Joy Silver of Palm Springs is seeking the Democratic nomination for the state Senate District 28 (which includes the Hill) to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Jeff Stone.
With less than four months until the June 5 primary, this race has been relatively low key.
Also, while it appears that Silver has a slight lead on financing over Stone, he actually had two active campaign accounts during 2017. One was the remainder of his 2014 campaign and then, of course, one for 2018.
He has spent thousands of dollars already on campaign literature, preparing mailings and campaign consultants.
Through the end of 2017, Silver has expended about $25,000 on consultants.
The vast majority of her contributions were received between October and December 2017, since she did not announce her candidacy until late summer.
Sliver is her own largest donor, having loaned her campaign $50,000. Most of the individual contributions have come from Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage residents. Five Idyllwild residents have given $1,125 so far to her campaign.
Silver has been the beneficiary of substantial out-of-state contributions. Contributors are from Massachusetts, New Jersey and Florida, to Washington and Alaska.
Stone has received fewer total contributions, but many of his have come from businesses and political-action committees. For example, the California Farm Bureau and the Attorney Administrative Law judges have each contributed $2,000. Bankers Insurance Company has given $5,000, Health Net provided $3,500 and Charter Communications donated $2,000. Local American Indian tribes also have given Stone thousands in contributions.
Anna Nevenic, a Democrat, filed to run in January, but has no financial reports with the Secretary of State yet. She was a state Senate candidate in 2010 and 2014.
The largest single contributor has been Harold Matzer of Palm Springs, who has given $6,900 so far.
The Secretary of State released the first registration data ahead of the June primary. In Senate District 28, 420,795 people have registered to vote. With about 161,000 voters, Republicans have a slight lead of about 14,000. Democrats have registered about 146,500.
Together, registration in one of the two major parties represents almost three-quarters of the district’s registered voters. But slightly more than 90,000 voters have registered without a party preference.