By Robert Haugh
Organized labor is playing a major role in Santa Clara’s November elections, spending more than $100,000 to elect Gary Ferraris Mayor while pushing political endorsements and providing campaign assistance in City Council District 2.
According to an analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports, the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council has spent more than $100,000 supporting Ferraris.
That’s the most organized labor has ever spent in Santa Clara municipal elections.
That’s in addition to the $2.6 million the 49ers have committed to helping elect Ferraris and District 2 Council candidate Kimberley Williams.
Ferraris Is One of Labor’s Own
Ferraris isn’t simply a candidate endorsed by organized labor. He’s spent much of his career as a union leader.
According to AFSCME Council 57’s official biography, Ferraris joined the union in 2008 while working for the City of Santa Clara.
He served as a shop steward, president of AFSCME Local 101, treasurer of Council 57 and delegate to the South Bay Labor Council. Although Ferraris is retired, he is still working with AFSCME.
That creates a potential conflict if he is elected Mayor, according to former Santa Clara City Attorney Brian Doyle.
In a September 24 column published by SCNO, Doyle described Ferraris as being clueless about the potential conflict.
District 2: Union Support for Inciarte and Williams
The South Bay Labor Council gave a dual endorsement to both Yvonne Inciarte and Williams.
According to District 2 residents familiar with the campaigns, the assistance the candidates are receiving is different.
Sources tell SCNO that Inciarte is personally canvassing neighborhoods, knocking on doors and talking directly with residents.
Williams is not doing personal door-to-door campaigning. Instead, union organizers are walking neighborhoods on her behalf, talking with voters and conducting “lit drops.”
The South Bay Labor Council actively pushed for Williams to receive endorsements from the Santa Clara County Democratic Party and Democratic Activists for Women Now (DAWN).
Williams was endorsed by the party, but the DAWN effort failed.
As SCNO reported October 8, DAWN instead endorsed Inciarte. Inciarte said women participating in the endorsement process objected to 49ers owner Jed York’s support of Williams following his prostitution solicitation arrest.
The 49ers’ political committee supporting Williams and opposing Inciarte has spent approximately $800,000.
District 3: An Endorsement, But No Assistance
The South Bay Labor Council has also endorsed Kyle Madej in District 3.
But sources familiar with local labor’s campaign activities say Madej has received way less attention than Ferraris and Williams.
The Labor Council has not committed campaign spending or dispatched volunteers to help Madej. The sources describe him as a lower priority for the labor organization.
David Bini, the Building Trades and the 49ers
Sources also point to the role played by David Bini, executive director of the Santa Clara and San Benito Counties Building and Construction Trades Council.
According to sources familiar with labor’s political activity, Bini and the Building Trades have been particularly aggressive in supporting Ferraris and Williams — the two Santa Clara candidates also benefiting from substantial 49ers spending.
The relationship may have its roots in a controversial decision made two years ago.
A labor source who works for a union that is not actively involved in this year’s Santa Clara campaigns told SCNO that Bini and the 49ers shared frustration over the City’s 2024 infrastructure bond.
The $400 million Measure I infrastructure bond explicitly prohibited using bond proceeds for improvements to Levi’s Stadium or projects benefiting professional sports teams.
It also prohibited most improvements within half a mile of the stadium, with limited exceptions for residential neighborhoods.
Those restrictions were adopted to ensure the money went toward public infrastructure rather than stadium-related projects.
According to the labor source, Bini and the 49ers were both unhappy with the restrictions.
“They bonded over the bond,” the source told SCNO.
I voted for Measure I because it promised that the money would not be sucked into the stadium, an endless pit glorifying Jed York. If a 49er elected mayor and council change that, we’re screwed. Welcome to the future of Santa Clara, the pothole capital of California.
Imagine how difficult it would be for the 49ers to obtain construction financing if it had been uncovered that Mercurio, who was in charge of Stadium projects, was taking kickbacks like the ones that he facing 20 years in prison for in San Mateo County. It’s too bad the 49er five let Jed York off the hook in pursuing his contracting “irregularities”.
Hopefully voters are much more aware this time and they see the Union and Jed York are spending over $2.5M on this election. This was a major issue when I personally walked 6,700 doors. residents want the 49ers to win a Superbowl, not buy the city.