Endorsement Wars - Suen team touts Bees endorsement, Ly rolls out elected officials in most recent mailers

Steve Ly (left) and Darren Suen are offering different narratives on their endorsements. | 

October 22, 2018 |

Even though the first independent expenditure committee has injected itself into Elk Grove hotly contested mayoral race between Tracie Stafford, Darren Suen, and Steve Ly, at least two of the candidates are no dueling over endorsements.

In mailers received this weekend from the Ly and Suen campaigns, the two current members are engaged in a contest to outduel each other in a sort of adult popularity contest. 

For Suen, he has taken on the second phase of his endorsement marketing. After telling voters of his support from fellow council members Steve Detrick, Pat Hume, and Stephanie Nguyen and a host of visible office holders such as Assemblymember Jim Cooper, this weekend he pulled out the big gun. 

In what is a mailer paid by Suen, Hume, and Nguyen, the artillery in this battle is the endorsement from the editorial board of the Sacramento Bee. The mailer copy uses excerpts of the editorial that also gave support to Hume and Nguyen.

Along with the legacy publication's endorsement, the piece also included logos from a variety of labor unions and business advocacy groups. 

For Ly, although he does not have the highly visible office holders of the Suen camp, his weekend piece included 16 endorsements from former and current officeholders with former Elk Grove Mayor Gary Davis being the most recognizable. Also included was the logo of Los Rios College Federation of Teachers which has endorsed his candidacy.

Unlike earlier mailers, Ly did not include his Team Elk Grove which featured four other Elk Grove candidates. Included on Ly's Team, Elk Grove includes Elk Grove City Council candidates Andres Ramos and Orlando Fuentes who are respectively challenging Hume and Nguyen, and Rod Brewer, who is an incumbent, and Jaclyn Moreno who are vying for two at-large seats on the Cosumnes Community Services District Board of Directors. 

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