said Monday he’d return all of it.
“I’ll have to contact my treasurer to let him know so we can return the money,” Martinez said in an interview. “I’m going to return the entire amount.”
Also in March, Anderson and Johnson both received contributions from Davillier-Sloan Inc., an Oakland-based management consulting firm that regularly contracts with cities, counties, and districts statewide on labor negotiation matters for construction projects. The company gave Ahmad $1,100; Johnson received $1,000. The company’s expertise, it says, is in reaching deals with labor unions that prohibit strikes and maximize local hiring. Last year, the city of Richmond approved a one-year contract with Davillier-Sloan Inc. that is valued at $50,000 and expires at the end of May.
While the Levine Act does not ban candidates from accepting contributions from city contractors, the act could require Anderson or Johnson to recuse themselves from votes involving the firm during the first few months of their tenure if either of them become mayor. The Levine Act bans candidates from voting on matters involving “license, permit or other entitlements” for companies from which they accepted contributions of more than $500 within 12 months of the acceptance.
Richmondside reached out to both Anderson and Johnson for comment prior to publication, with Anderson declining and Johnson not responding.
Mayoral candidate Ahmad Anderson leads over Claudia Jimenez in campaign fundraising
Anderson has raised the most among the five mayoral candidates, roughly $40,500, followed by RPA-endorsed candidate Claudia Jimenez.
Anderson has contributed about $1,100 to his own campaign. About 25% of his contributions, $10,000 in total, came from four donors who each made the maximum contribution. The Richmond police union donated $2,500 in March, as did California State Assembly Member Buffy Wicks. Anderson’s son, Brandon Anderson, contributed $2,500 last year.
James Lee, the former executive director of Richmond’s Chamber of Commerce, also contributed $2,500 last year.
Lee, along with Anderson, are listed as principal founders of Richmond Business PAC (RichPAC). RichPAC is a political action committee that did not file campaign finance reports during the 2024 elections for expenditures it made supporting three city council candidates, including Anderson. At the time, a lawyer told Richmondside that the committee’s decision to support Anderson while Anderson was listed as a principal of RichPAC violated the law.
Cynthia Marshal, who grew up in Richmond and has since moved to Dallas, where she served as the CEO of the Dallas Mavericks from 2018 to 2024, contributed $2,000 to Anderson last year.
In addition to Davilliar-Sloan’s recent contribution, Anderson also received $1,000 each from six people: Former Richmond Mayor Tom Butt; his son, former Richmond planning commissioner Andrew Butt; and Laniece Jones, Joel Young, Carl Adams, and Fred Besana.
Jones, an Oakland resident, regularly contributes to Democratic candidates in California state elections and is a staff member for Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee.
Young also lives in Oakland. He’s a lawyer who has been the at-large director on the AC Transit Board since 2009.
Adams is a Richmond businessman who manages a trust that owns at least 11 properties in Richmond and San Pablo. Besana is listed as living in Sacramento.
As of the filing deadline, Jimenez reported about $31,000 in monetary contributions and an additional $2,000 in non-monetary contributions through April 18. At the deadline, she previously reported no expenditures during the period but on Monday she amended her filing to note that she spent just under $17,000 during the period.
Her campaign has received a number of endorsements from local labor unions.
The United Teachers of Richmond (UTR) Political Action Fund (PAC) contributed $2,500 as did the Livermore-based Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 104 PAC and the Richmond firefighters union and their Local 188 International Association of Firefighters PAC.
Other notable large donations also came from progressives affiliated with the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), indicating the group is firmly behind its endorsed candidate.
Jimenez received a number of $2,500 donations that included: Johanna Parker, daughter of longtime RPA strategist Mike Parker, and Joseph Puleo, Kathleen Wimer and Steve Early. She also received $2,500 from T.M. Scruggs, an anthromusicologist and musician who lives in Berkeley and previously taught at the University of Iowa. Scruggs is listed as the principal funder and founder of the Quitiplas Foundation — a Delaware-based organization that has previously funded organizations like Jewish Voices for Peace, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace.
Kenneth Paff, a Richmond labor organizer with Teamsters Rank and File, donated $1,000 during the reporting period but has donated $2,000 across two contribution periods for the primary time period. Similarly, Leigh Lyndon, a Berkeley therapist, gave a combined $1,050 across two contributions.
Another contribution of note, $2,500, came from Rebecca Vasquez, owner of the Holistic Healing Collective dispensary located in the Vista del Mar Village Shopping Center along the Richmond Parkway.
Vasquez was one of a handful of Richmond dispensary owners who were named in the nation’s first cannabis antitrust lawsuit. She eventually settled out of court just before the case went to trial. Later a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff, John Valdez, awarding him $15 million.
Jimenez also reported a $2,000 non-monetary contribution from Diana Wear of Richmond, listed as payment for speech coaching.
She also spent approximately $5,500 for mailing services, $3,000 for a candidate filing fee and $2,800 for campaign literature. Additionally, Jimenez reported paying the Richmond Progressive Alliance $850 for office supplies.
Additionally, East Bay Working Families, a tax-exempt political advocacy group, spent $4,000 supporting Jimenez’s campaign with video production, according to an April 9 independent expenditure filing.
Independent expenditures are classified as expenses for a communication that advocates for or against a candidate which is not made in coordination with any candidate or their campaign.
According to the group’s website, its top funder is SEIU Local 1021. In a 2021 filing, it listed Sandy Saeteurn, Contra Costa County political director of Asia Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), as its principal officer.
Mayoral candidates Johnson, Martinez and Wassberg raise significantly less
Johnson has raised about $7,500 from 19 donors. In addition to the $1,000 contribution from Davillier-Sloan Inc., he also received $1,000 from a garbage worker who lives in Pittsburg named Kelvin Jones, and $400 from Richmond resident Wade Taylor. On Thursday, Johnson also received a $2,500 donation from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 Political Action Committee.
The other 15 contributions are for $250 or less. One of these contributors was Mark Bennett, a resident of Suisun City who works as a financial planner for Chevron.
In addition to the $5,000 in contributions, Johnson has lent his own campaign about $2,350. According to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, candidates in California can lend themselves money and reimburse themselves with contributions.
Johnson has about $1,000 left in his campaign account after spending about $6,350, with his biggest expenses being $3,021 on a filing fee to run for office, and $1,900 on political consultation from Axial Media & Communications.
Martinez, who lost the RPA endorsement to Jimenez, has raised about $6,000, but he’ll only have raised about $5,000 if he returns his donation from Wika. Roughly $2,300 of his dollars came funds he had left over from his successful 2018 city council run and 2022 mayoral campaign. The remaining funds came from a dozen donors, plus $175 in small donations of $99 or less.
He received $1,000 from the Black Men and Women of Richmond PAC which lists former council member and Mayor Nat Bates as its treasurer, according to its most recent filing in February. That committee has received a number of contributions in recent years including $1,600 from Chevron in Aug. 2024 and $1,400 from Rodeo’s Phillips 66 in 2022. It previously donated $500 to both Anderson’s District 5 campaign and District 1 council member Jamelia Brown’s campaign in 2024.
Martinez so far has only reported spending a little less than $700 on filing fees and web services.
Mark Wassberg, who has run in a number of mayoral and district races in the past decade and has not historically received donations, did not report any contributions during this filing period. Candidates are required to file only if they raise or spend $2,000 or more during a calendar year “in connection with election to office or holding office,” according to the FPPC.
City council incumbent Doria Robinson leads fundraising in district races, but two candidates didn’t file reports
The June primary also features two city council races in Districts 3 and 4. (District 2 incumbent Cesar Zepeda is running unopposed.)
In District 3, which consists of portions of the southside, Doria Robinson reported raising the most among the candidates, just over $19,000, with a large contribution from labor union PACs, including a $2,500 donation from United Teachers of Richmond (UTR) and $2,000 from Kenneth Paff, a labor organizer with the Teamsters Rank and File, who also donated to Jimenez’s campaign. She spent just over $8,000 during the period, paying campaign consultants and for printing costs.
Robinson’s individual donations, similarly to Jimenez, also came from members of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, which endorsed her alongside Jimenez. Puleo and Marilyn Langlois have both, so far in the primary election period, donated $1,500 each to Robinson’s campaign while T.M. Scruggs also donated $2,500, equaling the amount he donated to Jimenez’s campaign.
Also similarly to Jimenez, East Bay Working Families spent $2,500 to support Robinson’s campaign with video production, according to an April 9 independent expenditure filings from the political advocacy group.
Robinson’s District 3 opponent, Brandon Evans, filed his Form 460 on Friday, a day after the deadline. Evans reported around $6,000 in contributions and $600 in non-cash services.
Evan’s biggest donations have been a $2,500 contribution from RIN Investments Corp, a Tracy-based business entity that owns and operates a number of liquor stores in the East Bay, including the Stop and Save shop at 1501 Cutting Blvd., which sits in District 3, and a $2,500 donation from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 Political Action Committee.
He also contributed $1,140 to his own campaign in two self-donations, according to the filing. His non-cash contributions included services from two Richmond restaurants, Soulfully Dope Kitchen and CJ’s BBQ and Fish, who donated event catering.
Evans spent just under $3,500 during the period which consisted of campaign materials and filing fees.
In District 4, incumbent Soheila Bana had not filed a financial disclosure report for the period as of early Monday afternoon, though she had received $2,500 from the RPOA on April 15 and $2,500 from the Richmond firefighters union PAC, according to filings from earlier this month.
Bana also recently published on her Facebook that she received a contribution and endorsement from the Black Men and Women PAC, though the amount is unknown since she has yet to file.
Bana’s opponent, Jamin Pursell, reported raising just over $9,000 and spending about $16,500 during the same period. His largest expenditures included $2,742 for signs, $2,400 for print advertising, and recurring payments totaling $6,400 to campaign consultant Nadine Argueza, a former RPA communications manager and city employee. His top contributors included $2,500 from Avery Pursell of Sherman Oaks and $2,500 each from Debra Beatty and Mitch Gravo, both of Seattle.
Now that Pursell has cut his ties with the RPA, he appears to be gaining some financial support from the police union. In a filing on Friday, the RPOA reported also donating $2,500 to Pursell’s campaign.
The third District 4 candidate, Keycha Gallon, had not filed Form 460 disclosures as of Friday afternoon, according to FPPC records.
The below comment was published on a Richmond Facebook group and it raised valid concerns and questions.
Is Richmondside going to publish anything about the East Bay Working Families PAC?
“East Bay Working Families is comprised of a coalition of unions and community groups that traditionally support RPA/aligned candidates.
They have a larger PAC (FPPC ID# 1482538) and a Richmond-specific PAC (FPPC ID# 1390351).
The Richmond-specific PAC appears to have operated in Richmond since 2018.
In 2020, they appear to have filed as a 501(c)(4).
Why?
The public cannot see the individual donors to a 501(c)(4) organization in California.
They are not required to disclose their donor list publicly OR to the government.
If the 501(c)(4) makes independent expenditures supporting or opposing California candidates, they must report that specific spending.
For PACs like this, the public also does not know who the members are each election cycle.
Only the major donor(s) is required to reveal their identity on campaign ads.
So who are the current community groups members: RPA (which also files as its own 501(c)(4), Reimagine Richmond, Richmond Our Power Coalition, EB-DSA, ACCE, APEN, and/or CBE? Who else?
And which unions besides SEIU 1021 and IFPTE 21 — IAFF 188, UTR, and/or CNA? Who else?
So far in 2026, they have spent $4K to support Claudia and $2.5K to support Doria on video production.
[The poster also noted in separate comments that per the FPPC, East Bay Working Families – Richmond PAC spent $28,965 between 1/1/2026 and 4/18/2026; and ended with $19,866.18 in cash. And the East Bay Working Families – Larger PAC had $42,882.12 in cash as of 1/23/2026.]
The RPA/aligned candidates want everyone to believe they take no corporate money for their campaigns, yet the RPA and UT have no problem taking hundreds of thousands of $ (Preston-Werner) or millions of $ (Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Sergey Brinn, Tom Steyer and others), respectively, from corporate billionaires via their foundations (e.g., Windward Fund).
And when the unions and “community groups” form a 501(c)(4) to shield their PAC’s donors & contributions, they truly can’t claim this “we’re holier than though” motto.
And they certainly cannot claim transparency. 501(c)(4)’s are the very definition of hiding donors and contributions.”