By Robert Haugh
Santa Clara voters have been getting phone calls disguised as a poll in the last few days.
In District 1, the callers delivered four positive messages about Albert Gonzalez and four negative messages about Satish “Sunny” Chandra.
In District 4, the callers delivered four positive messages for Councilmember Kevin Park and four negative messages about Teresa O’Neill.
In District 5, the callers delivered four positive messages for Councilmember Suds Jain and four negative messages about David Kertes.
Hmmm. There’s a pattern here.
Park and Jain are part of the 49er Five. 49er co-owner Jed York spent an astounding $1 million for each of them in 2020 on an independent expenditure.
Park and Jain won and have repaid the team by settling lawsuits in the team’s favor, relaxing the weekday stadium curfew, and numerous other decisions.
Gonzalez was recruited to move into the district to run to succeed termed-out Councilmember Kathy Watanabe, a major team critic. She’s endorsed Chandra to succeed her.
The phone calls Santa Clara residents are receiving are considered a push poll. It’s designed to help or hurt a candidate, not to gather legitimate research information.
The American Association for Public Opinion Research condemns the activity and tells how to identify push polls.
This push poll might also be the latest example of “dark money” in Santa Clara politics. That’s when political spending is done anonymously.
The first time dark money appeared in the Mission City was in 2016 when BluPac, a group with numerous ties to the 49ers spent just under $50,000 to stay anonymous.
To combat dark money the City established the Dark Money Ordinance. There are some serious penalties for anyone funding dark money expenditures and consequences for the candidates who benefit from them.
In 2020, City Clerk Hosam Haggag caught the 49ers doing a poll without declaring the expenditure. They scrambled to cover up their mistake the day before the team played in Super Bowl LIV. Wow.
According to multiple sources, District 5 candidate Kertes has filed an official complaint.
Let’s see if history is repeating itself.
Anybody willing to share phone numbers from which these calls came from? I have never received as many calls or texts asking to participate in a poll. I have deleted and marked as junk those phone numbers, otherwise I’d share them.
At least lists the area code and prefix. Yea, caller id and phone numbers can be spoofed, but if they are the same……
A commonality of phone numbers likely will lead to a shadow entity funded by Yed Jork & and the Youngstown mafia.
Incredible hubris by the 49ers. I read Chandra’s FB post about calls. Chandra should file complaint about attack on his character. Good for him to let people know.
Push polling is an unfair and unethical political device used to communicate negative messages. Under the guise of conducting a legitimate poll, defamatory or otherwise negative and usually false information is conveyed.
Thanks for keeping the pubic aware, Robert!