49ers pour $4.5M into Santa Clara political campaigns

The NFL’s San Francisco 49ers have run an election blitz in Santa Clara, spending $4.5 million on candidates who count as fans.

As of Nov. 1, team owner Jed York contributed $3.8 million to independent expenditure committees supporting the campaigns of Anthony Becker, Karen Hardy and Raj Chahal and opposing Mayor Lisa Gillmor’s re-election, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Becker is running to topple Gillmor during the Nov. 8 vote, while Hardy and Chahal are running to defend their City Council seats.

Two committees backed by the 49ers have taken a run at Hardy and Chahal’s opponents, Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce Chairman Christian Pellecchia and resident Larry McColloc, having received more than $800,000 as of Nov. 1, according to the Chronicle.

That brings the team’s total political spending to more than $4.5 million in a city of 127,000 people.

On the opposing side, a committee supporting Gillmor’s re-election campaign has received $250,000 from Related Santa Clara and Related California Residential, West Coast affiliates of New York-based The Related Companies.

Related now leads construction of a mixed-use development near Levi’s Stadium, where the team has played since 2014, with real estate interests organizing on Gillmor’s behalf.

The mayor, a full-time real estate broker, owns properties across the region.

The money flowing into Santa Clara politics from the 49ers and real estate interests comes after the city settled a lawsuit with the team over management of the city-owned gridiron.

Campaign spending in Santa Clara is historically far lower, sparking worries the 49ers are tackling Santa Clara politics in order to pursue the team’s interests.

Rahul Chandok, a spokesman for the team, said the 49ers are “proud to have consistently supported diverse candidates who are committed to solving Santa Clara’s most pressing problems like housing affordability, and who have championed voting rights in the city.”

In the 2020 elections, York donated $3 million to a political action committee working to elect Vice Mayor Suds Jain and councilmembers Becker and Kevin Park.

The campaign spending widened the split among council members and impacted relationships with the team and their oversight of Levi Stadium. The stadium was lauded as a potential cash cow when approved in 2010, but has faced challenges in drawing non-NFL event revenue.

Gillmor and Councilmember Kathy Watanabe have been critics of the 49ers, while other council members say the city needs to improve its relationship with the team.

The three candidates the 49ers now seek to elect were among the council members criticized in a recent civil grand jury report alleging their relationships with the team were unethical.

The “Unsportsmanlike Conduct” report said Becker, Hardy, Chahal, Park and Jain had formed a voting bloc that supported 49ers’ interests and had met with lobbyists in closed-door meetings in violation of the Brown Act.

It also said the alleged bloc hadn’t held stadium management accountable for the venue’s financial troubles, and had fired the former city manager and city attorney under pressure from the team. The report’s findings were quickly condemned by council members named in the report

On Oct. 10, the city’s police chief urged the district attorney to investigate the report’s findings, saying the five council members accused of favoring the 49ers may have broken city and state ethics laws.

Becker, Chahal and Hardy have continued to maintain that they’re independent candidates who make their own decisions, no matter how much money the 49ers pour into Santa Clara political campaigns.

Related California has become a major player in Santa Clara real estate and will soon break ground on an $8 billion, 9.2 million-square-foot project near Levi’s Stadium to contain 5.7 million square feet of office space, 1,680 homes, 700 hotel rooms, and 500,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.

The mayor has been a strong supporter of the development.

— Dana Bartholomew