Two likely frontrunners for San Jose’s District 3 City Council seat – Matthew Quevedo, Gabby Chavez-Lopez – raised a total of nearly $424,000 for their brief campaigns, according to the latest reports filed with the San Jose City Clerk.
But that's only part of the picture in the District 3 battleground.
Political action committees – whose contributors are not bound by the $700 limit on direct individual contributions to candidates – that collected and spent money on behalf of these two candidates spent a whopping $831,583. Nearly two-thirds of this PAC money – more than $535,000, was spent on behalf of Chavez-Lopez.
A third big-spending candidate, city Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos, chose a different source for his campaign for the coveted downtown council seat, putting up $130,000 of his own money for his $154,000 campaign.
A deep dive into the candidates’ required financial reports showed their donors and PACs split along predictable lines for two candidates: with Quevedo, deputy chief of staff for Mayor Matt Mahan, as the favorite of moderate, pro-business donors, and Chavez-Lopez as the beneficiary of organized labor contributions – with a few surprises. Since Tordillos’ campaign was basically self-funded, he emerged as an independent in the officially non-partisan council campaign.
Labor is all in for Chavez-Lopez
The elephant in the room in this abbreviated council campaign has been organized labor. The powerful South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council allocated $431,912 of the money donated to its PAC by dozens of local labor unions to fund campaign activities for Chavez-Lopez.
In addition to the South Bay labor windfall, Chavez-Lopez, executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, attracted $104,000 in spending from two corporate PACs that support Latino political candidates across California.
The Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy PAC’s major contributors over the past eight years include PG&E, Chevron, AT&T, WalMart and Anheuser-Busch, as well as In-N-Out Burger and the California Association of Highwayway Patrolmen.
The LCCC Bi-Partisan Coalition of Municipal,County, Latino Appointed and Elected Leaders PAC bills itself as “a bi-partisan coalition of Latino leaders,” but it is actually funded by major employees in healthcare, retail and energy, as well as some law enforcement and other labor unions, including the American Beverage Association, PepsiCo, McDonald's and Philip Morris as well as the California Correctional Peace Officers, California Police Chiefs and United Nurses associations.
The Sacramento-based LCCC PAC spent $74,000 and the Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy PAC, also in Sacramento, spent $30,000 on Chavez-Lopez campaign efforts.
These PACs funneled their support to a single PAC, Working Families in Support of Gabby Chavez-Lopez for City Council 2025, which decided how the money would be spent.
Jay Paul’s big PAC donation
As for Chavez-Lopez’ opponent, reports filed with the San Jose City Clerk also showed that a PAC that has supported the successful campaigns by Mahan and Rep. Sam Liccardo – Common Good Silicon Valley, Sponsored by Solutions Silicon Valley – predictably reported spending $75,485 on Quevedo’s campaign in just four months.
That Common Good Silicon Valley PAC’s coffers got a boost early this year when the real estate development firm owned by billionaire Jay Paul – the primary developer of the CityView project in downtown San Jose – donated $50,000. Jason Papier, a San Jose financial planner, pitched in $20,000 to the PAC.
The total fundraising and PAC spending by Quevedo and Chavez-Lopez dwarfed the combined total of the five other candidates for the coveted downtown council seat left vacant when Omar Torres resigned last November after his arrest on sexual molestation charges. Torres pleaded not guilty last month and awaits trial. Carl Salas is representing the 3rd District on a temporary appointment.
Tuesday, April 8, is Special Election day in San Jose, with the prospect of an extremely low turnout. As of last Friday, just over 10% of the nearly 48,494 ballots mailed to registered voters in the 3rd District had been returned to county election officials.
Hundreds of individual donors have lent their support to Quevedo’s campaign, which reported a total of $271,687 in contributions, and $245,485 in total spending through April 4.
Quevedo’s contributors included dozens of people in real estate, including a $700 donation – the maximum allowed – from the California Real Estate PAC. That PAC reported today that it spent $30,000 on the Quevedo campaign, and the Silicon Valley Biz PAC spent another $39,999 on the mayor’s deputy chief of staff.
There are no limits to the amounts that can be contributed to PACs, which are not allowed to consult with candidates when spending the money on items such as advertising and marketing materials.
Mahan and Councilmember George Casey each contributed $700 to the Quevedo campaign. Last year’s unsuccessful council candidate Joe Lopez contributed $700, as did LA-based pop singer Rozzi Crane.
Nine local chapters of a statewide organization formed in 2011 to “counter special interest influence” in local government, Govern for California Courage, donated a total of $6,300 to the Quevedo election effort.
The Common Good Silicon Valley is funded largely by businesses, financial institutions and real estate developers, as well as the California Apartment Association and California Real Estate PACs. Common Good Silicon Valley poured in nearly $253,000 to the unsuccessful council campaign of Joe Lopez (he lost to Pamela Campos last fall) and donated $43,000 to George Casey’s successful election campaign.
The Chavez-Lopez campaign raised a total of $151,897 in direct contributions, and reported $117,308 in total spending through April 4.
Elected officials donate money
Nineteen local labor unions each gave the maximum $700 donation to the Chavez-Lopez campaign, in addition to their payment to the South Bay Labor Council PAC.
Local elected officials featured prominently among the Chavez-Lopez list of individual donors, including: Councilmembers Pamela Campos and Domingo Candelas, county Supervisors Otto Lee and Susan Ellenberg, California Sen. Dave Cortese, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Assemblymember Gail Pellerin.
Former supervisor and two-time unsuccessful mayoral candidate Cindy Chavez, former Councilmember Raul Peralez and former mayor Ron Gonzales also weighed in with $700 donations.
Financial analyst Irene Smith and retired sheriff’s lieutenant Adam Duran are using loans to boost campaign funds. Smith reported collecting $9,355 in donations, while obtaining a $10,000 personal loan. Duran loaned his campaign $30,000 and has reported $9,348 in donations.
Candidates Philip Dolan and Tyrone Wade reported no contributions or campaign donations.
Only voters registered in the City of San José District 3 are eligible to vote in this election. Voters unsure of their eligibility may look up their district by entering their residential address into the Registrar of Voting’s district finder tool.
Vote Centers hours on Election Day
Vote Centers will be open from 9am to 5pm on Monday, April 7 at the Joyce Ellington Branch Library, the Olinder Community Center and the Center for Employment Training and from 7am to 8pm on Tuesday, Election Day, at all three locations.
Vote by Mail ballots must be postmarked by April 8 and received by April 15 to be counted. Official Ballot Drop Boxes are scattered across District, and mail ballots can be dropped off in person at one of the three vote centers or at the Registrar of Voters’ Office
Voters can locate their nearest Vote Center or Official Drop Box by visiting: sccvote.org/votecenter or sccvote.org/dropbox.
After the polls close at 8pm the first election results will be posted online at sccvote.org. For more information, contact the Registrar of Voters’ Office at (408) 299-VOTE (8683) or toll-free at (866) 430-VOTE (8683), or visit sccvote.org.
I wrote-in a candidate who supports bodily autonomy because none of the actual candidates had the courage to do so.
Our mayor and city council banned every third person in San Jose from City Hall, from Sharks games, and other public venues to coerce us to take ineffective and unsafe experimental Covid jabs. Several hundred thousand of us San Joseans treated as subhuman disease vectors. No apologies or promises not to engage in further violations of our fundamental human rights.
None of the current D3 candidates has any respect for us as human beings, or they would be willing to say: never again.
The exact reasons not to vote for Quevedo or Lopez.