Incumbent San Francisco Judge Richard Ulmer is still adding heft to his campaign war chest in the home stretch of the judicial race.
According to documents filed this week, Ulmer raised $38,000 between Oct. 1 and Oct. 16.
His opponent, Michael Nava, raised a little more than $5,000 in the same period. Nava’s husband also loaned the campaign $50,000 earlier this month. Since the start of the year, Ulmer’s funds have topped $300,000, if you include a $50,000 loan he made to his campaign last winter. Many of his $1,000 gifts in October have come from San Francisco law firms and lawyers, including trial attorney Thomas Brandi, the Law Offices of Nevin & Absalom, the Law Offices of Cesari, Werner & Moriarty, and Abramson, Smith, Waldsmith (partner Albert Abramson also separately gave Ulmer $1,000).
Nava took in 18 total cash gifts, including $1,000 contributions each from Los Angeles attorney Peter Nichols and from a 2008 campaign committee of Assemblyman Joe Coto (D-San Jose).
Meanwhile, Nava has been fending off attacks this week by Ulmer’s camp over his chosen Chinese translation for his name on the November ballot. As the Sing Tao Daily first reported last month in a story about various candidates’ translated names, Nava transcribed his surname as “Lee” and “Jing Ping,” which means “fair and just.” San Francisco Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius ran with the “controversy” on Tuesday.
“It would be like someone who is Irish registering as Jose Gonzales,” San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing, an Ulmer backer, told Nevius.
The court’s presiding judge – a staunch Ulmer supporter – tweaked that comparison by tuning into Giants fever in an interview today.
“It’d be like Barry Zito running for election as Cody Ross,” said Judge James McBride.
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