49ers' political spending in Santa Clara tops $4.5 million as Election Day nears
San Francisco Chronicle / 11-7-2022
The San Francisco 49ers now have poured more than $4.5 million into this week’s Santa Clara city elections, state records show.
The team’s unprecedented spending spree started Sept. 1, when it pumped $742,000 into campaigns to unseat Mayor Lisa Gillmor and re-elect two City Council members. The council has oversight responsibilities for Levi’s Stadium, the 49ers’ home.
In the nine-week campaign, the team funneled money at a rate of nearly $72,000 per day into committees set up to boost its preferred mayoral candidate, Anthony Becker, and City Council Members Karen Hardy and Raj Chahal. Those three frequently have held private meetings with 49ers lobbyists and regularly voted the team’s way on key stadium-related issues.
The 49ers’ most recent donations were reported Nov. 1, when they committed another $115,000. By then, the team had spent more than $79 for each of the 57,000-plus registered voters in the city.
LINK (paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/49ers/article/49ers-santa-clara-election-17562866.php
Highlights from the story:
• The team put more than half of its political cash, $2.4 million, into its campaign against Mayor Lisa Gillmor.
• Gilmore is a critic of 49ers CEO Jed York and the team’s financial management of the publicly-owned stadium.
• 49ers have donated more than $1 million apiece to support council members Chahal and Hardy.
• “The smaller the city gets, the more risk you’re becoming a 19th century company town, owned by the sports team.” -- Roger Noll, Stanford economics professor emeritus and expert on stadium financing.
• York and the 49ers spent $2.9 million on the Santa Clara elections in 2020. Three of the four City Council candidates they backed were elected to office.
BELOW: Jed York, 49ers CEO. This takeover of Santa Clara government is loathsome and odious. Hope locals find it the same.
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