Big Money Pours Into South Bay Supervisor Race

The race to fill a vacant seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is entering the home stretch – and an onslaught of high-dollar contributions is powering the candidates’ final sprint toward a July 1 voting deadline.

Big-dollar checks are flowing into campaign accounts daily, including a recent eye-watering $250,000 contribution from an electrical workers union to a committee supporting Democrat Paloma Aguirre and $50,000 from the developer of a controversial proposed landfill to a committee supporting Republican John McCann.

Political analyst Mason Herron, who tracks local campaign spending, said he can barely keep up with it all. “Money is flowing in thick and fast – and confusingly,” he said. 

With multiple committees raising, spending and transferring money to one another, Herron said only the most dedicated financial sleuth can follow it all.

“You have to be very vigilant,” he said.

Totals so far: Committees supporting Aguirre have raised more than $800,000, almost all of it from major labor unions, including unions representing county employees, laborers, domestic workers and healthcare workers. Most of those groups have a stake in upcoming county spending and policy decisions.

McCann’s supporters have raised more – roughly $1 million – though Herron cautioned that Democrats’ fundraising often shows up late in races and Aguirre and her supporters could end up outspending McCann.

Major Republican backers include the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Building Industry Association of San Diego County, real estate interests and the Lincoln Club, home to San Diego’s Republican power brokers. Those donors hope to flip the board to back Republican control and undo what they describe as years of ineffective Democratic governance.

One small but notable contribution. On March 31, 2025, a donor identifying himself as Andres Camberos gave McCann’s campaign committee $100. The donation came less than one month before an Andres Camberos living at the same address was sentenced to one year of home detention for his part in a complex fraud scheme that also involved his sister, Adriana Camberos. Both Camberos siblings recently made news for their multiple past ties to McCann. Camberos, through his lawyer, declined to comment.