A Santa Clara City Council candidate claims a phone survey is spreading lies about him, violating the city’s dark money ordinance, but his social media posts tell a different story.
Satish Chandra, a candidate for District 1, recently addressed the council during public presentations — a segment of the meeting earmarked for items not on the agenda. During his address, he urged the council to investigate a phone survey he said is propagating lies about him.
The anonymous survey presented “glowing reviews” of one of Chandra’s opponent, Albert Gonzalez, while the information about him was not only negative, but also inaccurate, Chandra said. Because of the survey’s bias and anonymity, he said, he believes it violates the dark money ordinance.
“It falsely portrayed me as a far-right extremist and claimed that I supported hydroxychloroquine during the pandemic, which is pathetic. I never did that,” he told the council. “These are completely false claims, and their aim seems to be to tarnish my reputation and sway away voters unfairly.”
Hydroxychloroquine is a controversial antimalarial that many conservatives claim alleviates, or even cures, COVID-19.
The dark money ordinance requires disclosure of political expenditures exceeding $100.
“There is a lack of transparency because the survey did not mention my other opponent. So, this omission seems designed to mislead voters by excluding important context, so dark money concerns,” he said.
Despite Chandra’s insistence that the survey is spreading “misinformation” about him, a pair of Facebook posts from 2020 paint a different picture.
The first post, dated July 5, 2020, shared a Fox News article with the headline “Hydroxychloroquine helps save coronavirus patients, study shows.” Another post later that year, dated Oct. 17, 2020, shows Chandra campaigning for the California Republican Party. That post is tagged “#Trump2020.” It has since been removed from Chandra’s Facebook page.
Making the leap from Chandra being a Trump supporter to — as he said the survey characterizes him — a “far-right extremist” is a stretch. However, Chandra did not respond to text and email requests asking him to clarify.
In a memo to Chandra, City Clerk Hosam Haggag wrote that the city does “not have sufficient evidence about the survey to determine whether there has been a violation.” Haggag requested that Chandra provide further information, such as the survey questions, the source of the survey, the survey company and the phone number.
“This information is necessary to assist the City in determining whether this survey qualifies as a campaign expenditure and whether an organization failed to properly file its disclosure statements,” Haggag wrote in the memo.
The Weekly asked Chandra to explain the discrepancy between his complaint and the social media post that seemingly shows him endorsing hydroxychloroquine. It also asked him whether he planned to pursue further city action on the matter by providing the clerk with the necessary information.
The inquiries went unanswered.
The city’s dark money ordinance is “crucial for ensuring transparency and ethical practices,” Chandra said. Not only did he file a complaint with the city clerk, Chandra said he also complained to Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
Because Chandra commented during public comments, i.e., the topic was not on the agenda, policy forbids council members from commenting on the substance of Chandra’s statement.
Among Chandra’s supporters, according to his website, are Mayor Lisa Gillmor, Council Member Kathy Watanabe, Santa Clara Police Chief Pat Nikolai and Jeff Rosen.
View Comments (8)
Satish is not a perspicacious man. CEO Harbir Batia is a much better choice by District 1 residents.
Given that the City has also failed to investigate that fake "501 c3 non-profit" that ran political ads without disclosing ANY contribution information, I don't think this candidate will get far in his complaint.
And now there is more attention on the fact that he is a Trump supporter--so that's good.
I had not realized they had not looked into that Fake 501C, Hossam on the job no doubt!
The reality is that he switched his party affiliation around June or July to hide the fact that he was a MAGA Republican. He’s also been spreading hateful rhetoric in the community about Miss Bhatia, telling our parents not to support her by accusing her of being anti-Indian, a Sikh separatist, and even a terrorist. I have also overheard him making negative comments about the Muslim community, too. Even when I was in high school. While we may be young, it's clear to us that there's a lot of misinformation being thrown around. It's obvious that he’s using racism and weaponizing religion to gain an advantage in this race. Might be associated to his right-wing nationalist ideas!
Is it legal for a District Attorney to endorse and support a candidate?
they are if they get money into their campaign from the likes of Lisa Gillmore, follow the money
Serioulsy not sure if we should laugh or cry. (great reporting David)
maybe we should feel sorry for him?
it really is a case of anyone but him
but Harbir Batia has already done a lot for the community and for the world in general / we as a community should be so thankful that someone of her caliber, that really is not doing this for political reasons like this person or the former school board member who clearly did a deal with Watanabe who clearly needed a place to hang her hat as she was termed out.
Alaiss, the District Attorney is an elected politician. It is legal and common for them to offer and swap endorsements for public office unless there is a conflict of interest; good example is in District 6 where the incumbent, Becker, is being challenged by two candidates. Rosen has not endorsed either of the two D6 challengers as his office is actively prosecuting the incumbent. In every other district Rosen can provide endorsement as there would be no conflict.