Coronado, known as a friendly and serene island community with nonpartisan elections, has somehow erupted into open combat between Republicans and Democrats, with both sides seemingly relying on political action committees (PACs) to wage their electoral fight.
That conflict, which mirrors the partisan acrimony and cultural warfare going on nationwide, has been compounded with rumors and misinformation amplified on social media outlets and even at a City Council meeting.
According to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, there are 3,555 Democrats and 4,198 Republicans registered in Coronado as of Oct. 1.
PACs backing (or vilifying) Democrat and Republican candidates have operated behind the scenes in Coronado’s 2024 election, with accusations thrown around the city on both sides.
The vitriol reached a level where City Council candidate Andrew Gade submitted a letter to the The Coronado News editor, weighing in on the rise of partisan nastiness.
There has been a troubling rise in divisive rhetoric this year … This kind of partisan politics hinders progress and diminishes our ability to address local issues effectively.
City Council candidate Andrew Gade
“There has been a troubling rise in divisive rhetoric this year,” Gade wrote. “This kind of partisan politics hinders progress and diminishes our ability to address local issues effectively. Instead of focusing on personal attacks, we should work towards practical solutions for the city that we all love and are deeply committed to.”
A federal super PAC
In emails and at a City Council meeting this month, Coronado resident Brad Gerbel – a Republican campaign figure – made a number of allegations about an entity known as the Marvin Lucas SuperPAC. The super PAC, registered with the Coronado City Clerk, has one major contributor, Gail Bardin, a local resident who donated $10,000.
Gerbel asserted that the organization was formed on behalf of U.S. Rep. Marvin Lucas, a North Carolina Democrat, but “is now being revived to meddle in Coronado’s local election.”
The congressman’s office did not immediately respond to inquiries. However, contrary to Gerbel’s claim, Bardin said the Marvin Lucas SuperPAC has nothing to do with the representative by that name. Rather, she said, the committee is named for the fictional political consultant in Robert Redford’s 1972 movie, “The Candidate,” which won an Oscar for screenplay.
“The movie was back in the ‘70s, so it’s like an inside joke for people who are of the ‘70s and who are political,” she explained.
Bardin is a Democrat with a long history of donating to democratic recipients including Harris For President, the Democratic National Committee and ActBlue, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Gerbel also claimed that the Marvin Lucas SuperPAC had been co-opted to support local City Council candidate Laura Wilkinson Sinton, which would have been illegal according to rules that say super PACs are not allowed to coordinate with the candidates they are supporting themselves.
Bardin scoffed at that allegation, which she described as completely false.
I have candidates that I wanted to support – not City Council candidates, but school board and board of supervisor candidates. The City Council is not my issue. All my friends know that the school board is my issue.
“I have candidates that I wanted to support – not City Council candidates, but school board and board of supervisor candidates,” Bardin said. “The City Council is not my issue. All my friends know that the school board is my issue.”
Wilkinson Sinton, in turn, accused Gerbel, who has been Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey’s campaign manager and treasurer, of mudslinging and running a smear campaign against her and another City Council candidate, Christine Mott.
The Marvin Lucas SuperPAC
Super PACs are independent campaign committees that can raise unlimited funds to advocate for or against political candidates. However, they are not allowed to directly donate to any candidates, and their spending must not be coordinated with the candidates they benefit, according to opensecrets.org.
The Marvin Lucas SuperPAC originally filed with the city on Oct. 11 as a city committee, but on Oct. 22, filed an amendment that they were a county committee.
Bardin’s campaign contribution, which is one of two this year to the Marvin Lucas SuperPAC, finances a website known as letmajorityrule.org. According to that website, the nonpartisan organization seeks to “ensure America hears the voice of the majority of voters.” Its goals include termination of the filibuster tactic in the U.S. Senate.
The super PAC’s treasurer is a man named George Vasilopoulos, an internet marketing specialist and manager for political talk-radio personalities. He was the other contributor to the super PAC, giving $500 in May.
Affiliation with local candidate
In his email and City Council statement, Gerbel noted Wilkinson Sinton’s husband, Jon Sinton, worked with Vasilopoulos in the past.
If the super PAC is working with Wilkinson Sinton, Gerbel suggested, that would be a violation of the super PAC laws.
There appears to be a connection between the principal officer of the super PAC and Laura’s husband. Which leads me to believe that this transaction is being done to support Laura Sinton’s campaign.
Brad Gerbel
“There appears to be a connection between the principal officer of the super PAC and Laura’s husband,” Gerbel said to The Coronado News. “Which leads me to believe that this transaction is being done to support Laura Sinton’s campaign.”
Gerbel is the 78th Assembly District representative on the Central Committee of the Republican Party of San Diego along with Bailey, who also sits on the committee as the caucus chair. While he reported about a SuperPAC getting involved with local elections, Gerbel in the past served as treasurer of a congressional campaign committee that supports similar activity on behalf of Republicans in Coronado municipal elections.
In an email to The Coronado News, Gerbel wrote that “Bardin’s actions appear to be an attempt to circumvent these laws … A referral has already been made to the city’s Independent Counsel to investigate this potential violation. It’s crucial that no single individual is allowed to exert undue influence over our elections in this way.”
Bailey said Gerbel is “by far the most knowledgeable person on campaign finance law in Coronado, which is why I found his comments interesting.”
City officials declined to say whether an investigation is underway, asserting that any information about the matter is protected by attorney/client privilege.
Wilkinson Sinton is a Democrat who contributed to ActBlue in mid 2024. Her husband, Jon, has a prominent history as a progressive media executive. In 2003, Jon helped found a liberal-leaning radio network named Air America and, in 2011, he started the non-profit Progressive Voices Institute, Inc. with Vasilopoulos.
Wilkinson Sinton said that history allows her husband to do political networking.
He’s had a rich and storied career, you know, in New York and Atlanta, and he knows a lot of people. So, you know, we make introductions to people all the time
“He’s had a rich and storied career, you know, in New York and Atlanta, and he knows a lot of people. So, you know, we make introductions to people all the time,” she added, including the connection between Bardin and Vasilopoulos.
Wilkinson Sinton accused Gerbel, who complained about injecting party politics into a local race, of doing exactly that.
“Brad Gerbel is a known political operative … He is a partisan who is mudslinging,” Wilkinson Sinton said. “We used to have non-partisan politics here … The Republican Party is coming in with a smear campaign trying to paint us as something that we’re not.”
Bardin said she can’t disclose which candidates she’s advocating for school board or board of supervisors because of how strict the super PAC rules are about coordinating with the campaign itself.
But, because campaign finance laws put strict limits on how much an individual can donate directly to a campaign, she chose to use a political action committee that allows more flexibility.
“I saw tiny campaign budgets for my candidates, and I wanted to do something more,” Bardin said. “And I’m a total newbie. I had no idea who could help me with that.”
So, Bardin said, she turned to her friends – specifically, Jon – who recommended the Marvin Lucas SuperPAC.
Bardin told The Coronado News that she is friends with Wilkinson Sinton and Jon, and that she supports Wilkinson Sinton’s campaign to run for City Council.
But the money donated to the Marvin Lucas SuperPAC was not for Wilkinson Sinton or any other City Council candidate.
“I knew in donating this money that it’d be posted publicly … What I didn’t expect, but I probably should have, is that Brad Gerbel would use it to attack me by spreading innuendos and taking guesses about what I was going to do with the money and who I was going to support,” Bardin added.
Community Leadership Coalition
Meanwhile, there is another PAC that is making its rounds on the island and has actually endorsed local candidates.
The PAC is the Community Leadership Coalition, financed in part by Bailey’s former congressional committee, where Gerbel served as treasurer. In 2022, the coalition endorsed multiple San Diego candidates as well as current Coronado City Council member John Duncan in his successful run for that office.
The Community Leadership Coalition is a non-federal general purpose recipient committee, according to their treasurer April Boling, which is often referred to as a PAC, as stated by the Fair Political Practices Commission manual.
The coalition is sponsored by the Lincoln Club of San Diego County – a federal PAC that has a decades-long history of supporting conservative candidates according to the FEC – and has also donated to the Republican Party of San Diego County, with contributions made in 2022 and 2024. The most recent donation by the coalition to the party was on Aug. 21 for $50,000.
One of the Leadership Coalition’s biggest contributors in 2022 was Adriana Camberos who donated $20,000 that year. Camberos was convicted in a scheme to distribute fake 5-hour energy drinks in 2017 and subsequently was pardoned in a group of 11th-hour commutations by former President Donald Trump.
She went on trial earlier this month on new charges committing fraudulent schemes just weeks after her sentence was commuted in 2021. According to the San Diego Union Tribune, prosecutors allege that Camberos, 53, and her brother Andres Enrique Camberos, 45, operated a fraud scheme similar to the one that previously sent Camberos to prison.
In 2022, Bailey said he had donated to the Community Leadership Coalition. Bailey’s contributions through his former congressional committee totaled $28,000 that year.
The coalition gave just over $4,100 to endorse Duncan that year for his run for City Council.
Gerbel told The Coronado News that he also had contributed to the coalition in 2022, and said his donations were different because they are not a federal PAC, and he never knew where his donations were going.
(The Community Leadership Coalition) is not a super PAC. When you give to an IE (Independent Expenditure), your contributions are not earmarked. That IE supports many candidates, so I don’t even know what that money was used for.
Brad Gerbel
“(The Community Leadership Coalition) is not a super PAC. When you give to an IE (Independent Expenditure), your contributions are not earmarked. That IE supports many candidates, so I don’t even know what that money was used for,” Gerbel said.
In a subsequent phone call, Gerbel said he never donated to the coalition. The Coronado News was unable to find records of any donations by him.
However, there are records of Gerbel donating $1,000 to the Lincoln Club, which is a federal PAC, in Sept. 2024, and the Lincoln Club has endorsed Duncan and Mark Warner and Mark Fleming for City Council in this year’s election cycle.
The Community Leadership Coalition has also sent out mailers for and against local candidates as well as recommendations on who to vote for.
According to the coalition’s campaign statement, filed with the city earlier this month, it spent $2,884 in support of Duncan for mayor, $1,897 opposing Wilkinson Sinton for City Council and $1,255 opposing council member Casey Tanaka for mayor. It also spent $1,897 opposing Bill Sandke for Coronado School Board.
In a voter guide sent to Coronado residents, the Community Leadership Coalition endorsed Duncan for mayor and Amy Steward and Fleming for City Council. On the back of the guide was an “election warning” against Wilkinson Sinton and Sandke.
The cannabis connection
Gerbel also wrote in his email to The Coronado News that Wilkinson Sinton’s candidacy has been “riddled with misleading claims,” linking a website he made in which he claims to fact check Wilkinson Sinton about many things, including her role as a consultant to the cannabis industry.
During the Oct. 15 council meeting, Gerbel claimed Wilkinson Sinton was “hiding the fact that she is a cannabis entrepreneur,” yet at the same time he recognized she has spoken openly about it.
Wilkinson Sinton said she has never tried to hide her role in the cannabis business. In fact, Gerbel’s own page – created to fact check Wilkinson Sinton – shows she disclosed that involvement when she applied to serve on two Coronado commissions.
I am an open book, nothing that I have done has been illegal or unethical. Anybody can do a Google search and see what I’m up to.
Laura Wilkinson Sinton
“I am an open book, nothing that I have done has been illegal or unethical,” Wilkinson Sinton said. “Anybody can do a Google search and see what I’m up to.”
She added that Coronado has strict codes governing cannabis, making it “unlawful to establish or operate a marijuana dispensary, medical marijuana collective, or … any other business establishment associated with any type of commercial marijuana activity within the City,” according to Coronado’s municipal codes.
Wilkinson Sinton said if she is elected and an issue involving cannabis comes before the City Council, she would recuse herself.
The Mayor’s endorsements
There have been a few other endorsements sent out to the Coronado community, including one from RMNNT – a group associated with the controversial Awaken Church and created to influence local politics, according to its website.
RMNNT endorsed Duncan for mayor, Fleming and Warner for City Council. Duncan, Fleming and Warner all said they did not ask for or contact RMNNT for endorsements.
Bailey, who is not running for office, sent out an email endorsing Duncan for mayor, Fleming and Warner for City Council. The current mayor urged voters to reject Wilkinson Sinton and Mott.
In response to the recommendations by the mayor, Mott, who is running for City Council, noted that Bailey’s mailer contains a letterhead that resembles the Coronado municipal emblem. On the private Facebook group, Coronado Happenings, Mott complained that the Bailey’s personal voter guide for Coronado “features a rip off of the City’s seal to give it an air of authority.”
Another resident, Mary Sue Anderson, commented, “How can the mayor send out an official-looking document telling voters to vote only for members of his own party?”
Coronado’s municipal codes state that “the common seal of the City of Coronado shall consist of the following device: a crown with the inscription, ‘City of Coronado, State of California,’ arranged in a circle, surrounding the crown.”
Bailey’s letterhead shows a crown with words arranged in a circle surrounding the crown. It says “51st Mayor” and “Coronado, CA” in the circle.
The codes also say that it is unlawful to “make or use any design which is an imitation of official City insignia or of the design thereof … for any purpose other than for City purposes.”
According to Bailey, he’s been using that seal for eight years and no one has ever brought up issues with it before.
It is only sent from my personal email account. I never represent it as official communications from the city.
Mayor Richard Bailey
“It is only sent from my personal email account. I never represent it as official communications from the city,” Bailey added.
He said the letterhead is only an issue now because Wilkinson Sinton and Mott do not agree with the contents of the email.
A complaint was filed with Coronado’s special counsel, according to Wilkinson Sinton, but the city said any information about the matter would be protected by attorney/client privilege.
