On the campaign: Ethics complaint filed against challenger in District 5 race
A Western Addition community activist has filed an ethics complaint against Dean Preston ,a candidate for District Five supervisor running against incumbent London Breed.
Rico Hamilton, president of the New Community Leadership Foundation, which helps at-risk people living in poor and violent neighborhoods, said Preston put Hamilton’s photo on two campaign flyers after Preston was denied permission twice by the foundation. The photo also appears on Preston’s website.
The photo was taken at an event to protest the eviction of the St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church from the West Bay Conference Center on Fillmore Street. It shows Preston talking with Hamilton and a board member of the New Community Leadership Foundation.
The campaign flyer doesn’t identify Hamilton or the board member by name, but Hamilton said people in the Western Addition know them by face.
“A lot of community members know us, especially in the African American community,” Hamilton said. “It really makes it come off as if we are endorsing and sponsoring him, and that’s just not the case at all.”
He said it would be improper for the foundation’s members to appear on any candidate’s campaign literature. “We can’t endorse any of the candidates, especially as a nonprofit,” Hamilton said.
Preston said he wasn’t aware of the ethics complaint. But, he added, “We used a candid news photo of a protest where I was helping people who faced eviction. The piece in no way implies that anyone in the photo is endorsing my campaign for supervisor.”
The city Ethics Commission has not weighed in on the complaint, which was filed last week. — Emily Green Big money, small lead: Polls show the presidential race is tightening, but it’s not because the Hillary Clinton forces haven’t outspent the Donald Trump crew on TV ads. The pro-Clintonites have outspent the Trumpers 5-to-1 so far, according to data from Advertising Analytics.
Clinton’s campaign has spent $96.4 million so far in advertising compared with $17.3 million for Trump, according to NBC, which partners with Advertising Analytics. Combined with spending by super PACs and other outside groups the pro-Clinton side has outspent the pro-Trump side by $156.6 million to $33.6 million.
Clinton has a onepoint advantage, according to the latest RealClearPolitics.com amalgamation of the latest polls. On Aug. 26, she had a six-point advantage. The number crunchers at Fivethirtyeight.com now predict Clinton has a 58 percent chance of winning. — Joe Garofoli No family wing: The 83-year-old father of Sacramento-area Rep. Ami Bera may be going to prison for money laundering, but the Elk Grove Democrat won’t have a cell beside him.
The U.S. attorney’s office has closed the case, saying that “no other charges will be sought” in connection with Babulal Bera’s successful effort to funnel at least $260,000 in illegal campaign contributions to his son’s campaign for the Seventh Congressional District.
The elder Bera, a La Palma (Orange County) resident, pleaded guilty in May to reimbursing people for their contributions to his son. He was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.
Still, “I’m not going to prison, but my dad is,” doesn’t rank as one of the all-time campaign slogans, especially in a relatively conservative district with a long history of electing Republicans.
Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones, Bera’s GOP opponent, finished second in the June primary but will be using the money-laundering scheme in his effort to deny the Democratic physician a third term.
“Bera was not exonerated or cleared, the statement simply says there will be no more charges filed,” the Jones campaign said. “That Bera’s elderly immigrant father master-minded a very sophisticated, quarter-ofa-million-dollar political money laundering scheme is beyond rational belief.”
As it was two years ago — and will be for as long as a Democrat holds it — Bera’s congressional seat is one of the Republicans’ top targets in California.
— John Wildermuth Email: egreen@ sfchronicle.com, jgarofoli@ sfchronicle.com, jwildermuth@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @emilytgreen, @joegarofoli, @jfwildermuth