September 21, 2020 at 7:48 pm

San Joaquin candidates have begun to file their first pre-election campaign finance summaries, which are due by this Thursday. The summaries cover fundraising and spending from July 1 to September 19.

Retired police chief Charlie Halford, who is running for Manteca City Council, filed his forms today. He recorded almost $16,000 in contributions, $3,000 of which were loans from himself and another Manteca resident. Halford has already spent almost $14,000, the majority of which went to mailers and yard signs. This left him with a net balance for the period of slightly less than $2,000.

As of September 21, Halford was neck and neck with incumbent Debbie Moorhead in terms of total contributions over $1,000 (which are considered “large”), with $10,000 each. Moorhead has not yet filed her summary, so it will remain to be seen how the two stack up in terms of small fundraising and expenditures.

The other council incumbent, Gary Singh, is leading both of them with $19,000 in large donations. SIngh also already has around $700 in his campaign balance left over from the last filing period (January 1 to June 30).

Mike Morowit, a former Manteca city councilmember who is running for District 7 of the Manteca Unified School District Board of Education, also disclosed his summary today. Morowit took in approximately $10,500 in contributions, around $6,200 of which was spent. The influx included a $2,000 loan from Morowit to his campaign. Like Halford, most of the money went towards candidate literature. Morowit had almost $4,300 in the bank as of September 19.

Morowit has been by far the most active in the Manteca Unified races in terms of fundraising. No other candidate has disclosed any donations over $1,000.

The final candidate to have disclosed summary information is current Lodi Unified trustee Ron Freitas, who is seeking to retain his seat. Freitas took in more than $11,000 and spent roughly $6,100, leaving him with a net balance of almost $5,000.

Unlike Halford and Morowit, the bulk of Freitas’ fundraising came from just a couple of donors. Freitas received $5,000 each from the San Joaquin County Deputy Sheriffs Association and the Stockton Police Officers Association. He had worked with both law enforcement groups as a deputy San Joaquin district attorney for roughly 30 years.