The open seat on the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors (currently held by Supervisor Tom Mayfield who is retiring) is one of the more interesting match ups in the Valley this year. The conventional wisdom has been that former longtime Sheriff Les Weidman was a shoo-in for this seat against upstart Vito Chiesa.
Low and behold, local farmer and former Stanislaus Farm Bureau leader Chiesa has surged in this hotly contested race (full disclosure: Chiesa is a client). In the latest finance reports filed through March 17th, Weidman’s fundraising has collapsed. During this period Weidman only raised a paltry $16,500 of which 10K of that was a personal loan. With a cash on hand of $11,732 and plenty of unpaid bills to account for most of that, Weidman’s campaign is struggling into the last two months of the campaign.
Meanwhile, Chiesa has built a grassroots base that is now fully fueled. Chiesa raised $56,400 while banking $46,719 from a donor base that was constantly being told that Weidman had the race in the bag. Should be interesting to see how supportive Weidman’s supporters are now that the aura of invincibility is no more.