Who’s Funding Pasadena City Council Election for District 3

(L-R) Justin Jones (Photo -justinljonespasadena.com) Brandon Lamar (Photo – brandonforpasadena.com)

Colorado Boulevard has retrieved the list of contributions for the period July 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023.

By News Desk

Campaign Finance Contributions for the March 5, 2024 City Council Election have been announced.  The state limit for a single contributor is $5,500.

 Here are the contributions reported for the Pasadena City Council race in District 3.

– Justin Jones

Justin is the current city councilman for District 3. Justin reported raising nearly $53,000 from 72 separate contributions that included local real estate developers, labor unions, restaurateurs, retired city councilman Andy Wilson, retired city manager Cynthia Kurtz, and Joel Sheldon, the CEO of Vromans, and $1,853 from Justin himself. He reported receiving 13 contributions of $1000 or more totaling $39,500 as follows:

• $5,500 from each: two different labor unions, the Pasadena Firefighters Local 809 PAC and the Laborers Union Local No. 777; Earl Lyons of EF Lyons ((real estate developer); and Avo Avetisyan, Founder and CEO of LifeTrans, a medical transport company,
• $3,000 from SurePark Tech LLC, a parking technology company,
• $2,500 from each: Blake Bloyd (self-employed investor), Geraldine Edson (retired), and PNB International (Investments Corporation),
• $2,000 from two contributors: Sandra Alvarez and Doug Kranwinkle, both retired,
• $1000 from each: MHL Financial, Inc., Danny Bakewell, Jr.* (real estate developer) and Gregg Smith (local restaurateur).
  *Donation taken back on Jan. 4, 2024.

Justin also received $500 from Andy Wilson and $250 from two other local restaurants, Kathleen’s Restaurant Inc. and Michael Hawkins of Green Street Restaurant, and $250 from Larry Campbell, Pastor of First AME, Pasadena.

– Brandon Lamar

Brandon reported raising $17,750 from 12 contributions that included a local real estate developer, local labor unions and national labor union, current City Councilmember Jessica Rivas and local political consultant Lena Kennedy and $250 from Brandon himself. He reported receiving:

• $5,500 from City Councilmember Jessica Rivas, staff counsel for the LA County Employees Retirement Association,
• $2,000 from Dawn Burkhardt, a systems administration consultant for Kaiser Permanente,
• $1,500 from each: Service Employees International Union Local 121 RN PAC Small Contributor Committee, and Democrats of Pasadena Foothills,
• $1,000 from each: Danny Bakewell (real estate developer), Jeffrey Fenstermaker (supervising film editor, Wavelength Production), AFSCME Local 858 (a labor union), Bailey Swain (JADE Strategy Consultants), Daniel James (programmer, Boulevard Labs) and the National Union of Healthcare Workers #1318200.

$500 from two sources: Lena Kennedy (political consultant), Beth Gertmenian (retired/longtime ACT member and Democratic party activist).