By David Rolland
In the final push for money in the campaign for county supervisor, candidate Steve Kinsey has pulled further ahead of opponent Dotty LeMieux.
As of the reporting period ending Oct. 19, Kinsey had accumulated $142,246 while LeMieux had collected $106,515. Kinsey has outspent LeMieux by $118,823 to $81,043.
Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 19, Kinsey received $26,114, with retiring Supervisor Gary Giacomini providing the biggest financial boost, a $4,000 check from his Giacomini Seashore Political Action Committee.
Giacomini told The Light Tuesday that since Oct. 19, he has handed Kinsey another $2,000. In all, the PAC has donated $8,000 to the Kinsey effort. "If I could give him more, I would," he said.
Meanwhile, LeMieux in recent weeks has collected $17,508. Her most generous donor of late, as she has been throughout Dotty's two attempts to gain Giacomini's seat, has been close friend Ginny Davis.
Within the last reporting period, Davis gave LeMieux $2,000, bringing the total contributions given by Davis and her husband Dick, a stockbroker, to slightly more than $15,000. The Davises have homes in Nicasio and San Francisco.
Kinsey, who's been labeled a pawn of developers by the LeMieux campaign because he has accepted money from the building trades, said he wonders what kind of influence the Davises would have in exchange for $15,000 if LeMieux is elected.
The Davises, LeMieux has told The Light, care deeply about criminal-justice issues and became strong supporters when LeMieux was battling efforts to expand San Quentin Prison and build a new county jail.
LeMieux and some of her supporters have tried to make an issue of gifts Kinsey has accepted from Giacomini's PAC. She said last week that some contributors to the PAC - namely dump owner Leroy Martinelli and some Buck Center on Aging directors - were somewhat "interesting." LeMieux accused Giacomini of trying to handpick his successor in the name of protecting the California coastline.
So, what's the big deal? asked Giacomini this week. "Who better to decide who the best qualified person is to take on my legacy?" he asked rhetorically.
Giacomini said his Seashore PAC was formed to raise money for local and statewide candidates who will fight hard to keep development off the coast. He said Kinsey is his man in Marin.
LeMieux said people give money "in good faith for coastal protection up and down the coast," and "the bulk of the money has gone to one local, Marin candidate."
Literature about the Seashore PAC's goals states that it "is dedicated to take any and all appropriate steps to advance the goal of coastal protection. It will lobby on a bipartisan basis to help protect coastal lands in perpetuity. It will make significant political contributions to help elect local and state candidates who share these goals."
Giacomini also told potential donors 14 state Senate and Assembly races were being targeted in hopes of that regaining Democratic control of both houses.
Most importantly, he said Tuesday, "we're trying to take the state Assembly from [Speaker Curt] Pringle and the Republicans." Doing so, he added, would secure Democratic appointments to eight of the 12 seats on the state Coastal Commission.
The Republicans this year mounted an unsuccessful attempt to fire Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas of Inverness Park, a staunch environmentalist, and have vowed to try again.
"If we don't [win the Assembly]," Giacomini said, "they'll fire Douglas the week after [the election]."
LeMieux said she fully supports that goal, but she questioned the disproportionate amount of PAC money going to a local supervisor race. Giacomini said that come election day, Kinsey will have received about 20 percent of the PAC's contributions.
Giacomini responded that another one of his goals, also mentioned in his PAC literature, is to add 38,000 acres on the east shore of Tomales Bay to the Point Reyes National Seashore, and he believes Kinsey will do better than LeMieux selling the legislation to Congress.
"You do not advance bills by throwing rocks [and saying] Republicans are a bunch of f**kheads," he said. "Steve can be that bridge."
The supervisor said he would return any money donated by someone who disapproves of the contributions to Kinsey. He said thus far no one has complained.
LeMieux claimed to know of at least one person who wrote to Giacomini complaining about just that.
For his part, Kinsey said last week he has no problems accepting money from the Seashore PAC and, in fact, he is honored to be considered a prospective champion of coastal protection.
Here are the names of the largest contributors to LeMieux and Kinsey in the early weeks of October:
Eric Shapiro, a Buck Center critic, $500; organic produce grower Warren Weber of Bolinas, $500; Rosalie Webb, a Novato property manager, $399; Nurses Union Local 535, $300.
Elissa Englert, a Forest Knolls photographer, $735; James Kimo Campbell, a Kentfield investor, $500; First Republic Thrift and Loan, $500; John Jones, Bolinas Surf Shop owner, $500; Maggiore and Ghilotti construction, $500; Deputy Sheriffs Association PAC, $500.