AD15 candidate Buffy Wicks raised $209,000 during the first half of the 2017.

ELECTION 2018

–15TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT–

Buffy Wicks is again making her opponents in the 15th Assembly District green with envy.

After bursting onto the scene last summer with an impressive one-month haul, Wicks says her campaign will file year-end campaign finance reports that include in excess of $500,000 in contributions.



In addition, the campaign will report roughly $385,000 in cash on hand to start the new year. “We feel very good about our numbers,” said Wicks prior to a candidates forum Monday night in Albany.

The amount of fundraising cash was boosted with more than 1,100 individual donors, said Wicks. In addition, 65 percent of all her donors hail from California, she added.

Over the past few months, Wicks has spoke at 70 house parties around the district, which includes Richmond, Berkeley, North Oakland, and parts in between. The effort has also attracted an army of 350 volunteers willing to help the campaign get its message out from now to June, she said.

“We are talking directly to voters and what we’re hearing is they want to send someone to Sacramento who actually get something done,” said Wicks.

Campaign finance reports will be released Wednesday, but Wicks’ total is likely to be far greater than anyone else in the 10-candidate primary race.

Six months ago, very few in the district knew much about Wicks outside of her work at the national level with President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. But a quick $209,000 raised in less than a month and reported last August caught the attention of many local Democrats.

The total, in fact, dwarfed the combined amount of the next three candidates who filed mid-year reports, Oakland Councilmember Dan Kalb, East Bay MUD Director Andy Katz and Richmond Councilmember Jovanka Beckles.