Ed McGovern was a longtime 49ers lobbyist. He stopped lobbying for the team in 2018.
Now, he’s lobbying for Republic Metropolitan LLC who wants to build a high-rise residential development at the Caltrain Santa Clara Station Park-N-Ride lot.
According to the April City Council calendars, McGovern met with Vice Mayor Raj Chahal on April 22. He met with Councilmen Suds Jain on April 23 and Kevin Park on April 26.
McGovern has close business ties to political consultant Jay Reed. Reed managed Park’s City Council campaign last year.
Reed is controversial because he got fired from the Dave Cortese for San Jose Mayor campaign in 2014 for sending out “weird, sexist tweets” like one about how “hot” his child’s female teacher was.
McGovern and Reed have worked together on numerous development projects in the Bay Area.
They also worked together for disgraced former Councilman Dominic Caserta. As we reported in 2018, McGovern was initially running Caserta’s campaign. But he left to work with Reed on a Caserta independent expenditure.
The 49ers contributed heavily to Caserta’s independent expenditure. McGovern was a 49ers lobbyist at the time.
Past McGovern Controversies
McGovern has been known to charge little or no money to political candidates. But then he lobbies them once they’re in office. McGovern usually does this for development clients and garbage collection companies in the Bay Area.
In San Jose, he was investigated for working for Xavier Campos’s campaign for free but being paid by Nora Campos’s Assembly campaign. Nora is Xavier’s sister and paid McGovern tens of thousands of dollars.
In Santa Clara, the most recent McGovern controversy involved billboard company All Vision.
All Vision demanded approximately a $500,000 payment from the City even though they didn’t do the work they promised they would. A big chunk of the money was to go to two lobbyists for the company: McGovern and former City Councilman Kevin Moore.
The City did not consider the All Vision payment demand legitimate.
[…] is a longtime political consultant and lobbyist for the 49ers. McGovern and Reed have worked together on a lot of development projects in the Bay […]
“Jay Reed. Reed managed Park’s City Council campaign last year.” Has anyone checked the campaign records to see how much Jay Reed was paid? And who paid him?
It is getting worse and worse, for our once fair city. The sleaze factor continues to rise each day.
Speaking of sleaze, exactly what is ” Caserta’s independent expenditure.”? Sounds like a euphemism for slimy, but I could be wrong. First time for everything.
“McGovern usually does this for development clients and garbage collection companies in the Bay Area.” Is it just me or does stereotypical organized crime gravitate to sanitation? (I probably see too many movies, or read too many papers.)
Every day it seems we all learn something new about our recently elected City Ciuncil and all their connections with the 49ers. Ed mvgovern’s business partner was Kevin Park’s campaign manager? Such a cesspool of political BS. I am so sorry TErry O lost. Park and his gang have truly unleashed a plethora of stink in our beloved city.