BY ALLISON LEVITSKY
Daily Post Staff Writer
The campaign to recall Judge Aaron Persky has amassed a war chest of more than $1.2 million since 2016, but the two committees raising funds to support the judge are catching up.
To date, both committees raising funds to oppose the recall — No Recall of Judge Persky and Retain Judge Persky: No Recall — have collected a combined $1 million.
In the past few weeks, the pro-Persky committees have received some large donations.
Retired Apple executive Joanna Hoffman donated $25,000 to fight the recall effort on May 8.
Eight days later, financial consultant Mark Heising, of Atherton, donated $49,900.
On May 21, Mountain View attorney Victoria Tran Sood pitched in $30,000. No Recall raised $306,748.22 between Jan. 1 and May 19.
Retain Judge Persky raised $283,744.76 in the same time period. The campaign raised $446,751.47 last year.
The recall campaign, meanwhile, raised $557,999.88 between Jan. 1 and May 19, and a total of $1.2 million since 2016.
The total for the committees supporting Persky includes $371,448.62 in legal services from the San Jose law firm McManis Faulkner. McManis represented Persky as he sued over the recall campaign, claiming it was unconstitutional.
Contributions to the anti-recall groups has picked up as public opinion about the effort to remove Judge Persky appears to have shifted. A Channel 5 Survey USA poll released last week showed the percentage of voters supporting the recall had dropped from 56% in March to 49% this month.
Vote No on the Recall
The entire recall effort has been a campaign of deceit. All of the recall campaign’s phony cries of bias and privilege have been refuted by credible sources. Glad to see that voters are standing up to the misguided recall effort and seeing the truth–that Judge Persky is a fair and respected judge who should not be recalled. I want a judge like Judge Persky who follows the rule of law–not the whims of popular opinion or the Twitter sentiments of the day.
Please join Congresswomen Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo, District Attorney Jeff Rosen, public defender Molly O’Neal, Santa Clara County Supervisor President Joe Simitian, and many, many other judges, lawyers, community leaders, and members of our community and vote NO on the recall.
Hon. LaDoris Cordell posted on her Twitter page the results of a survey of 22 Menlo High students, who heard arguments both for and against the recall, and over TWO-THIRDS stated afterwards that they would vote no on the recall (if they could vote – I’m presuming that many are not in Santa Clara county or of voting age). This seems to be in keeping with the growing support for Persky as more and more people become aware of the facts. If our kids can figure this out, I’m sure the voting public can.
https://twitter.com/judgecordell?lang=en