Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and the super PAC that funded the Congressional District 16 recount are facing a criticism filed with the Federal Elections Commission by an area attorney who alleges that the recount funders violated the law “in an apparent attempt to conceal who was actually paying for the recount.”
The criticism, filed by Mountain View-based attorney Brian J. O'Grady, comes a day after recent campaign finance reports showed that Neighbors for Results, a pro-Liccardo super PAC, transferred $102,000 to the Count the Vote super PAC that funded the recount. Former New York mayor and billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg is Neighbors for Results' largest donor, having donated $500,000 in February.
The FEC criticism is the newest twist within the contentious congressional race to exchange U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo. The primary race resulted in a tie between Rep. Evan Low and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, resulting in a voter-requested recount by Jonathan Padilla, a former campaign staffer for Mayor Liccardo and a 2020 and 2024 Biden delegate. Low ultimately emerged victorious by five votes and can face Liccardo in the final election.
O'Grady argues in his criticism that “all political committees are required to list their 'members' when registering with the FEC.”
“Given the funding we now know it received and the clear test the FEC conducted, Count the Vote should have listed Neighbors for Results, the Liccardo PAC, as a member when it registered,” the criticism states. “Perhaps it did not want to do so in order to conceal the ties between Liccardo and the recount, but there was a clear legal obligation and the Commission should promptly investigate this matter and take all appropriate action.”
In the lawsuit, O'Grady also states that Neighbors for Results transferred money to “cover the exact amount needed to make the required recount payments to counties each day.” However, campaign finance records show that Neighbors for Results only transferred $102,000 to Count the Vote. That money, combined with the $12,000 a day demanded by Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, would have funded only a fraction of the two-and-a-half week recount.
Neighbors for Results Treasurer Matthew Alvarez of the law firm Rutan and Tucker previously told The Mercury News that the cash was shifted between PACs so that they could make the initial payments to start out the recount.
“When the decision was made to certify that every legal vote was counted, Neighbors for Results had money available while Count the Vote was just getting started,” Alvarez said previously. “Transferring that money gave Count the Vote time to get started and raise its own money from there.”
The criticism also asks the FEC to analyze “whether there was unlawful coordination between Sam Liccardo, his campaign, and the two PACs funding his recount.” Campaigns are prohibited by federal law from communicating with PACs in any way. O'Grady's criticism provides no evidence that Liccardo coordinated with any of the PACs, and the attorney didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on the matter.
Following the criticism, Low's campaign sent an email Wednesday afternoon asking Liccardo and Neighbors for Results to “come clean with voters.”
In an announcement, Padilla said: “The entire complaint is based on the outrageous falsehood that the recount effort was coordinated with the Liccardo campaign.”
“This complaint is another blatant, baseless attempt to distract voters from the inconvenient truth that Evan Low attempted to stop this recount and prevent the counting of dozens of legal votes,” Padilla said. “We are confident that the FEC will see these complaints for what they are: an embarrassing and frivolous attempt to weaponize campaign laws to silence an opponent and distract voters from the real problems of homelessness, crime, and high cost of living.”
Liccardo's campaign was not immediately available for comment.
The FEC's criticism is the second of its kind filed against Liccardo in recent months. In April, Max Zarzana, president of the Santa Clara County Government Attorneys Association, filed a criticism alleging that Liccardo tried to evade campaign contributions by working with Count the Vote to fund the recount on his behalf.
Any person may file a criticism with the FEC. The Commission's Office of General Counsel first reviews all complaints to find out whether it meets the standards for a criticism and is addressing a violation throughout the FEC's jurisdiction before starting an investigation.
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