September 9, 2020 at 8:29 pm

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021 donated $50,000 to Rhodesia Ransom’s campaign for San Joaquin County Supervisor District 5 on Tuesday. Up until that, Ransom had been flagging behind her opponent, Tracy Mayor Robert Rickman, in terms of large fundraising. Assemblymember Susan Eggman’s campaign for State Senate also contributed $2,500 to Ransom on Tuesday.

The SEIU’s donation is their second large one to a San Joaquin candidate in less than a week. On Friday, the union donated $15,000 to Kimberly Warmsley, who is running for Stockton City Council District 6. Both Warmsley and Ransom have held occupations that the union represents; Warmsley is a social worker, and Ransom has served on the boards of some local nonprofits. The SEIU also covers local government, healthcare, and school employees. The Local 1021 chapter is responsible for Northern California.

Ransom has been endorsed by the Local 1021 and picked up the support of the Local 2015, which covers the entire state of California, on September 4. She has been endorsed by Eggman as well.

Both the contributions of SEIU and Eggman helped Ransom to leapfrog Rickman in fundraising numbers. Prior to Tuesday, she had raised only $8,000 in donations over $1,000 since June 30, compared to $34,500 for Rickman. The money from Eggman and the SEIU has put Ransom up to $60,500. Recent donations to Rickman, including $2,000 from the Tracy Firefighters’ Association and $1,000 from Tom Mayo Construction, have not been enough to keep pace.

That being said, there is no telling how each candidate has done with small contributions until the next campaign finance filing deadline on September 24. At the end of the last filing period on June 30, Ransom held more than $32,000 while Rickman had just over $19,000. She also accrued more in contributions than him from February 16 to June 30, roughly $54,000 to his $30,000.

The SEIU’s $50,000 is the largest single political action committee donation by far to any San Joaquin candidate since June 30 (not including those running for the House of Representatives, for whom large contribution data after that date is not available). The next largest was $15,000, given to both Warmsley and Stockton mayoral candidate Kevin Lincoln. However, Lincoln received the money from the Stockton Police Officers’ Association rather than the SEIU.

Even when factoring in political party donations, the SEIU’s is still among the largest. Eggman received $60,000 and $75,000 from the Fresno County Democratic Central Committee and the Tehama County Democratic Party respectively on September 4.