Extra

Developers Dish Dollars for Doran

By Richard Brenneman
Monday November 03, 2008 - 01:34:00 PM

Terry Doran is finally seeing some of the dollars developer Ali Kashani asked his colleagues to give, though most of the latest influx stems from one company, Hudson McDonald. 

Of the $3,600 in new contributions reported Friday by Neighbors for Terry Doran, only $500 has no clear connections to people involved in the development and sale of property. 

Chris Hudson and Evan McDonald, who split off from Patrick Kennedy to start their own company, each came up with $250 for Doran, who hopes to capture the downtown council seat held by the late Dona Spring. Their firm is currently developing the Old Grove building—better known as the Trader Joe’s building—at the intersection of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Also donating identical $250 amounts are their spouses: Cindy Chang, an UC Berkeley physician, who is not only Hudson’s spouse, but also head physician for the UC Berkeley football team, and Christine McDonald, - a self-employed photographer. 

Sean McKinley, a Hudson McDonald developer, also gave $250, as did his spouse, Jessica, a research scientist with Solidus Biosciences. Both are Oakland residents. 

Another Hudson McDonald employee, Aaron Villaroya, gave $250. 

Doran also received $250 from David Teece, a Haas business school professor and silent partner with Patrick Kennedy in many of his Panoramic Interests projects, though he is described in Doran’s campaign filings as a self-employed economist. Teece is also facing major tax problems with the IRS. 

Another donor, Jennifer Ruzek, is the director of the Garfield Innovation Center, a Kaiser Permanente think tank which teams architects with health care practitioners for the design of medical facilities.  

Ronald Egherman of the Marvin Gardens real estate brokerage gave $100, while the California Real Estate Political Action Committee gave $250. 

The non-development cash came in two $250 contributions, one from Nancy Skinner’s assembly campaign and the other from Mary Piamonte, identified as a UC Berkeley preschool teacher. 

 

Other races  

 

While Doran was the winner of the largest chunk of development cash in the latest round of campaign finance reports, Mayor Tom Bates came in second. 

Bates reported $850 in new support in late Friday filings, with $600 coming from the development sector: $100 from architect Burton Edwards and $250 each from Piedmont resident and Berkeley developer Patrick Kennedy and his spouse, Julie Matlof Kennedy. 

Challenger and former Mayor Shirley Dean had made no new filings in the same period. 

In the city’s 5th council district, incumbent Laurie Capitelli made two filings Monday, totaling $2,650, with only $350 coming from the development and real estate community, including $250 from the Berkeley Association of Realtors PAC for $250 and $100 from attorney Martin H. Dodd, who lists real estate law among his areas of practice. 

Most of the councilmember's donors in the latest filings listed their occupation as “retired.” 

Challenger Sophie Hahn reported $1,750 in recent contributions. Of that total, $200 came from donors with an interest in development issues, $100 each from real estate attorney Pamela Lakey and Mary Murtagh, executive director of nonprofit housing developer EAH. 

In the District 6 race, Susan Wengraf, aide to the retiring incumbent Betty Olds, reported no new contributions, while opponent Phoebe Anne Sorgen reported four in a Saturday filing. The four contributors donated $699. 

All the contributions in the council and local ballot measures races are available online at http://nf4.netfile.com/pub2/Default.aspx