Full disclosure: I have endorsed Das Williams, but do not have any official involvement in the campaign. I am attempting to cover this race as evenhandedly as possible.
In my previous analysis of the AD-35 primary race, I included the competing press releases between the Williams and Jordan campaigns. The gist of the issue was that while Jordan’s release emphasized a $10,500 advantage in cash on hand and $1,600 advantage in total funds raised, the Williams campaign emphasized the $12,500 personal loan made by Jordan to her own campaign to give those numbers a boost. Also noted was the attempt by the Williams campaign to portray Jordan, despite her having held no elected office in the past, as a Sacramento pol, even as the Jordan campaign painted Williams as untrustworthy, opportunistic and overly aggressive and ambitious.
Williams’ latest press release is already doubling down on this campaign theme, emphasizing the comparatively large number of donations coming to Jordan from outside the district, compared to Williams. And it is a staggeringly wide discrepancy to the tune of 85% to 22%:
Santa Barbara, CA – Following recent reports of strong early financial numbers, Assembly Candidate Das Williams today released the following comments regarding a breakdown of contributions that shows 85 percent of his campaign’s donations come from within the 35th Assembly district, while his main opponent, Susan Jordan, received only 22 percent of her contributions from district sources:
“I’m humbled by the outpouring of local grassroots support and enthusiasm about my candidacy,” said Williams. “Voters are ready for a new vision, new direction and new priorities.”
As of the June 30th reporting deadline, Das Williams for Assembly raised over $120,000 – with no personal loans and no unpaid debt to report.
Das Williams is running to succeed Assemblymember Pedro Nava who will be termed out in 2010.
Das Williams grew up on the Central Coast and is a product of local public schools. In 2003, he became the youngest person ever to be elected to the Santa Barbara City Council, and was re-elected in 2007. Das has worked as a teacher, a policy aide for former Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, and a community organizer who worked to stop the development of a Wal-Mart in Ventura and enact local living wage laws in Santa Barbara and Ventura. Das serves on the Peabody Charter School Board and is a national board member of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Das received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley and holds a graduate degree in Environmental Science & Management from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
This is a risky strategy for Williams. The numbers are impressive, certainly, and reinforce the idea that Jordan is leveraging statewide connections rather than local chops. But it’s also the second aggressive release from the Williams campaign in a couple of days, and will do nothing to dispel the negative image helpful to the Jordan campaign of Mr. Williams as a back-climbing career politician. At this early stage, the question seems to be: will the Williams campaign gain on substance from surprisingly good fundraising and strong local support, or lose on tone from negativity?
With no publicly available poll numbers yet, only time will tell.