Late filings show who’s paying for Tiburon council, fire, school races
Incumbent Councilmember Alice Fredericks raised the most money from donors among Tiburon’s Town Council candidates in the last campaign-finance reports before the Nov. 3 election, while challenger Kathleen Defever outspent the field with money she lent her own campaign.
Fredericks reported $2,124 in monetary contributions in the period from Sept. 20 to Oct. 17, the last preelection disclosure ahead of the Nov. 3 race for three seats. She reported spending $4,457 in the period.
Planning Commissioner Defever reported the largest total, $10,850, but $9,400 of it is a loan she made to her own campaign. The other $1,450 came from donors.
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Parks, Open Space & Trails Commissioner Chuck Hornbrook reported $1,662 in contributions, $1,350 of it from donors, and investment-fund founder Faris Jafar reported $1,591 in donations.
Defever also reported the most spending in the period, $8,462. Hornbrook reported $4,828 in expenditures, Fredericks $4,457 and Jafar $3,453.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission requires two campaign-finance disclosures before an election from candidates who raise or spend $2,000 or more. The first, due Sept. 24, covered July 1-Sept. 19.
The other incumbent seeking reelection, Councilmember Jack Ryan, did not need to submit a campaign-finance report, as he filed a statement Sept. 16 saying he expects to receive and spend less than $2,000 this year.
Elsewhere on peninsula ballots, firefighter unions put money behind two Southern Marin Fire Protection District challengers, and a new committee reported spending against Marin County Board of Education incumbent Marilyn Nemzer.
Donors and spending
Defever received $500 each from Tiburon resident Hank McWhinney and part-time Strawberry resident Priya Clemens, $250 from Tiburon attorney Jon Rankin and $100 each from Tiburon residents John B. Snell and Belle Guelden. She lent her campaign the $9,400 on Oct. 4 and another $5,600 on Oct. 23, according to 24-hour reports she filed Oct. 22 and Oct. 26.
Her two itemized expenditures include a $7,307 payment to San Francisco-based media firm SpeakEasy Political for campaign literature and mailings and $1,099 to Austin, Texas-based Signs on the Cheap for campaign paraphernalia. She also reported $56 in unitemized payments under $100.
Fredericks received $1,500 from her husband, University of California at San Francisco researcher Neal Benowitz, bringing his contributions to her campaign this year to $3,000. She also received $500 from Tiburon resident and The Ark’s freelance gardening columnist Diane Lynch. She reported $124 in unitemized contributions of less than $100. She amended her first preelection report Oct. 26 to list the $3,747 she put in as a contribution, not a loan.
Of Fredericks’ $4,457 in spending, $1,500 is an unpaid bill to The Ark for campaign advertising.
She paid Vistaprint $2,636 for a postcard mailing, about $158 to Omaha-based Oriental Trading for campaign signs and about $163 to Wix for hosting her campaign website.
Tiburon resident Evan Segal, a critic of the incumbents who has called for more financial transparency, donated $1,000 to Hornbrook’s campaign. Hornbrook also received $250 from the Democratic Central Committee of Marin and $100 from Tiburon resident George Landau. He also made and forgave a $312 loan this period.
Of Hornbrook’s $4,828 in expenditures, about $4,355 is unpaid bills.
He paid $173 to Constant Contact for web marketing, about $143 to Norwalk-based Political Data Inc. for mailing data and about $139 to Meta for ads on Facebook and Instagram. He also spent $19 in unitemized payments under $100.
Hornbrook’s unpaid bills include $3,717 to Novato-based Cornerstone Printing for campaign paraphernalia and $637 to The Ark for print advertising.
Segal also donated $500 to Jafar’s campaign. Jafar also received $500 from Dallas resident Sumeet Jaisinghani, the CEO of public-equities investment firm Explore Capital and Jafar’s college classmate at Indiana University Bloomington, and $400 from Los Angeles resident James Bush. He also received $191 in unitemized contributions of less than $100.
Jafar paid $1,690 to Vistaprint for campaign literature and mailings, $1,147 to Meta for online ads and $135 to Mailchimp for software. He also spent $98 in purchases under $100. While those weren’t required to be itemized, he listed the California Secretary of State, FedEx and Venmo as recipients.
His original report counted another $383 in his itemized total without listing the payment. Jafar told The Ark on Oct. 26 that he had forgotten to save a line item for sign purchases, and an amended report he filed with the town that day lists $383 to Banners on the Cheap for signs.
Balance sheets
Fredericks ended the period with the most cash, $4,414, down from $5,247, not counting the $1,500 she owes The Ark.
Hornbrook is second with $3,932, up from $2,744, not counting $4,955 in unpaid bills this year.
Defever’s campaign had $2,388 in cash and owed her $9,400 as of Oct. 17. She began the period with nothing in the account.
Jafar has $800, down from $2,662 at the start of the period.
County school board
In the Marin County Board of Education’s Trustee Area 5 race, a committee called Educate Our Children reported spending $743 on postage opposing Nemzer, half of the $1,486 in postage it reported spending on two candidates. Its 24-hour report lists $1,487 from Nancy McCarthy, $886 of it as loans. McCarthy, a Greenbrae attorney and Marin County Board of Education member, encouraged challenger Avery Lieberman to run.
Nemzer’s campaign reported $1,224 in contributions and $280 in spending, with $2,789 on hand and $2,443 in debts. No contributions or spending for Lieberman appeared in the county’s online filings.
Tam Union
In the Tamalpais Union High School District race, Leslie Harlander spent $16,010 from Sept. 20 to Oct. 17, the most of any candidate in the races The Ark is following, and ended the period with $2,258.
Brian Sutherland reported $3,434 in contributions and $8,204 in spending, with $5,286 on hand. He reported another $1,500 from Marcus Gaetani on Oct. 16. Joy Koo reported $2,550 raised and $4,786 spent, with $5,500 on hand, and Valerie Wynn reported $4,268 raised and $5,068 spent, with $4,780 on hand.
Friends of TUHSD Board 2026, the committee supporting Koo, Sutherland and Wynn, raised $5,540 in the period and had $5,575 on hand. It reported another $2,000 from Michele Hansen on Oct. 16. Tam Union Governance Alliance, which supports the same three candidates and opposes Harlander and incumbents Kevin Saavedra and Cynthia Roenisch, raised $1,551, spent $2,406 and had $428 left.
No contributions or spending for board President Roenisch, Saavedra or Maria Sandoval appeared in the county’s online filings.
Southern Marin Fire
In the seven-candidate race for four Southern Marin Fire board seats, the Marin Professional Firefighters Political Action Committee gave $5,900 each to challengers Eric Steinhofer and Amy Svendberg, Steinhofer’s on Oct. 9 and Svendberg’s on Oct. 22. Southern Marin Firefighters Association gave each of them $1,500 on Oct. 14.
The PAC also reported spending $1,750 on text messages supporting each of the two Oct. 19.
Steinhofer reported $7,805 in contributions and $7,230 in spending through Oct. 17, ending with $5,119 in cash and $4,545 in debts. Svendberg reported raising $3,000 and spending $3,388 in the period, leaving her campaign $316 in the red.
Incumbent Cristine Soto DeBerry reported $250 in contributions and $60 in spending, with $6,934 on hand. No contributions or spending for incumbents Kurt Chun, Thomas Perazzo or Peter Fleming, or for challenger Thomas Clark, appeared in the county’s online filings.
County measures
Yes on CC, the committee backing the Marin Healthcare District parcel tax, raised $250, spent $63,916 and had $216,500 on hand. In a 24-hour report filed Oct. 23, it reported $10,000 received that day from the political action committee of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 551.
Yes on O for Reed Schools, backing the Reed Union School District’s $115 million bond, raised $6,500 in the period, including $5,000 on Oct. 14 from Urban Futures Inc., which does business as Isom Advisors, and $1,000 from Shannon Alten. It spent $40,786 and had $29,814 on hand. The committee reported another $40,000 on Oct. 22 from its sponsor, The Foundation for Reed Schools, in a 24-hour report filed Oct. 23.
Our Kids Our Future PAC, the committee backing Measure P, the countywide childcare parcel tax, raised $105,775 in the period, bringing its cash contributions this year to $976,380. It spent $197,240 and had $177,727 on hand.
No contributions or spending for candidates in the Reed Union School District, Richardson Bay Sanitary District or Strawberry Recreation District races appeared in the county’s online filings.
Reach Francisco Martinez at 415-944-4634.
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Key dates
Now: Ballots have been mailed, and in-person voting is underway at the Civic Center and at 11-day voting centers. Voters who did not receive ballots by mail can still pick one up at any vote center. California also allows same-day registration with a provisional ballot. 24/7 vote-by-mail ballot drop boxes are also open through Election Day, including at Belvedere City Hall.
Oct. 31: Four-day voting centers, including at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tiburon, open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through Nov. 2 and 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Election Day. The church also has an exterior drop box, open 24 hours until 8 p.m. Election Day.
Nov. 3: Election Day. Polls are open 7 a.m.-8 p.m.
Mailing a ballot: In the last week, take it inside a post office and ask for a hand-stamped postmark.
Results: The Nov. 3 election falls after The Ark’s press time for the Nov. 4 edition. Results and complete coverage will be online at thearknewspaper.com/election2026 and in the Nov. 11 print edition.
Links
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