BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Planning Commissioner Doria Summa had a strong month of fundraising, catching up to some of the more pro-development candidates in the race for Palo Alto City Council, campaign finance forms show.
Summa raised $17,844 between Sept. 22 and Oct. 19, bringing her total fundraising to $40,699, she reported. That’s the third most in Palo Alto.
Planning Commissioner George Lu continues to set the pace with $60,651 in donations, including $10,693 in the last month.
Human Relations Commissioner Katie Causey is in second with $46,077, including $9,525 in the last month. Parks Commissioner Anne Cribbs has raised $34,242, and Councilman Pat Burt has raised $30,779.
They’re followed by Planning Commissioner Cari Templeton with $25,254, Mayor Greer Stone with $23,313 and Planning Commissioner Keith Reckdahl with $21,057.
The candidates generally fall into two camps, donations show.
The incumbents — Stone and Burt — are more aligned with Reckdahl and Summa. They’ve donated to each other’s campaigns and are backed by Vice Mayor Ed Lauing and many of the same residents.
Lu, Causey, Cribbs and Templeton are more in favor of streamlining development, and they’d generally support taller and denser housing projects than council currently allows.
Assemblyman Marc Berman gave $500 each to Lu, Causey, Templeton and Cribbs, campaign finance forms show.
The National Association of Realtors is buying online ads supporting Cribbs, Templeton and Lu. The association, based in Chicago, disclosed the $12,542 ad buy in a campaign finance report published on Oct. 11.
“They’re supporting me because I support housing for everybody,” Cribbs said on a phone call at the time.
Summa’s biggest donors are Len Baker, a partner at Sutter Hill Ventures, and Robert Phillips, a retired founder of a financial tech company called Nomis Solutions. They both gave her campaign $5,000 on Oct. 7, campaign finance forms show. Lu’s largest donor is economist Stephen Levy, who gave $2,950.
East Palo Alto mayor Antonio Lopez donated $2,341 to Causey, campaign finance forms show.
The city hadn’t published any fundraising paperwork for senior advocate Henry Etzkowitz yesterday.
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