The 49ers continue to spend big against Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor and her candidates in District 2 and District 3.
In the last week, they put another $583,000 into their six independent expenditure committees supporting Anthony Becker for Mayor, and Karen Hardy and Raj Chahal for re-election to the City Council and opposing council candidates Larry McColloch and Christian Pellecchia and Gillmor for re-election. This brings the 49ers’ PACs’ war chest to $3.8 million.
Related has donated another $150,000 to a PAC supporting Gillmor, bringing that total to $250,000, but has reported no spending.
Candidates Direct Donations
The first financial reports show Gillmor leading with $20,000 on hand: $11,800 in donations and an $8,300 loan from herself. Gillmor received donations from two PACs: The League of Conservation Voters and Build Jobs PAC, a Sacramento-based PAC representing developers, builders, contractors and real estate businesses.
Gillmor did not accept the City’s voluntary direct spending limit, which was adopted in 2000 when Gillmor was finishing her second term on the City Council. The ordinance sets a voluntary limit on how much candidates can spend — currently $47,580 — and allows up to $650 in individual donations, with a $99 limit on cash donations.
Candidates who don’t accept the spending limit are limited to $320 in individual donations. (The City Clerk’s webpage incorrectly states the limits as $630 and $310). Candidates can make unlimited loans to their own campaigns.
Gillmor’s challenger for Santa Clara Mayor, Council Member for District 6 Anthony Becker, has received $12,200 in donations.
Sitting Council Member District 2 Raj Chahal has $17,400 on hand: $8,900 in donations and an $8,500 loan to himself. Chahal’s challenger, Larry McColloch has $2,500: $500 in donations and a $2,000 loan to himself.
In District 3, incumbent Karen Hardy has $7,300 on hand, $4,300 in donations and a $3,000 loan from herself. Hardy received one PAC donation from the Santa Clara County League of Conservative Voters.
Hardy’s challenger, Christian Pellecchia has $7,200 on hand, $5,700 in donations and a $1,500 loan to himself. Pellecchia has a notable donor profile: None of his donors are in Santa Clara and 75% of them come from businesses and individuals in Santa Cruz County.
Pellecchia also received donations from the Associated Builders and Contractors Northern California Chapter PAC — a real estate and construction industry group — and the Silicon Valley Biz PAC, which apparently used to be the San Jose Chamber of Commerce PAC, but which has reported no contributions or donors to the California Secretary of State, although Sept. 30 was the reporting deadline.
In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down prohibitions against corporations and unions donating to federal campaigns, accepting the argument that this prohibition interfered with free speech rights. As a result, there is no limit on the amount of money that independent expenditure political committees can put into elections as long as they don’t make contributions to candidates nor coordinate with their campaigns.
Throughout the election, Silicon Valley Voice will endeavor to keep up with the campaign donations in Santa Clara’s political races. This Follow the Money 2022 article is as of Oct. 4, 2022.
