With only one day left before Election Day, Santa Barbara mayoral candidate and city councilmember Eric Friedman enjoys a decisive advantage when it comes to campaign fundraising, having raised $275,000 for his own campaign.
Although Friedman received many donations from downtown real estate interests, real estate and business interests created two separate independent expenditure committees on Friedman’s behalf into which they’ve funneled another $105,000. One of those committees — Better Santa Barbara for Eric Friedman — is a creature of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce and has spent $55,000 on Friedman’s behalf on mailers extolling his civic virtues and others lambasting Friedman’s chief rival in the race, fellow councilmember Kristen Sneddon. In addition, the National Association of Realtors — headquartered out of Chicago — spent $50,000 to help Friedman get elected.
Sneddon, by contrast, had raised $115,460 as of October 17, and has reported collecting another $1,600 since then, $1,500 of which comes from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Wendy Sims-Moten, a former school boardmember, is also running for mayor and has raised $7,825 but only very late in the campaign…