Big PAC money drop stirs San Diego District 8 race

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The race to succeed San Diego City Council member Vivian Moreno quietly escalated this month when a statewide political action committee dropped $100,000 in support of candidate Gerardo Ramirez.

The contribution was made to an independent committee formed to support Ramirez, who is currently the chief of staff to Moreno. It came from the Latino Caucus of California Counties PAC, which bills itself as a bipartisan group promoting Latino appointed and elected officials statewide. 

While the LCCC PAC collects money from a variety of sources around the state, recent campaign filing records show three-quarters of the contribution supporting Ramirez came from National Enterprises, Inc. and the remainder from the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce over a two-day span in March.

National Enterprises is the largest individual landowner in Otay Mesa, a portion of which is in the district. Most of Otay Mesa falls under the county’s control, and that is where the company has been working to get approvals for a controversial new landfill for years. 

Records show that on March 24 National Enterprises gave $75,000 to the LCCC PAC.

Two days later the chamber contributed $25,000.

Less than a month later, on April 20, the PAC made a $100,000 contribution to Working Families in Support of Gerardo Ramirez for City Council 2026, an independent expenditure committee. That committee was formed six days before, according to registration documents filed with the city clerk.

Disclosures for the PAC filed with the Secretary of State show that the money from the chamber and National Enterprises are the only contributions it reported receiving from San Diego this year. 

David Wick, the president of National Enterprises, said he intended that the money go to support Ramirez, who he called “a great politician and community member who will make a big difference for our community.”

When asked why he did not directly contribute to the independent committee, Wick said he was unaware one had been formed.

“I thought this was a good mechanism to get him funds for his campaign because I think he is the best candidate for District 8,” he wrote in a text message response.

Independent committees are prohibited under law from coordinating their work with the candidate or cause they support. 

Moreno is leaving the council because of term limits. Last year, she ran for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors. She lost to eventual winner Paloma Aguirre.

Wick and family members individually contributed more than $5,000 to Moreno’s primary campaign. 

Controversy over the proposed landfill has simmered for years in South County. It would be located on a 450-acre plot east of the Siempre Viva Road exit off state Route 905 and a quarter mile north of the international border. 

In 2024 state Sen. Steve Padilla, whose district includes the council district, introduced a bill that would have prohibited the state Regional Water Quality Board from issuing a permit for a landfill anywhere in the Tijuana River watershed.

Though the landfill is outside the city limits, Moreno wrote a letter opposing the original version of the bill, writing it would interfere with the permitting process already underway for the proposed landfill. That set her apart from other South County officials who came out in support of Padilla’s bill. 

The legislation ultimately failed after strong opposition from Assemblymember David Alvarez, who represents South Bay and is a former city councilman. Moreno worked on his staff before winning the seat in 2018.

Ramirez said he knows Wick from his work as the community representative for the council office for the Otay Mesa area. Wick’s large landholdings put him in frequent contact with the council office, he said.

He said he was unaware of the large contribution from Wick’s company. And while he said any landfill should comply with state environmental laws, he declined to say if he supported or opposed the landfill as his boss did.

The environmental report assessing the impacts from the landfill is not yet completed, Ramirez said. He said he would wait until the report is released before making that decision.

The two donations accounted for more than a third of all the money the PAC reported receiving in 2026, campaign disclosure records show. And it appears to be the only money so far that the PAC has directed for San Diego city elections.

The money can certainly boost Ramirez’s campaign. His latest filing from April 18 showed he has raised $21,000 this year, and has $10,000 cash on hand. 

That put him behind candidate Antonio Martinez, who reported raising $10,000 and has $72,000 on hand, and Venus Molina, who raised $12,000 and reported $47,000 cash on hand. 

An independent committee supporting Molina that was formed last year has raised about $7,500, including a $5,000 contribution from a PAC of the Sycuan tribal nation on April 23.

The money race heated up further when on Tuesday a committee supporting Martinez registered with the city clerk. The “San Diegans for Public Safety Supporting Antonio Martinez for City Council 2026” is backed by the union for San Diego firefighters and the UNITE HERE! Local 30 hospitality workers.