Show Me the (Campaign) Money

One of the best ways to raise money this election season appears to be counting Chuck Reed as an enemy. The mayor of San Jose’s apathy for labor-backers appears to have lit a fire under Councilmember Kansen Chu‘s efforts to raise funds. Campaign disclosure reports were released this week and in just the month of December, Chu hauled in the most dough with $45K, as well as a $5,000 loan from “policy aide” Daisy Chu (a.k.a. his wife). Meanwhile, union cheerleader Ash Kalra reeled in $8,350 to protect his District 2 seat, and he doesn’t even have a challenger. On the flip side, Rose Herrera managed to overcome any initial union backlash for siding with Reed’s pension reform plans by taking in more than $31K to protect her District 8 seat. The mayor showed thanks for Herrera’s fealty by throwing a Benjamin her way. In District 6, Steve Kline loaned himself a cool $7,500 to help challenge Pierluigi Oliverio, who was curiously lumped into the wrong district by the the City Clerk’s website before being left off altogether. But the most interesting reports came out of the District 10 race, where seven are fighting to fill Nancy Pyle‘s termed-out shoes. Financial advisor Johnny Khamis came in tops with more than $28K thanks to a $20K loan he gave himself, while human highlight reel Robert Braunstein, of Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area fame, collected more than $23K by loaning himself the same amount as Khamis. The most shocking reports came from labor lapdog Brian O’Neill and conservative school boarder Leslie Reynolds. Turning her nose at the thought of a loan, Reynolds straight-up paid her campaign $9,500 but couldn’t even scrounge up $12K total—so much for Khamis’ claim that Reynolds was getting beaucoup bucks from the Silicon Valley Association of Republican Women. And as if proving the mayor’s point about wasteful union spending, O’Neill has already splurged by paying out $10K of the nearly $13K he collected.

The Fly is the valley’s longest running political column, written by Metro Silicon Valley staff, to provide a behind-the-scenes look at local politics. Fly accepts anonymous tips.

One Comment

  1. You should have titled this as “Show me more Reed Skirt tail holders” To me it looks like Reed is losing losing his Skirt tail followers and money has nothing to do with it!

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