SVO PAC’s racist attack ad sinks to lowest of the low
The Silicon Valley Organization’s PAC’s racist hit piece on San Jose City Council District 6 candidate Jake Tonkel this week is an appalling example of the worst kind of campaign attack ads.
Sadly, it follows a pattern of the organization’s political action committee exploiting racial issues.
In February, the SVO used ads with darkened photos of current Councilwoman Sylvia Arenas, who is Latina. And in 2016, the SVO used the same tactic in a mailer against Councilman Sergio Jimenez.
The SVO PAC is the campaign arm of the Valley’s largest chamber of commerce. Heads should roll for those responsible for the latest ad. Two members of the SVO’s Board of Directors, Joshua Howard and Anil Babbar of the California Apartment Association, resigned from the board Wednesday morning. The SVO announced Wednesday afternoon that CEO Matt Mahood has been placed on administrative leave and that the organization would hold a 10 a.m. news conference Thursday. It also said that all activities of the SVO PAC had been suspended.
Fair attacks against campaigns and candidates are expected and acceptable. But this week’s hit piece crosses the line, sinking to the lowest of low.
The ad on the SVO PAC website showed a 2018 blackand-white photo of a group of Black men rioting in the streets. At the top of the photo, taken by South African photographer Pawel Janiak, a headline read: “Do you really want to sign onto this?”
The intent of the ad was to smear Tonkel’s position on police reforms. The SVO has claimed that Tonkel wants to defund the San Jose Police Department by 80%. But Tonkel told the Bay Area News Group that he has no plans to do so.
On Tuesday, the SVO apologized for the “insensitive and racist” ad.
In a posted statement, the organization said: “We apologize sincerely for the error and the pain we know the image may have caused those who saw it. The person who posted the picture was attempting to demonstrate the consequences of cutting the police budget by 80%, but the image chosen was offensive and should not have been posted. We are reviewing all of our internal procedures to make sure something like this does not happen again.”
The review should include why the SVO apology repeated the false accusation that Tonkel wants to defund the SJPD by 80%. The SVO also needs to explain exactly what happened and what protocols are in place for an ad to appear on the website.
To her credit, Tonkel’s opponent, incumbent Dev Davis, denounced the hit piece and removed the SVO from her website’s endorsement list. She also donated a check to a nonprofit that fights racism in the amount that the SVO had donated to her primary and general election campaigns.
The SVO PAC’s sleazy ad was hardly the only unfair hit of the fall campaign. A labor coalition PAC put out a misleading recent mailer saying in large type that Tonkel is a Democrat, seeking to bolster support for Tonkel, who is actually a member of the Green Party.
And in the state Senate race featuring Dave Cortese and Ann Ravel, both the SVO PAC and labor PAC have spent tens of thousands of dollars sending out numerous misleading attack mailers.
Farther north, in the Mountain View City Council race, the SVO PAC sent out another misleading mailer implying that candidate Sally Lieber, whose progressive credentials are rock-solid, is beholden to special interest groups that support Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
We could go on and on. But the bottom line is voters would be best served by taking one simple action when coming across the ubiquitous political hit pieces: Ignore them.