Outside contributions are worrisome

Tod Kimmelshue will probably raise $200,000 in campaign contributions, four times as much as any 2018 supervisorial candidate. Over half of his contributions are from people who do not live in the district. The frightening aspect is the outside connection this money represents. There are the contributions of $2,500 from the Chevron Sacramento Lobbyist, and $1,500 from Building California Together. Both are part of the most powerful lobby in California. This lobby is the oil industry, which spent $266 million influencing California politics between 2005-2014 (according to California Secretary of State data). This lobby weakens and opposes environmental laws which would protect our drinking water, our clean air and healthy food, in order to protect their profit margin.

In 2014, Chevron spent $3 million to elect selected candidates to the Richmond City Council, unsuccessfully. California Resource Corporation (formerly Occidental Petroleum), the largest oil and natural gas producer in California, deceptively uses astroturf groups to fund their candidates. Astroturfing is the practice of masking corporations to appear as though their funds originate from grassroots organizations.

California Resource Corporation gave Building California Together (BCT) $25,000 in 2018. In Palmdale, BCT then gave $1,000 each to two water district candidates, two school board candidates, and the mayor candidate, all of whom won.

The real questions are, will the future of Butte County water districts, school boards and city council races be financed by Tod Kimmelshue’s outside money connections, and, what will they expect in return?

— Marcie Ligammari, Chico