By Robert Haugh
For the last few weeks, Santa Clara News Online has heard lots of complaints about negative campaign ads in the Mission City.
The 49ers independent expenditure committee is funding them. According to the latest campaign expenditure reports, the team is over $2.4 million in total spending. Wow.
First, there was push polling or polls with some really negative push questions.
The team funded calls in District 1 attacking Satish “Sunny” Chandra and promoting Albert Gonzalez.
In District 4, they did the same thing attacking Teresa O’Neill and promoting Kevin Park.
In District 5, the team funded calls with negative information about David Kertes and positive statements about Suds Jain.
In District 6, ads started running on TV attacking candidate Kelly Cox and Mayor Lisa Gillmor. That’s interesting because Gillmor isn’t running for re-election.
Now, SCNO is hearing reports of negative text messages.
Santa Clarans can’t seem to get away from all the negative political advertising.
The 49ers are following the playbook they’ve been using since 2016. That’s when the dark-money group BluPAC that the team was behind started spending serious money on negative ads in Santa Clara.
That was the beginning of Mission City politics changing – for the worse.
The team then spent millions in 2020 and 2022 to elect the 49er Five. Santa Clara has not been the same since.
Editor’s Note: The 49er Five are Councilmembers Anthony Becker, Raj Chahal, Jain, Karen Hardy and Park.
Jed York spent $3 million in November 2020 to elect Becker, Jain, and Park. They were previously 0-6 in Santa Clara elections. Chahal and Hardy have received gifts from the team without reporting them and received $1 million each for their elections in November 2022.
In 2022, the team spent approximately $2.5 million for Becker in his failed attempt to unseat Mayor Lisa Gillmor.
The 49er Five met with the team on an almost weekly basis and have voted to help the team win millions of dollars in concessions from the City since December 2020.
FYI, 49ers: These “smear” ads generated by the DeBartolo Group are so trashy, perverse, and in such poor taste that they are having the OPPOSITE EFFECT on Santa Clarans than what was intended. Who would buy into such ludicrous claims? Vote for the new kids on the block and Measure I.
Fire all the incumbents. We voted for the boondoggle that is the stadium without actually reading the fine print. We got what we voted for. Now it’s just damage control. The Planning Commission is the real power so attend those meetings and participate!
It’s an easy numbers game. $4million is a drop in the billions of dollars bucket they have. The return on their investment is easy. Fractional penny on the dollar. And by flooding everyone with this garbage, they get the response they want:
Just get over it and move on.
The more people are frustrated, the better it is for the 49ers. People tune out, and that is what they want.
They don’t respect the community. Just look at what Chandhok was saying about the mayor…all while getting spoon fed by Becker. Just disgusting.
News flash
KEVIN PARK, MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATE
49ER ADS
based on city cpra requests
No record exists of Park ever working with county mental health departments at all
None!!
4 year search
They are loosely referring to his advocacy for housing for low income & unhoused folks outside of his district. From what I have witnessed first hand, he could use some mental health advocacy for himself…
It is a shame that most people don’t know what it is about. Or they would ask themselves, what’s in it for jed york that they are willing to spend this much money to elect their favorite people? What do they gain? They don’t throw money around unless there is a payback and the people benefiting from this are by definition crooked because they reliably repay the niners by voting in their favor. What other possible explanation is there? I asked our council member that and got no answer.
What’s in it for Jed York is ensuring that he has the votes to get the Council to approve public subsidies from the City and the Stadium Authority to fund the World Cup and Super Bowl in 2026. City staff have been covering up the details of the deal for many months and are planning on springing it on the public just before the election. Apparently they are still drinking the 49ers Kool Aid that somehow there is an economic benefit to Santa Clara in socialism for the rich.
@Mr Doyle
The non-profit youth sports groups in our city could use support from someone like you. They want to charge kids to use fields yet the Niners get whatever they want at OUR cost. It will never make sense.