By Brian Doyle
Here we go again.
The 49ers’ owners have just put up close to a million dollars into expenditure committees to elect Gary Ferraris as Santa Clara’s next mayor and Kimberley Williams to replace Raj Chahal as District 2’s council representative.
What’s going on here?
Over the last several election cycles, the 49ers have spent millions to obtain a council majority to get decisions in their favor at the Santa Clara residents’ expense.
The 2020 election brought them the 5-vote majority that awarded them back the stadium management agreement riddled with conflict of interest violations.
The 2024 election saw the 49ers preserve a majority that rubberstamped the backroom deals with the NFL for the Super Bowl and with FIFA for the World Cup.
What did the public get out of the council that the 49ers put into office?
A compliant City staff who:
- fiercely and illegally refuses to disclose public records about the financial transactions important to the 49ers;
- supports nondisclosure agreements (NDA’s) that hide crucial financial information from the council members who believe that the public has a right to know the basis for decisions involving millions of dollars in public expenditures; and
- still refuses to tell the public whether the City has been reimbursed the millions of dollars spent on the 2026 Super Bowl and World Cup.
By all accounts FIFA made billions off the recent World Cup. No doubt the NFL made a bundle off the Super Bowl; and you can bet that Jed York and his family will continue to roll in the dough with a council majority that always votes their way.
Every dollar that Santa Clara spends that does not get reimbursed and every dollar lost in Stadium performance rent to the City’s General Fund represents a subsidy to these billionaires.
A million dollars in campaign spending in trying to preserve this gravy train is a drop in the bucket. It’s hard to believe that a guy who would nickel-dime a trailer park hooker doesn’t expect a return from the officials that he sponsors.
Keep a close eye on Ferraris and Williams – will they just be more of the same-old, same-old?
Brian Doyle is a longtime Santa Clara resident and served as the City Attorney from 2017 to 2021.
Your friendly PSA from SJSpotlight:
PJ Brown
Aug 20, 2026 at 11:15PM
Gary is a MAGA Republican. He and his wife have been hardcore Trump supporters since 2016. I can’t believe the South Bay Labor Council, among others, would support a MAGA candidate during times like these. He is the last person we need as Santa Clara’s mayor.
Not to mention, he is 100% a 49ers candidate. Ellie Caple from the 49ers has openly talked about how the team is backing Gary and Kimberly in all of our upcoming races in Santa Clara, already showing treasonous behavior. Elijah Lefkow, also from the 49ers, has built a close relationship with Dave Bini from SBLC, and that’s how SBLC is endorsing these illegitimate candidates for these positions. Sad news.
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Before the election for Measure J to allow the stadium, they conducted a focus group of SC residents. The purpose was to find the right shade of lipstick for this pig. I only know of 1 focus group, there may have been more. All I had to do was look at the map showing the ingress and egress to convince me this was a bad idea. At the beginning the group favored the stadium 6 – 4. The presenters offered different ways to word the proposal and got feedback on each. At the end they settled on promising nothing will come out of the general fund. Nothing about how they would screw us 6 ways from Sunday, but not from the general fund. At the end of the session the vote in favor dropped from 6 in favor to 4 in favor, but they weren’t interested in our support, just knowing the shade of lipstick. A good measure of the integrity of the election was how many No on J signs were stolen. I lost about 3 signs to ‘thieves for niners’.
No doubt there were city councilmembers out there doing the dirty work that wanted that shade of lipstick to be just right.
Why not just try and get elected on your own merit? Get out and campaign, go door to door and meet people. Listen to their concerns. Don’t just blow smoke up our a$$ with TV commercials sponsored by Jed York. According to his TV commercial Gary Ferraris is going to “lower everyday costs for residents”. How exactly is he going to do that as mayor??? What costs will he lower?? More BS from your friend Jed York in an effort to maintain control of our city council. Both of them have the stink of Jed’s money on them now.
My recommendation, if Jed York supports them, run in the opposite direction. There are better candidates out there.
Our City host the Largest company in the World, NVIDIA.
Just thought I’d remind everyone.
Lots of Great Cities, lots of Great Companies…..
Where did they end up growing their little company? Yup, Santa Clara California.
So tell me how we allowed one NFL franchise to actually take over the operation and running of our City?
Only one answer makes sense.
We trusted them. Jed York was selling and we were buying. We have since learned that Jed York is a liar, and he is not even good at that either!
Just saw my first Gary Ferraris For Santa Clara Mayor Advertisement.
Very impressive. Love that the last thing shown to all is the “Paid for by San Francisco 49ers”.
Bottomline a “Sock Puppet” is a “Sock Puppet”.
Then take a look at the Stadium Authority, and look who makes decisions for that group.
That group is suppose to have the City of Santa Clara’s best interest, kind of hard when every decision is actually made to benefit the 49ers, not Santa Clara.
So over the next few weeks, If you see any adds that read …..”Paid For By The San Francisco 49ers”, understand all they want is everything. .
My guess is that Ferraris and Williams will only have a very short “To Do List” given to them from the 49ers.
We have sadly learned, all they want is Everything, it’s really that simple.
Just The Fact’s Ma’am
What a disgraceful pair of sellouts.
They have been busy padding
their resumes to appear as relevant
candidates while enjoying their
Trailer Trash Daddy’s backing.
The schools foundation should ask Williams to resign from her role as president of that organization. She just got appointed in June no doubt knowing her plans and with the trust of the board. Our children deserve better than snakes and liars as leaders. She’ll bring down the foundation’s reputation.