VALLEJO – Over 500 individuals, businesses and organizations have donated more than $250,000 to support political campaigns of candidates in the Solano County Board of Supervisor races to represent Vallejo and Benicia ahead of the March 5 primary next week. 

But well over half, about $135,000, come from just 28 sources.

In total, donors have contributed about $233,380 to campaigns for District 1 supervisor, which represents the northern area of Vallejo. Michael Wilson, an aide to outgoing Solano County Supervisor Erin Hannigan, has raised the most money for his campaign. He took in about $145,700 from at least 195 different sources. His opponent, San Francisco senior community development specialist Cassandra James, took in about $87,680 from at least 275 different sources.

Special coverage: March 5 primary election in Solano County

A statewide primary election will be held on March 5. Solano County residents will vote for state Senator, Assembly, Board of Supervisors and judge.

The Vallejo SunScott Morris

Meanwhile, there has been far less spending in the District 2 race, which represents southern Vallejo, Benicia and part of Fairfield. Only one candidate, consultant Rochelle Sherlock, has reported campaign donations. She has received about $18,135 from at least 35 different sources. Incumbent Monica Brown is financing her own campaign through about $25,000 in loans. Real estate broker Nora Dizon has financed her run by investing $30,900 in her own campaign and taking out about $2,920 in loans.

We’ve listed the top ten highest donors for Wilson, James, and Sherlock below. When multiple people or companies from the same entity donated, we combined these donations. Since two of these donors supported multiple candidates, there are 28 total sources. We started with Wilson, who received the most amount in donations, and ended with Sherlock, who received the least amount of donations.

Top donors for Michael Wilson

1. Owners of The Wagner Family of Wine, a group of family owned businesses that sell some of the U.S.’s best known fine wines, donated about $32,200 in total. Owners Charles F. ‘Charlie' Wagner, Charles J. ‘Chuck’ Wagner, and Jennifer ‘Jenny’ Wagner Clark of Rutherford each donated $10,000, while the company Caymus Suisun Winery donated about $2,200. 

Chuck and Charlie Wagner have regularly donated to California state political campaigns, spending about $100,000, mostly since 2013, on candidates, ballot measures and committees, along with at least $15,000 on Napa County races since 2020. Some of these donations have been to opposing factions within the same election, such as both supporting and opposing the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom. In addition to his donation to Wilson, Chuck Wagner also donated $10,000 to James’s campaign. Charlie and Chuck Wagner along with Caymus Suisun are three of the about 40 named people or entities that recently received FBI subpoenas in connection with a controversial Napa land deal.

2. Two businessmen who run Vallejo cemetery Skyview Memorial Lawn, Joshua Voss and Buck Kamphausen, donated $7,500 in total. Voss donated $5,000 and Kamphausen donated $2,500. 

The duo recently gave up their licenses to operate Skyview and three other cemeteries after facing a state accusation over their handling of the facilities’ finances and records. They’ve managed to maintain control over the cemeteries by transferring them to a newly founded religious nonprofit that they control. They’re currently in a court dispute with the state that will determine if they can maintain control over the over $50 million in cemetery trust fund assets, which include at least 15 properties in Vallejo. At least 10 of these buildings have faced complaints from residents over their maintenance.

3. Chei Chen “CC” Yin of Vacaville donated $5,800. As of 2020, Yin owns 30 McDonald’s franchises across Solano County and California. With his wife Regina, he owns Yin Ranch, a 40-acre event space. He’s the founder of the nonprofit Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs. He regularly donates to campaigns for state office, giving almost $1 million to 404 candidates and political expenditure committees between 2001-2023.

4. Suzanne Olawski of Vallejo donated $5,755. She’s the Director of Library Services for Solano County.

5. Northern California Carpenters Regional Council Small Contributor Committee donated  $5,249. The committee donates on behalf of the NorCal Carpenters Union which represents over 37,000 workers in the construction industry.

6. Mobile home park Olympia of Vallejo LLC and its owners James and Susan Syar, donated $5,000. James Syar is associated with at least a dozen companies, including vineyard, development, land-surveying, and aggregate supply.

7. Lewis Investment Company LLC donated $2,500. It is part of the Lewis Group of Companies, which Randall W. Lewis of Upland has managed for over 50 years. The companies are one of the biggest developers in Southern California, owning over 11,000 apartments, 3,000 shopping centers and the land for more than 30,000 future homes and apartments.

8. Chamkaur Giri of Vallejo donated  $2,500. Giri runs Northbay Transit, a non-emergency medical transportation company, with his wife Kamlesh Giri.

9. Richard Geist of Benicia donated $2,000. He’s the CEO of Amcie, Inc., a commercial cleaning business.

10. Mel Gomez, a Vallejo based real estate agent, donated $1,800. Gomez serves on the board of the Solano Association of Realtors with former Vallejo councilmember and current mayoral candidate Pippen Dew.

Top donors for Cassandra James

1. Service Employees International Union Local 2015, commonly referred to as SEIU 2015, donated $27,000. The union represents an estimated 400,000 long term care workers across California.

2. Charles ‘Chuck' F. Wagner, one of the owners of The Wagner Family of Wine, donated $10,000. Wagner also donated $10,000 to Wilson’s campaign.

3. SEIU Local 1021 donated $5,500.  The union represents over 60,000 workers in local governments, schools, health care programs, and non-profit agencies in Northern California.

4. Tonia Lediju of Vallejo donated $2,500. Lediju has served as the CEO of the San Francisco Housing Authority since Mayor London Breed appointed her in 2021. She’s been a member of Vallejo’s Housing and Community Development Commission since the city council appointed her in 2023. Currently, she’s seeking to be elected as District 3 representative on Vallejo’s City Council.

5. Fairfield City Councilmember K. Patrice Williams donated $1,500. Williams ran unsuccessfully to be a Solano County supervisor in 2020. She’s the CEO of BrandGOV Outreach, a marketing and communications company whose clients have included Solano County, Burger King, Solano Community College and Kaiser Permanente. 

6. Retired Benicia resident Mary MacMillan donated $1,000.

7. Emeryville resident James ‘Jim’ Levine donated $1,000. Levine is an engineer and managing partner of Montezuma Wetlands LLC. 

The company’s website says it is a private initiative undertaken to address the historic loss of wetlands and find a use for sediments dredged from San Francisco Bay Area ports. Montezuma Wetlands has recently faced pushback from environmental groups against its plans to capture carbon from refineries, hydrogen plants, and power plants and inject them into land near the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers in Solano County.

8. Napa-Solano Building Trades Council, AFL-CIO donated $1,000. The council is made up of 50 affiliated unions in Napa and Solano counties representing over 50,000 trade, craft, and mass-production workers.

9. Fairfield resident Debbie Toth donated $800. Toth is the President and CEO of the nonprofit Choice in Aging, where she’s worked for over 20 years. Choice in Aging operates in Contra Costa, Napa, Sacramento and Solano counties and provides services for elderly people and those with disabilities.

10. Dionne Carter of Vallejo donated $650. Dionne Carter is the Executive Director of Vallejo Together, a nonprofit that supports homeless residents.

Top donors to Rochelle Sherlock

1. Fairfield-Suisun Chamber of Commerce, which advocates for about 50 businesses and business owners mostly located in Fairfield, donated $5,000.

2. Fairfield resident Sarah Lindemann donated $2,500. Lindemann is a co-owner of Green Valley Cattle Co., a cattle ranch which opened in 1979. She’s also the president of the Green Valley Agricultural Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that manages and monitors agricultural land and pastures in the Green Valley.

3. SEIU 2015 donated $1,500.

4. Davis resident Cythnia ‘Cindi’ Unger donated $1,000. Unger has worked for over 30 years in the elder care industry. She’s currently an elder care manager at Elder Care Management, a company that helps families navigate services options for seniors. In 2019, Rep. John Garamendi honored her as a Congressional Woman of the Year for her advocacy work for people that have memory impairments.

5. Vacaville resident Michelle Strand donated about $1,040. Strand is the owner of Interstate 80 Forklift, a company that sells, rents and fixes forklifts. Interstate 80 Forklift donated $760 to the Solano County Republican Central Committee in 2018.

6. California State Sen. Bill Dodd’s campaign fund and one of Dodd’s high ranking employees donated $800 in total. Bill Dodd for Lt Governor 2026 donated $500 and Dodd’s district director Tom Bartee donated $300. Bartlee is also a former Vallejo City Council Member.

7. Former Solano County Board Supervisor Duane Kromm donated about $510. Recently, Kromm has publicly criticized the wealthy tech and venture capitalist investors behind California Forever, a company that has been buying up land in southeastern Solano County for the last six years with plans to build a new city.

8. Fairfield resident Marilyn Manfredi donated $500. Manfredi is retired after working for over 20 years for medical companies. Between 2010 and 2014 Manfredi donated $1,440 to state election campaigns, all of which went to three Republican candidates: Meg Whitman’s 2010 run for governor, Mike Hudson’s 2012 run for state Assembly, and Ashley Swearengin’s 2014 run for state Controller.

9. Nancy Nelson of Green Valley donated $500. She works as a project manager for OAG Architects, a home design company. Sen. Bill Dodd honored her as a Solano County Woman of the Year in 2019 for her work with Solano-Napa Habitat for Humanity.

10. Vallejo resident Peter Wilson donated $500. Wilson is the executive director of the nonprofit Vallejo Senior Citizens Council, which operates the Florence Douglas Center in Vallejo, a city-owned facility that offers educational, recreational, health, and counseling services to seniors. He’s the husband of District 1 candidate Michael Wilson.