Chuck and Larry?

Having bewildered city-hall watchers earlier this week with his endorsement of long-shot sheriff candidate Richard Calderon, Mayor Chuck Reed may be getting ready to do it again—by throwing his support to District 9 council candidate Larry Pegram. Though Reed has yet to come out publicly for the former councilmember and conservative Christian activist, Fly hears that political consultant Victor Ajlouny has been strongly hinting to ChamberPAC members that the mayor has Pegram’s back in the race. Not coincidentally, Ajlouny is working for Pegram, as well as Reed and Calderon. 

Pegram, who was a member of the City Council from 1974 to 1980, is director of the Values Advocacy Council, which worked hard on last year’s Prop 8 campaign to ban gay marriage, and has been relentlessly crusading locally for porn filters in libraries. He was a member of Reed’s transition team when the mayor first took office in 2007.

Meanwhile, Reed has sent out an e-mail to all six District 9 candidate’s campaigns, asking them to fill out a questionnaire asking for their stances on issues ranging from the general fund to airport budget cuts and layoffs. The missive also asks the candidates to send him their answers to questionnaires from the South Bay Labor Council, the Chamber of Commerce and the Public Safety Coalition.

Presumably, the mayor’s request would save Ajlouny some research time—he’s CC’d on the message. Fly’d be surprised if Jim Cogan, Don Rocha, or any of the other District 9 candidates submitted all the requested info to Reed—and Ajlouny/Pegram.

 

 

 

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.

6 Comments

  1. Not suprising at all.  Jamie McLeod who is giving notice she will be the first openly gay mayor of Santa Clara has been supporting efforts of anti gay activist Ciarra
    O’Donnell and McLeod appeared on a slate card funded by Prop 8 supporters.
    McLeod has even begun forming alliances with people supported by O’Donnell ‘s mentors.  Jamie is broad minded when she thinks it is a win for McLeod.  I am sure Palin will get a some book sales from Jamie’s efforts.

  2. Why don’t these candidates instead put their responses to the questionnaires from the Mayor, the South Bay Labor Council, the Chamber of Commerce and the Public Safety Coalition on the web for everybody to see?  Residents deserve to see what these candidates are saying behind closed doors.

    • Why the Mayor didn’t support Laurie Smith is nothing to think too hard about. She supported Cindy Chavez, who is at the South Bay Labor Council. Laurie gave the SBLC what they wanted to hear, just like she does when she meets other groups. The only consistency she shows is that she lies everywhere she goes. She thinks people are so ignorant that they will believe everything she says and in the end, vote for her. Once again, the lack of honesty and integrity comes to the surface. Is this the kind of person you want as sheriff?

  3. Chuck seems content to continue his streak of picking losers. No wonder he can’t build a consensus to save his life. Surely, this speaks volumes about his lack of political instinct.

  4. I’m surprised by this.  One reason why I’m presently leaning strongly in favour of Robert Cortese, despite my affection for Larry Pegram, is because I think Cortese is a candidate who is far more likely to be able to win the November run-off (albeit perhaps somewhat less likely to be able to make it into the run-off in the first place…but it doesn’t do me any good for Pegram to make the run-off, only to lose to Cogan with, say, 42 percent of the vote).  Having the support of a popular Mayor definitely would seem to make Pegram more potentially viable.

    I have to say, this is by far the most interesting San Jose city council race in which I’ve ever been eligible to vote.

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