
San Mateo Mayor Jack Mathews and San Mateo City Councilman
John Lee’s re-election campaigns are being heavily funded
by special interests. Big Labor, which has vested
interests in the Bay Meadows development, is heavily funding these
two campaigns.
Expensive direct mail pieces and nearly daily phone calls from
labor unions show just how badly special interests want the two
incumbents to stay in power.
The newest mailing for Mathews and Lee comes from “San Mateo
Together” – an innocuous sounding group made up of special
interests, and their spokespeople, who support the development of
Bay Meadows:
| Lisa Smoot |
Personal friend of Terry Fancher (president of the investment
group that wants to develop Bay Meadows) |
| Rich Hedges |
Labor union representative |
| Rick Bonilla |
Labor union representative |
| Jerry Hill |
SM County Supervisor running for State Assembly
and taking Special Interest $$$ to help get him there. Click
here for list of contributions. |
| Linda Asbury |
SM Chamber of Commerce (but lives in Los Gatos) |
| Rick Sakuda |
Contractor |
| Gene Klein |
Barker Blue (his company) and SM Chamber of Commerce |
Campaign contributions for Mathews and Lee are coming from the
same groups supporting them in the past. Just in the past two weeks,
thousands of dollars from special interests have poured into Mathews
and Lee’s coffers. We can expect the dollars to continue to
flood in as the election nears. Check back just before the election
to get up-to-date information.
Campaign Contributions (as of 11/2/07)
Bertha Sanchez
John Lee
Jack Mathews
Pete Tyo
Anne Arnold (no filing as will not be accepting or spending more
than $1000)
See the 2003 election campaigns for historical campaign funding
for Mathews and Lee.
The appeal of the court decision to exclude 95
signatures from the Friends of Bay Meadows’ referendum will
be heard in San Francisco’s First District Court of Appeal
on September 19th. If the court rules that 81 or more of those signatures
are valid, Friends of Bay Meadows has said they will put the issue
on the ballot so San Mateo voters can decide whether the historic
racetrack will be kept or, instead, razed for high-density office
space and condominiums. Go to www.examiner.com and under “SHORTCUT”
on the Examiner home page, type in Bay Meadows for a complete series
of articles about the racetrack. http://www.examiner.com/topic-Bay_Meadows.html?cid=SFshortcut-
examiner-Bay%20Meadows
The California Racing Board has allowed Bay Meadows to continue
racing in 2008, waiving the requirement to install a synthetic surface.
Stockbridge Capital (investors who own Bay Meadows and Hollywood
Park) is, however, moving ahead with plans to tear down the track
in 2008. Stockbridge Capital’s intensive Labor Day ad campaign
is obviously intended to bring Stockbridge as much money as possible
before they bring in the wrecking crews …
Save Bay Meadows web site will continue to highlight where money
is coming from and where it is going in local elections. Check back
as we get closer to election time for campaign contribution data
for the San Mateo City Council race – and, of course, for
Supervisor Jerry Hill. Jerry Hill is one of the strongest proponents
of the destruction of Bay Meadows and he will be running for the
California State Assembly against Gina Papan and Richard Holober
next year.
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