As San Diego City Council races heat up, here’s who’s raising and spending the most – San Diego Union-Tribune

Large campaign contributions could help swing the momentum in San Diego’s two most competitive City Council races — District 2 and District 8 — just days before voters receive their ballots for the June 2 primary.

New donation disclosures submitted this week also show incumbent Councilmember Henry Foster surging in fundraising in District 4, while incumbent Councilmember Kent Lee might face a stiffer challenge in District 6 than expected.

In the District 2 race, separate independent committees have recently donated $100,000 to Richard Bailey and $120,000 to Josh Coyne. In District 8, another independent committee has donated $100,000 to Gerardo Ramirez.

The new money seems likely to help Bailey and Coyne as they battle perceived frontrunner Nicole Crosby, who has far fewer resources but got key endorsements from organized labor and the county Democratic party.

Bailey, a former Republican who is no longer registered with a political party, has also raised nearly another $200,000 on his own since entering the race relatively late in mid-February. That’s far more than Coyne and Crosby, the two Democrats raising the most.

The independent committee supporting Bailey is funded by Point Loma attorney Steven Richter, who gave $1 million in 2024 in an unsuccessful effort to help mayoral candidate Larry Turner. The committee has $100,000.

The independent committee supporting Coyne is funded by Local 89 of the Laborers International Union of North America and by Assemblymember Chris Ward. It has $120,000.

Ramirez, a Democrat battling three other Democrats in District 8, seems poised to benefit from a statewide political action committee that launched a committee supporting his candidacy with a $100,000 donation.

Ramirez also outraised opponents Venus Molina, Rafael Perez and Antonio Martinez during the period covered by campaign disclosures submitted this week, Jan. 1 through April 18.

In that period, Ramirez raised just over $21,000, while Molina raised $12,000, Perez $11,000 and Martinez just under $10,000.

But because the other candidates started off the year with more money, they have more money left to spend. Martinez has $72,000, Molina has $48,000, Perez has $26,000 and Ramirez has $10,000.

Two separate independent committees are supporting Molina, but with far less money. A committee sponsored by Sycuan has $5,000, and a committee sponsored by a union representing the city’s blue-collar workers has $2,500.

The committee supporting Ramirez is sponsored by the Latino Caucus of California Counties, which describes itself as a bipartisan coalition of municipal, county Latino appointed and elected leaders.

In District 4, Foster has turned the tables on challenger Martha Abraham by dramatically out-raising her during the disclosure period, $64,434 to $10,300. A third candidate, Johnny Lee Dang, raised $1,850.

During the second half of last year, Abraham had more than doubled Foster’s $8,557 fundraising total with $19,506 in donations.

Foster has $74,000 in his campaign war chest, while Abraham has $15,000 and Dang has less than $200.

In District 6, Lee was out-raised during the disclosure period by lone challenger Mark Powell, $50,000 to $38,000. But Lee has $93,000 in his war chest, while Powell has only $22,000.

Barring a successful write-in candidate in the June primary, Lee and Powell will face each other in a November runoff.

The top two finishers in San Diego City Council primaries advance to November runoffs even if one candidate gets more than 50% of the votes in the primary.

In District 2, Crosby, Bailey and Coyne are fighting for those two spots along with Mandy Havlik, Jacob Mitchell, Paul Suppa and Michael Rickey.

Bailey raised $199,000 during the disclosure period, while Crosby raised $27,000 and Coyne $19,000. Bailey has $164,000 in his warchest, Coyne has $83,000 and Crosby has $33,000.

Havlik raised $9,000 during the disclosure period and has loaned her campaign $23,000. Mitchell raised $1,700. Suppa and Rickey haven’t reported any fundraising.

While the independent committee supporting Coyne is backed by Local 89, a laborers union, Crosby has been endorsed by the city’s largest labor union — the Municipal Employees Association — and the region’s largest labor organization, the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council.

District 2 includes Clairemont, Point Loma and some nearby neighborhoods. District 4 includes Skyline, Encanto and much of southeastern San Diego. District 6 includes University City, Mira Mesa and nearby areas. District 8 includes Otay Mesa, San Ysidro, Logan Heights and nearby neighborhoods.