Selina Thomas has joined six other Santa Clarita City Council candidates who have received or spent more than $2,000 for their campaigns — the threshold for reporting figures as required by law, while two other candidates remain below the mark.
Her campaign, which officially launched in July, had initially filed a Form 470, an annual filing used by candidates who don’t anticipate receiving or spending $2,000 or more during the calendar year, meaning the reporting of contributions and expenditures are not required by law, according to the California Fair Political Practices Commission.
Upon receiving and spending more than $2,000, Thomas filed on Oct. 1 a Form 470S as a notice that the limit was surpassed as of Aug. 13, according to reports released by the city of Santa Clarita.
This now means the campaign must begin filing a Form 460, a form that contains an overview of the committee’s activity during a specified period. On Wednesday, Thomas and her campaign accountant, Donna Urrutia, said they were in the process of filing the form in time for the second pre-election filing deadline on Oct. 22.
The first pre-election deadline was Sept. 24, when six of the nine candidates in the race to fill two City Council seats in November filed Form 460 paperwork. Incumbent Mayor Cameron Smyth and candidates Jason Gibbs and Kelvin Driscoll were the top three fundraisers for the period between July 1 through Sept. 19. Smyth led with $22,000, Driscoll with $16,400 and Gibbs with $15,900. The candidates who followed were Aakash Ahuja ($9,000), TimBen Boydston ($3,500) and Chris Werthe ($2,800).
Through Sept. 30, Thomas received contributions of $3,125 and a loan she made in increments throughout her campaign trail to her campaign of $9,770, according to Urrutia.
The campaign has spent an estimated $10,995, which has gone toward advertising, Thomas said. She also has a cash-on-hand total of $1,900.
Candidates Douglas Frasier and Kenneth Dean have each filed a Form 470 and have not indicated receiving contributions or expenditures of $2,000 or more.
Thomas said she has fundraisers scheduled ahead of the filing deadline, and she’s kept busy communicating with the community.
“We have a local wine event and a golf event, and there’s lots of other things happening, like canvassing and sharing with the community about what I’m doing,” she said. “It’s been really exciting leading up to the election. Some people have reached out and said that they’ve voted for me, so that’s exciting.”
