BY ALLISON LEVITSKY
Daily Post Staff Writer
Alison Cormack’s campaign for Palo Alto City Council has gotten a $46,836 boost with campaign mailers paid for by the California Apartment Association and an organization headed by Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino.
The mailers were paid for as independent expenditures, and Cormack said last night that her campaign had not received any donations from the two organizations.
“The recent mailers were a surprise to me and to my team when they arrived in our mailboxes,” Cormack said in an email. “Neither I nor anyone on my team knows anything about these independent expenditures.”
Innovation for Everyone is a political action committee led by Guardino, Nextdoor Communications and Policy Vice President Steve Wymer and Margaret Tamisiea, the Silicon Valley Organization Foundation’s interim director of community development. The group spent $33,557 on mailers for Cormack between Oct. 24 and Oct. 30.
Between Oct. 22 and Oct. 29, Innovation for Everyone collected donations from the Los Gatos-based South Bay Development ($10,000), Trimble CEO Steven Berglund ($5,000) and the San Jose-based Blach Construction Co. ($5,000).
The group’s website, innovation4everyone.com, describes the committee as “a coalition of community, neighborhood, environmental and business leaders in their personal capacities who are volunteering their time” to “leverage the power of public and private sector innovation to benefit the many — not just the few.”
For Guardino, Wymer and Tamisiea, “innovation” means providing affordable housing to seniors, working- and middle-class families, teachers, nurses, police officers and firefighters, helping house the homeless and improve transportation options.
“Innovation also means ensuring that as we create more wealth in our region that we expand middle class job opportunities,” the website states.
Innovation for Everyone also wants to “ensure our innovators and entrepreneurs have the support they need to succeed” and “invest in leveraging technology to make government more efficient and effective.”
The group’s mailer states that Cormack “supports redesigning the rail intersections along the Caltrain corridor and developing an improved bus shuttle system” and “supports more construction of ‘housing that is affordable by design’ and increased housing for seniors.”
Cormack also supports Prop 1, Prop 2 and opposes Prop 6, the mailer states, earning Innovation for Everyone’s “seal of approval.” Props 1 and 2 are housing bonds and a “yes” on Prop 6 will repeal the gas tax increase.
Innovation for Everyone has thrown $129,946 in independent expenditures for Susan Ellenberg’s campaign for a seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
The Apartment Association paid $13,279 for mailers in support of Cormack between Oct. 11 and Oct. 23 and has not funded campaign literature in support of any other candidate on the mid-Peninsula. The group has, however, paid for campaign literature opposing Redwood City Council candidate Diana Reddy ($15,381.77).
In Mountain View, The California Apartment Association also funded a mailer for Libertarian John Inks who’s against any sort sort of protection for renters.
Nobody who can afford to rent in MV needs more protection. I didn’t vote for Cormack but if the apt rental industry is behind her that’s good.
I’ve heard enough about subsidized housing for firefighters, cops and people who have never lived here. There are PA and MV raised kids who went to college and law or medical school living with their parents while working. Subsidization should help existimy residents before giving more benefits to public employees, the homeless and poor (non residents)
Nobody who can afford to rent in MV needs more protection. I didn’t vote for Cormack but if the apt rental industry is behind her that’s good.
I’ve heard enough about subsidized housing for firefighters, cops and people who have never lived here. There are PA and MV raised kids who went to college and law or medical school living with their parents while working. Subsidization should help existing residents before giving more benefits to public employees, the homeless and poor (non residents)
Well now we know, just a few days before the election, that Cormack is going to be in the pro-growth camp if she’s elected. She played coy at the beginning, trying to ride the fence. But now it’s pretty clear she’ll be voting with Tanaka, Kniss, Fine and Wolbach (assuming he’s re-elected).