www.montereycountyweekly.com November 16-22, 2023 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 15 The candidate filing period for the 2024 primary elections only officially opened on Monday, Nov. 13, but local voters already have a sense of who will be running to represent them on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. While three of the board’s five seats are up for grabs on March 5, two of those seats—held by District 1 Supervisor Luis Alejo and District 4 Supervisor Wendy Root Askew—so far remain uncontested by any challengers. In District 5, incumbent Mary Adams has already announced her plans to retire, leaving the seat wide open. Three candidates have so far launched campaigns to succeed Adams: Monterey County Planning Commissioner (and Adams’ former chief of staff) Kate Daniels; Monterey City Councilmember Alan Haffa; and Bill Lipe, an agricultural businessman and water policy advocate. Both Daniels and Haffa announced their bids in May, while Lipe followed suit in September. If no candidate receives over 50 percent of the vote in the primary, the top two vote-getters will go to November 2024’s general election. Upon launching her campaign, Daniels unveiled a broad set of endorsements from elected officials— including four sitting county supervisors—and has gained a heavy fundraising advantage, with over $160,000 raised in the first six months of 2023, per her most recent fundraising disclosure. Haffa, an English professor at Monterey Peninsula College, has secured endorsements from local city councilmembers and school board officials, and raised $15,000 through the first six months of the year, per fundraising records. (Lipe’s endorsements were not publicly available, and he’s yet to file a fundraising disclosure.) While declining to provide specifics on her fundraising totals in the second half of this year, Daniels says they will likely be significantly less than the $160,000 she previously reported. “Fundraising takes a lot of time. My focus has really been on connecting with voters,” she says. “I don’t expect I’m going to have some tremendous [disclosure] at the end of December. I’ll continue to meet as many people as I can, and raise money as we go.” Haffa and Lipe did not return requests for comment. A lack of announced challengers has not prevented either Alejo or Askew from continuing to raise campaign funds. Alejo raised more than $56,000 in the first half of the year, bringing his total campaign funds on hand to nearly $242,000. Askew raised more than $152,000 in that period, taking her total funds to just over $167,000. Askew says she anticipates reporting around $200,000 in total cash raised come her year-end campaign finance disclosure. “I have to be prepared to launch a campaign—we just don’t know against who at this point,” says the first-term supervisor. To that end, Askew is celebrating her birthday with a fundraiser on Sunday, Nov. 19, at the Joby Aviation facility in Marina. More candidates could still come into the fold. The deadline to file is Dec. 8, and in District 5, where no incumbent is running, it’s Dec. 13. Off to the Races The field is shaping up for the Board of Supervisors primary election in March. By Rey Mashayekhi Supervisor Mary Adams is retiring after two terms representing District 5. She has endorsed her former staffer, Kate Daniels, to replace her. NEWS “I have to be prepared to launch a campaign.” DANIEL DREIFUSS
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