Berkeley Election 2018. Photo: Pete Rosos

30 things you might not know about Berkeley’s elections:

  1. Amount real estate independent expenditure groups have spent to defeat City Councilmember Cheryl Davila, who is running for reelection in District 2: $41,958
  2. Amount union independent expenditure groups have spent supporting Davila: $14,180
  3. Amount a San Francisco-based housing independent expenditure group has spent to promote the D2 campaigns of Terry Taplin and Alex Sharenko: $19,900
  4. Amount firefighter unions and some City Council members have expended in support of Measure FF: $86,305
  5. Amount real estate interests have spent to elect the rent board slate of Bahman Ahmadi, Dan McDunn, Soulmaz Panahi, Wendy Saenz Hood Neufeld,and Pawel Moldenhawer: $107,516
  6. Amount a Sacramento-based PR firm has spent to support that rent board slate: $30,000
  7. Amount independent expenditure groups have spent to support opposing rent board slate: $0
  8. Amount the city of Berkeley has paid in matching campaign funds: $294,264
  9. Number of mass mailings* Mayor Jesse Arreguín has done: 1
  10. Number of mass mailings Wayne Hsiung, mayoral candidate, has done: 6
  11. Number of mass mailings Aidan Hill, mayoral candidate, has done: 1
  12. Number of Berkeley donors who have given $50 to Hsiung in 2020: 400
  13. Number of Berkeley donors who have given to Arreguín in 2020: 404
  14. Number of Berkeley donors who gave to Arreguín in 2019: 316
  15. Number of donors who gave to Arreguín in 2020: 600
  16. Number of $50 donors who gave to Hsiung in 2020: 1,146
  17. Amount Arreguín has loaned to his own campaign: $15,000
  18. Amount Arreguín had spent by Oct. 17 on his campaign: $83,441
  19. Amount Hsiung had spent by Oct. 17 on his campaign: $105,501
  20. Amount Hill had spent by Oct. 17: $12,641
  21. Number of mailers D6 City Councilmember Susan Wengraf sent out: 5
  22. Number of mailers Richard Illgen, candidate for D6, sent out: 9
  23. Amount of money City Councilmember Sophie Hahn had raised by Oct. 17: $52,637
  24. Amount of money Todd Andrew, candidate for D5, had raised by Oct 17: $3,836
  25. Amount of money Darwin Paul Picklesimer, candidate for D5, had raised by Oct 17: $1,889
  26. Number of Berkeley candidates Danny Glover, the actor and activist, has endorsed (Cheryl Davila, Wayne Hsiung and Ben Bartlett): 3
  27. Number of ballot drop boxes in Berkeley: 6
  28. Number of voting centers in Berkeley: 11
  29. Time the polls open: 7 a.m.
  30. Time the polls close: 8 p.m.
  31. Number of election opinion pieces published on Berkeleyside: 43

How Berkeleyside compiled this data: We reviewed the campaign finance forms filed with the city of Berkeley; we went to the City Clerk’s office to look at the campaign mailers and the mass mailer index; we crunched numbers from NetFile, the city’s election database; and we reviewed candidates’ endorsement pages. *Mass mailings can mean flyers sent through the mail or dropped at residences.

Frances Dinkelspiel, Berkeleyside and CItyside co-founder, is a journalist and author. Her first book, Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California, published in November...