Extra

The Berkeley Police Association has spent $17,951.58 for mailers in support of District 5 City Council Candidate Stephen Murphy.

Most of the money in the PAC comes from police officers, but there are three contributors listed in the Form 496, Independent Expenditure Report, who aren’t cops:

• Patrick Kennedy, San Franciso, Housing Developer, Panoramic Interests, $1,000
• Ali Kashani, Investor, Memar Properties, Inc., $500
• Michael Alvarez-Cohen, Technology Transfer manager, University of California, $100

The City of Berkeley limits campaign contributions to candidates for local office to $250. But this doesn’t apply to independent expenditures. So the police PAC gives developers like Kennedy and Kashani and U.C.B. executives like Alvarez-Cohen a way to spend more than $250 for Murphy. 

To put these expenditures in perspective, there are four mayoral candidates and five City Council candidates who have not even raised $17k, let along spent it on mailers. 

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Out of town real estate interests spend thousands to support Capitelli, Wengraf, Moore and Murphy Rob Wrenn 10-14-2016