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As election day approached, District 4 council candidate Terry Doran finally saw some of the dollars developer Ali Kashani asked his colleagues to give—though most came from one company, Hudson McDonald. 

Of the $3,600 in new contributions reported Friday by Neighbors for Terry Doran, only $500 had 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 the $250 maximum for Doran, who had hoped to capture the downtown Council District 4 seat held by the late Dona Spring. 

Hudson McDonald LLC is 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 were their spouses: Cindy Chang, a 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 was Jennifer Ruzek, director of the Garfield Innovation Center, a Kaiser Permanente think tank that teams architects with health care practitioners for the design of medical facilities. 

Ronald Egherman of the Marvin Gardens real-estate brokerage gave Doran $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, who handily won re-election, 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 and $100 from attorney Martin H. Dodd, who lists real-estate law among his areas of practice. 

Most of Capitelli’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 total. 

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

Earlier reports 

In contributions filed the week before, council candidates also reported raking in cash from the real-estate and development sector, which has emerged as the dominant player in Berkeley political funding. 

In the District 4 race before Doran’s last reports, of his 10 reported contributions last week, half came from individuals connected with the land-use communities, including $100 each from architects Rebecca Hayden and David Trachtenberg, with another $150 from architect Erick Mikiten. 

Harry Pollack, a land-use attorney and city planning commissioner, gave $100 and Caleb Dardick, a public relations consultant who sometimes represents projects, gave another $100. 

The only other candidate in the District 4 council race to report contributions last week was Jesse Arreguin; none came from the development community. 

In District 5, Capitelli reported four contributions earlier last week. Loan processor Dawn Malatesta of MPR financial, a mortgage brokerage, gave $100, while real-estate lawyer/planning commissioner Pollack gave $150, and his partner, William Davis, gave $250. 

Challenger Sophie Hahn had reported a dozen contributions, with one definitely from the development community—Nancy Hendrickson, an engineer with CH2M Hill, a global engineering and construction firm, who gave $250. She also received $100 from Fatemeh Heidari, director of the Live Edge design studio. 

Jay Keasling, one of UC Berkeley’s biofuel researchers/entrepeneurs gave her $250, while preservationist Austene Hall gave $250, making Hahn the recipient of perhaps the most eclectic set of donations. Robert Krumme, one-time mayoral candidate and self-employed “Promoter of Liberty,” gave her $200. 

In District 6, only Susan Wengraf reported any contributions last week, and she received just one, $100 from architect Gordon Chong. 

Mayoral candidates Bates and Dean both reported new contributions in the last week before the election, with Bates solidly in the lead as the recipient of choice of the development industry.  

Among the Bates contributions reported last week were: 

• Three contributions of $250 each from members of the family of developer Bill Falik, who has already given a similar sum, for a total of $750; 

• Sheet Metal Workers Local 104 Political Action Committee gave $250; 

• Berkeley Bowl owner Diane Yasuda gave $250; 

• West Berkeley developer Doug Herst gave $25O; 

• Real-estate investor Tony Kershaw provided $250; 

• General contractors Michael McDowell and Karen Springer each gave $100; 

• Brickworkers and Allied Craftsworkers Local 3 PAC gave $150; 

• Dealer Steve Beinke and two employees of Berkeley Honda, which seeks to build a new dealership in West Berkeley, each gave $250. 

Of Shirley Dean’s contributors for the week, only two appear to have ties to the land-use sector. The most directly tied to the development industry is David Shiver, a $250 donor, who is principal of Bay Area Economics, a real-estate economist/consultant. Donor Jana Olson does restoration lighting rather than new installations. She gave $150.