San Jose mayor starts PAC with help from big-name developers

In an unusual move, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo has begun fundraising for a political action committee even before leaving office — with a big assist from billionaire developer Jay Paul.

The mayor registered the PAC, called Common Good Silicon Valley, at the end of October. By early November, it had hosted a fundraising kickoff breakfast that raised about $400,000, the San Jose Spotlight reported. The 350 attendees were largely developers, real estate moguls and business executives.

“It was the biggest fundraising success that has been seen in this valley, or at least in San Jose, in the last 10 years that I’ve been active here,” Liccardo’s chief of staff, Jim Reed, told the site.

While Reed didn’t name specific donors, the San Jose Mercury News said billionaire developer Jay Paul was the event’s sponsor.

Liccardo leaves office at the end of his term next year and the race to pick his successor will probably be a heated battle between labor and business interests. The June primary election will also ask voters for their picks on five city council seats. Three council members are already in the race for mayor, as is Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez. Chavez is a longtime labor supporter and has already secured the backing of influential lobbyist Carl Guardino and his PAC, Innovation for All.

Labor leaders say Liccardo’s PAC is designed to keep union-supporting candidates such as Chavez out of office.

“This is an attempt by Mayor Liccardo to keep power in the hands of a very small few and particularly, those who prioritize the needs of corporations over people,” Maria Noel Fernandez, campaign director for Silicon Valley Rising, a political coalition led by the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, told the Mercury News.

Although Liccardo hasn’t endorsed any candidates, the Mercury News said he may support council member Matt Mahan, who just joined the council in January and is a former CEO of several small tech companies.

“We’re not looking for candidates who toe the line with one interest group or another,” the mayor told the paper. “We’re interested in supporting candidates who are independent of the larger forces in politics today but have a fundamental belief in supporting jobs and housing in our community.”

Liccardo said he doesn’t plan to serve on the PAC’s board. He will play a major role in its fundraising efforts, however.
In a separate interview with San Jose Spotlight, the mayor tried to distance his new group from the Silicon Valley Organization PAC, which was a large political player before it was dissolved after a racist campaign ad last year. SVO, which now goes by the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, had supported Liccardo and many of his business-friendly allies in the past .

“We’re not the same organization, and we’re not connected to the chamber,” the mayor said.

Terry Christensen, a professor emeritus of political science at San Jose State University, told the Mercury News it was unusual for a sitting mayor to create his own PAC and that he was concerned the amount of money likely to be spent on the June primaries made it much more likely that the campaign would “go negative.”

“I’m not saying that’s what Sam will do, but that’s what money often buys — especially independent expenditures,” he said.

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