Meanwhile in the city of Santa Clara, community activists lobbed similar charges against the San Francisco 49ers organization, which plays in and operates the city's billion-dollar Levi's Stadium. Stand Up for Santa Clara, a group of community watchdogs, accused the franchise of secretly bankrolling campaigns against Mayor Lisa Gillmor and other council members who have been critical of the team.
Stand Up for Santa Clara spokesman Burt Field held a press conference Tuesday to illustrate flow charts of what he called a "money-laundering scheme" by the 49ers.
According to Field, the team has cloaked its political involvement by filtering money through a nonprofit called Bluepac, which doesn't have to disclose the identity of its funders. The tax-exempt organization donated $49,265 to an independent committee called Citizens for Economic Council that supports council hopefuls Ahmad Rafah, Mohammed Nadeem, John McLemore and ex-Mayor Patty Mahan.
In his presentation, Field pointed out that Bluepac founder Doug Chan works at the same law firm as Rich Robinson, a political consultant who worked on a pro-Levi's Stadium campaign in 2010.
Bluepac cash has paid for attack ads against council members Debi Davis and Kathy Watanabe, who joined Gillmor in calling for an audit on how much the city spends on the sports stadium. Some of those ads took shots at Gillmor, whose term isn't up yet.
Bob Lange, the 49ers' vice president of communications, provided the following statement from the club: "This organization does not make a practice of commenting on political matters and will not begin doing so now in response to unsubstantiated rumors that support the personal agendas of local politicians."
Gillmor—who replaced Mayor Jamie Matthews when he abruptly quit after the Super Bowl—called on 49ers CEO Jed York to "come clean" about which candidates he's backing in the Nov. 8 council election.
"Certainly, if you want to support candidates, be honest about it," Gillmor told reporters. "Come forward, write your checks the way you normally do. We have limits on contributions in our city. Do it the honest, legal way."
One can always hope......
http://www.sanjoseinside.com/2016/10/05/questions-arise-on-dark-money-influence-in-south-bay-politics/
[ Edited by Ronnie49Lott on Oct 5, 2016 at 9:48 PM ]
