OB Rag Staff Report
This follow-up to our December 2 “D2 Candidates: Follow the Money” report has the latest figures from Campaign Disclosure Reports (Series 400). Our continued review of these public records fulfills the Rag’s promise to “scrutinize the candidates in the 2026 primary: who they are, what they’ve done, what they say, and most importantly, where their money comes from.”
District 2 includes Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, Pt. Loma, the Midway, and Clairemont. Councilmember Jen Campbell is “termed out,” so the district will have a new Councilmember next year.
Josh Coyne
Coyne is in first place in D2 fundraising totals with $93,002. That money includes a $30,000 loan he made to his campaign. According to the Voters’ Voice Initiatives, Coyne raised 6 times more money from outside D2 than from inside. Many of his contributors are business leaders and lobbyists. They include:
- Robert Gleason, Evans Hotel, $1,600
- Marc Matys (Gleason’s husband), $1,600
- Stephanie Saathoff, The Clay Company, $1,500
- Allen Young, Cox Communications, $900
- Craig Benedetto, California Strategies, $800
- Matthew Harris, SD Regional Airport Authority, $800
- Kimberly Miller, Miller Public Affairs, $800
- Marco Sessa, Sudberry Properties, $800
- Joel Trambley, Family Health Centers, $800
- James Zeiter, Insight Investment (NV), $800
Mandy Havlik
Havlik is in second place with $50,345. That money includes a $20,000 loan she made to her campaign. According to the Voters’ Voice Initiatives, Havlik raised more than twice as much money from inside D2 than from outside. Many of her contributors are retired or self-employed. They include:
- Alan Brown, Retired, $1,000
- Scott Andrews, Retired, $850
- Jonathan Chapin, Charity Wings, $800
- Angela Vedder, Berkshire Hathaway Realtor, $800
- John McNab, Notary, $600
- Paul Krueger, OB Rag Writer, $585
- David Engel, City of San Diego Engineer, $550
- Scott Chipman, Design Synthesis, $500
- Randi Coulthard, Self-Employed, $500
- Adam Zack, Owner, Jensen’s Foods, $500
Nicole Crosby
Crosby is in second place with $34,667. According to the Voters’ Voice Initiatives, Crosby raised 20 times more money from outside D2 than from inside. Many of her donors are in the legal profession and in government. They include:
- Calvin Gines, Axos Bank, $1.550
- Lisa Rinaldi Teague, Retired (SF), $1,250
- Ann Council, San Diego Deputy DA, $800
- Doug Council, Viasat Inc., $800
- Smith Sirisakorn, Consultant, $800
- Michael Troncoso, Robbins Geller Rudman Dowd (GA), $800
- Nigel Adams, Retired, $750
- Paul Prather, SD City Attorney’s Office, $500
- Michael Maffel, Attorney, Google (SF), $500
- Lynn Haims, Wettstein Consulting, $500
Coming soon: Lists of contributors for races in District 4 (incumbent Henry Foster III running for re-election), District 6 (incumbent Kent Lee running), and District 8 (open seat election.)
Another way to put it, Mandy Havlik raised more money from inside D2 than from outside proportionately than either of the 2 main candidates.
Isn’t it just marvelous that the Supreme Court has made fundraising far more important than open debates and policies. Thank you so much you conservative justices (yes you too Lewis Powell) through Billotti, Buckley, & Citizen’s United for legalizing bribes, creating legislative whores, and letting billionaires and corporations buy elections, often in anonymity.
Sarcastically, thank you Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer for profiting from insider trading to the point your failed leadership never bothered introducing any legislation to counter the catastrophic Citizens United decision. Nor make any attempt to modify or fortify any of the existing campaign finance laws to counter the disastrous decision since 2010. Thank you Nancy Pelosi for your single-handed defiance against any discernible moral or ethical standards once reasonably expected by the People, Thank you for eliminating the expected norms from elected representatives long established by “the appearance of impropriety” so you could become an insider stock trading wunderkind while still maintaining your position in public office.
Why is the OB Rag pushing Mandy Havlik so much, this newspaper only has one agenda and it seems to be the agenda of the publisher/founder of this publication. She has no experience and will get eaten up alive on City Council.
The OB Rag isn’t pushing Mandy; local Democratic clubs and community groups did, after interviews and vetting. Mandy has seven years of elected service on the Peninsula Community Planning Board, real budget experience, and a long record of neighborhood advocacy. I wouldn’t consider that “no experience”. Instead, its leadership grown from working directly with the community!
Havlik and Crosby will listen to their constituents. Coyne will do whatever California Strategies wants him to do.
I attended a city council meeting where the citizens of Encanto were fighting against the city repurposing park land to housing via a little known and very questionable ‘footnote” to the community plan, which would have serious implications for the other communities fighting the overly generous ADU policies. Mandy, who is not a rep for Encanto, spoke against the ‘footnote’ and the city’s plans to contravene the spirit of the plan using it, even though it is unclear as to how it got added to the plan. Mandy was well prepared, cogent, realistic and a very impressive voice for Encanto and the exploitative policies used by the city to change zoning and build anywhere. I was and am very impressed. I believe she will truly represent D2, unlike our current rep. The other two candidates are too much tied to the current administration and its developer donors. She will be the breath of fresh air that D2 needs. She is not beholding to the powers that be and will not be so. That in itself gets my vote.
Well said, Deborah, and I agree 100%!
Angela Vedder is probably Mandys Campaign manager and best friend and that is why you are backing Mandy so much, I think we need to look at Mike Rickey For City Council District 2 too. I dont see any news on Mike Rickey and he has been showing up a lot lately for District 2. He is a native of San Diego (Clairemont) and we dont need transplants running for D2, we need locals and Mandy is a transplant and has not been here long enough and mostly just an activist for Ocean Beach. Can the OB Rag interview Mike Rickey?