The San Francisco 49ers have poured nearly $980,000 into newly formed political action committees to influence the upcoming November 3 mayoral and City Council races in Santa Clara.
Financing Local Influence Ahead of the November 3 Election
The political spending, filed under committees sponsored by the Forty Niners Football Company LLC and branded as “Affordable Santa Clara,” marks a massive escalation in local election interference. The team added another $335,000 into a District 2 City Council race on Tuesday, supporting Kimberley Williams while opposing Yvonne Inciarte. This brings the total August expenditure to $980,000, more than two months before voters head to the polls on Nov. 3.
Chief legal officer Jihad Beauchman represented the team in the mayoral committee contribution, while Ellie Caple, the team’s vice president of corporate communications and public affairs, serves as treasurer for both committees.
A Decade of South Bay Political Battles and Grand Jury Scrutiny
The 49ers have operated as formidable political players in Santa Clara ever since Levi’s Stadium opened in the South Bay city back in 2014. Tensions peaked during the 2022 mayoral election when the organization spent upwards of $2.5 million trying to oust incumbent Mayor Lisa Gillmor and back Anthony Becker. Gillmor narrowly won that race, which coincided with a civil grand jury investigation into team spending on municipal politics.
A leaked draft of that grand jury report, titled “Unsportsmanlike Conduct,” revealed that Becker was responsible for the leak. Becker subsequently lied under oath, leading to a felony arrest, trial, and conviction. Despite the scandal, the franchise continued its financial involvement, pushing total local election spending past $13.1 million by 2023, according to Bay Area News Group.
Shaping the City Council Majority and Administrative Turnover
The team’s sustained financial push has successfully helped install as many as five out of seven members on the Santa Clara City Council since 2020. The 2022 grand jury report alleged that these aligned council members “engage in unethical behavior, lack transparency in their governance, and govern as if the City Council owes a fiduciary duty to the 49ers as opposed to the City, which they were elected to lead.”
Under this pro-team council majority, the city has fired both a city manager who criticized team President Al Guido and a city attorney who alleged team officials violated conflict-of-interest laws. The organization also backed an unsuccessful measure attempting to change the police chief and city clerk positions from elected to appointed roles.
The Mayoral Contenders and Navigating Deep Political Tensions
Gary Ferraris, the candidate backed by the 49ers, is a longtime city maintenance worker and labor representative who currently works for Council 57 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. In an interview with the San Jose Spotlight, Ferraris stated that the political tension on the City Council remains one of the biggest problems facing Santa Clara, emphasizing a need to prioritize relationship-building.
Kathy Watanabe, a former City Council member termed out in 2024 who frequently voted alongside Gillmor against team initiatives, told the San Jose Spotlight she had met with Guido earlier this year to improve relations before the team’s committee explicitly opposed her candidacy. David Kertes, a long-standing community resident and sales director at biohealth tech company Novanta, rounds out the six-candidate mayoral race as a primary target of the 49ers’ newly minted political war chest.
