Three candidates vying for the one competitive Manteca City Council seat have amassed $56,482 in funding for their campaigns as of Thursday.

That reflects $33,133 for Regina Lackey and $23,509 for Judith Blumhorst who are seeking the Area 2 seat.

The third candidate — Gabriel Galletta — has apparently not raised enough donations to trigger the Fair Political Practices Commission’s campaign contribution filing requirement.

If $56,482 seems like a lot of money for one competitive Manteca election, it is not.

So far on a per competitive race average — more contributions will likely be accepted by before Nov. 5  — the council race is only the third most expensive in Manteca history.

Topping the list was 2020 when two open seats prompted overall campaign contributions of $118,599, or an average of $59,299 per race.

Second was 2018 when there were three citywide races that generated $175,931 in contributions or an average of $58,643 per seat.

No. 4 was 2014. There was $123,359 in contributions for three races with an average of $41,196 per race.

Another $3,000 in donations in this year’s race would vault it to the top of the most expensive campaigns.

It’s an ironic development given a consultant working with the city during the process of switching to area elections in December of 2021 said it would likely make running for office less expensive.

That was based on voter data from that year that had 45,000 registered voters citywide.

The four area seats created at the time had 11,700 registered voters on average. The mayor is still elected citywide.

The idea that having 75 percent less voters to target with area elections would lower the financial barrier to running is looking like wishful thinking.

As of now, the cost for campaigning per voter has skyrocketed.

That may be due to inflation, the costs of being more narrowly focused with texts, calls, and mailers, or a combination thereof.

The bottom line is area elections do not appear to be cheaper.

The primary premise the state had in essentially pushing local jurisdictions to jettison citywide elections was to enhance the odds minorities would be elected to better reflect the ethnic makeup of communities.

In Manteca’s case, the opposite had happened.

The council, at the time the decision to go to area elections was made, had individuals serving that mirrored the community’s ethnic makeup.

Based on the 2020 census, 41 percent of Manteca’s population is Hispanic, 35 percent non-Hispanic white, 15 percent Asian-American and 5 percent Black.  

The council at the time essentially reflected the ethnicity makeup with Ben Cantu and Jose Nuño being Hispanic accounting for 40 percent of  the council composition and 41 percent of the population, Charlie Halford and Dave Breitenbucher being white account for 40 percent of the council composition, and 35 percent of the population, and Gary Singh being Indian that is lumped with Asian American accounting for 20 percent of the council composition and 15 percent of the pollution.

There are currently three Caucasians on the council, one Hispanic, and one Indian/Asian American.

What did happen was what the council hoped would happen. All areas of the city would be represented on the council.

Prior to 2018, three Manteca council members — Richard Silverman, Gary Singh and Debby Moorhead — literally lived within a matter of blocks of  each in areas near Woodward Park.

Area 2 includes Woodward Park that is part of Manteca south and east of the 120 Bypass and Union Road as well as the city east of Highway 99 except for The Collective neighborhood.

Latest contributions

Both Blumhorst and Lackey received one donation of $1,000 or more during the most recent reporting period.

Blumhorst’s was $1,000 from the Harry Truman Club of San Joaquim.

Lackey received $1,500 from Operating Engineers 3.

Blumhorst’s previous donations included only one in excess of $1,000.

That was $2,000 from Delicato Vineyards.

Lackey’s previous donations were:

*$5,500 from the Building Industry Association of the Great Valley PAC.

*$1,000 from former Councilman Richard Silverman who was running but dropped out and backed Lackey when she filed papers.

*$1,000 from retired builder George Gibson who built homes in Manteca under the name Frontiers.

*$1,000 from Brocchini Farms of Ripon.
*$1,000 from the Big Valley Fund PAC out of Fresno.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com