Thier widens fundraising gap, raising $63,000 in Tiburon Town Council race

Vice Mayor Holli Thier has raised nearly $14,000 since mid-September toward her Town Council bid, widening her fundraising lead over the other three candidates vying for two seats on the board ahead of next week’s election.

In total, Thier has raised $63,000 as of Oct. 19, with the $13,750 raised between Sept. 22 and Oct. 19 bolstering previous donations of about $49,550 raised between July 1 and Sept. 21.

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Her total fundraising is some 2½ times that of all her opponents combined, with Parks, Open Space and Trails Commission chair and challenger Chuck Hornbrook raising $4,547 in the most recent period, for a total of $6,731 since July 1; former Tiburon mayor and current challenger Andrew Thompson raising $3,648 in the past month and $12,140 since July 1; and incumbent Councilmember Isaac Nikfar raising $2,000 from Sept. 22 to Oct. 19, for a total of $5,750 between July 1 and Oct. 19, which does not include a $2,000 donation he received Oct. 24, after the second-disclosure period ended.

The California Fair Political Practices Commission requires two pre-election campaign-finance disclosures for candidates who expect to raise or spend more than $2,000. The second disclosure, which was due Oct. 24, covers Sept. 22-Oct. 19, while the first disclosure, due Sept. 26, covered July 1-Sept. 21; Nikfar missed the initial Sept. 26 reporting deadline before eventually filing on Oct. 8.

Thier has also spent more than the combined $24,621 her opponents have raised between July 1 and Oct. 19.

She shelled out some $19,672 in the most recent filing period, for a total of $30,169 since July 1. By comparison, Hornbrook spent $5,155 between Sept. 22 and Oct. 19, for a total of $8,020, over both filing periods; Thompson spent about $4,860, for a total of $7,374 across both periods; and Nikfar has accrued some $7,296 in expenses, according to the most recent disclosure.

Nearly 87% of the money Thier raised in the most recent period came from political-action committees, many of them representing unions, and other political organizations. Donations include $4,000 from Amalgamated Transit Union’s California conference board; $3,000 from the National Union of Healthcare Workers; $1,500 from the Amalgamated Transit Union’s national chapter in Silver Springs, Maryland; $1,000 each from Concord-based Operating Engineers Local 3, the Nor Cal Carpenters Union’s regional council and Theatrical Stage Employees Local 16, the San Francisco chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees; $250 from the Marin Democratic Central Committee; and $200 from the Marin Women’s Political Action Committee.

Donations made by Tiburon Peninsula residents include $250 from Belvedere resident Steve Silberstein, $200 from Tiburon resident Jerry Riessen, who is listed as Thier’s campaign treasurer, and $100 each from peninsula residents Jon Rankin, Michael Jacobs and Monica Mazzei.

Thier also received $600 this period in nonmonetary contributions from Cinelounge in the form of advertising.

In this recent round of spending, Thier spent about $8,634 on campaign literature across three providers, $5,000 on professional services, $3,000 on campaign paraphernalia, $2,300 on campaign consultants and $738 in ads published in The Ark. She has $5,000 accrued in unpaid bills for professional services.

Thier’s most recent filings appeared to have a couple of clerical errors, including omitting $2,575 in nonmonetary expenditures she previously reported in the first filing, as well as listing her expenditures from her first filing period. She also wrote her second-period spending total as the total-spending total in her disclosure.

In a text message, Thier said she planned to examine those errors and file any amendments to fix them, if necessary.

Thompson’s fundraising in the most recent period included $1,000 from his cousin J. Allan Hall of Indianapolis; $500 each from Tiburon resident and venture capitalist Akli Adjaoute, San Rafael resident and real-estate manager and developer Jack Krystal and psychologist Willits Sawyer of Cambridge, Massachusetts; $200 from Fairfax accountant Kathleen Sky; $150 from Tiburon financial adviser William Osher; and $100 each from Tiburon residents Stone Coxhead, Jon Rankin, Michael O’Donnell, William Chow and Gary Spratling. He received $298 in donations that were less than $100 each, the threshold for listing who donates to campaigns.

A clerical error showed Thompson had received $25 less than indicated on the submitted disclosure, and Thompson listed a post office box in his disclosure as the campaign committee’s address, which isn’t allowed on the form. The Ark contacted Thompson about it, and Thompson’s campaign treasurer, Colin Crawford, later included The Ark in an email to Town Clerk Lea Dilena, sending a corrected disclosure without the P.O. box for the committee address and writing that he forgot to include a $25 donation in the original disclosure.

Thompson paid $2,878 in the Sept. 22-Oct. 19 period to run ads in The Ark, $1,000 to a campaign consultant, about $715 in costs related to his print ads and $135 in web-related costs. He also spent about $131 in expenditures of less than $100 each, which are not required to be itemized in campaign-finance reports.

Hornbrook donated $2,000 to his own campaign Sept. 25, adding to the $500 he donated in the first filing period. He received $1,000 from both Tiburon real-estate agent Scott Woods and Sam’s Anchor Cafe, which counts Tiburon resident Conor Flaherty as a principal owner; $250 from Tiburon Design Review Board Vice Chair Alex Rosner; and $198 from Tiburon resident Brian Pokorny. Hornbrook also received $99 in unitemized contributions.

He spent roughly $1,479 on campaign literature and mailings, $1,274 on ads published in The Ark, roughly $1,143 on yard signage, $820 on postage, $82 on email marketing, $142 for his campaign website, about $128 in campaigning materials and $82 on email marketing. Expenditures under $100 each totaled $86.85.

Hornbrook had accrued $1,122 in unpaid expenses to The Ark for newspaper ads, $600 for election translation services and $160 accrued for email marketing as of Oct. 19.

Hornbrook in his campaign filing also had a clerical error by not including a nonmonetary expenditure worth $600 from last filing period in overall spending. He said in a phone interview he’d fix the error, later forwarding The Ark an email he sent to Dilena with the correction.

Among the contributions listed by Nikfar in his second finance filing are $1,000 from Mill Valley resident John Hoffman, the chief growth officer at Sonoma-based A&C Ventures, which owns several downtown buildings as ACV Argo Tiburon LP; and $1,000 from Sam’s Anchor Cafe. He also received $2,000 from A&C Ventures on Oct. 24, after the second-disclosure period.

He has accrued nearly $6,110 in unpaid expenses for a campaign consultant and $1,186 in unpaid expenses to The Ark for print ads.

Nikfar’s first report, which was not available by The Ark’s Oct. 7 press deadline for initial campaign-finance coverage published Oct. 9, lists contributions of $2,000 from Zelinsky Properties, $1,500 from Marin Professional Firefighters Local 1775’s political-action committee and $250 from the Marin Democratic Central Committee. He listed no expenditures.

Reach Tiburon reporter Francisco Martinez at 415-944-4634. DONATE to support local journalism, or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery and access to the digital replica.

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