Former Federal Election Commission Chair Ann Ravel filed a grievance Saturday against House Representative Evan Low's congressional campaign, alleging that Low did not report using a nonprofit organization's email server and phone list as an in-kind donation.

The FEC's grievance is the newest development within the contentious sixteenth Congressional District race between Low and former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. The two Democrats have raised nearly $7 million to succeed U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, who announced late last yr that she wouldn’t seek re-election after greater than three a long time in Congress.

Ravel, who was appointed to the FEC by President Barack Obama in 2013, supports Liccardo but claims the grievance has nothing to do along with her support for the previous mayor.

“For me, it's more about how important it is for people in public service and in elections to obey the law,” she told The Mercury News.

In February, Ravel said, she became aware of an email from Low's campaign team that discussed his “pro-choice voting behavior.” At the underside of the e-mail was an unsubscribe link that directed the user to an internet site run by the nonprofit organization Stand With Asian Americans.

“This suggests that Mr. Low and his committee used a web platform hosted by the SWAA and that they apparently sent this email to the SWAA email list,” Ravel wrote within the grievance.

Low's campaign didn’t report any in-kind or non-monetary contributions to the nonprofit, nor did it report any payments to the organization for its email list or web server, the grievance said. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 requires candidates to report contributions or “anything of value” they’ve received.

Low's campaign team denied the allegations within the grievance.

“Sam Liccardo is once again using his supporters to make false accusations against our campaign and distract from his own shady behavior,” Low campaign spokesman Lam Nguyen said in an announcement. “This is simply a case of a volunteer using the wrong hyperlink in his personal capacity. The email list was purchased from the county registrar and reported by the campaign.”

Low's opponent, Liccardo, is the topic of two FEC complaints filed earlier this yr that relate to the recount of votes in the first election after Low tied for second place with Santa Clara County Executive Joe Simitian. The recount was requested by Jonathan Padilla, a former staffer on Liccardo's mayoral campaign, resulting in allegations of collusion. In a July opinion piece, Ravel sharply criticized the 2 complaints, saying they were “filed without any evidence” and were a “blatant political ploy to mislead voters.”

This is breaking news. Check back later for updates.

Originally published: August 26, 2024 at 7:00 am

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.

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.

By Clare Duffy | CNN

New York – Dozens of former Google employees filed a grievance with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday after they were fired or placed on administrative leave last month for protesting the corporate's cloud computing contract with the Israeli government.

The grievance accuses Google of retaliating against the employees for his or her “protected concerted activity,” namely participation (or perceived participation) in a peaceful, non-disruptive protest that was directly and explicitly related to their working conditions.

According to No Tech for Apartheid, a bunch made up partly of Google and Amazon employees that organized the protests last month, the employees are demanding their jobs be reinstated and back pay.

A Google spokesman said in an announcement that the protests were “a clear case of employees disrupting and occupying workplaces and making other employees feel threatened and unsafe.”

“Their behavior was completely unacceptable in every respect – and was widely viewed as such,” the spokesman said. “We have carefully confirmed and reconfirmed that every single person whose employment was terminated was directly and definitively involved in the disruptions in our buildings. We are confident in our position and stand by the measures we have taken.”

Last month's protests included worker sit-ins at Google offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, California. According to No Tech for Apartheid, employees in Sunnyvale entered the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian.

No Tech for Apartheid announced last week that fifty Google employees had been terminated in reference to the protests. The group claimed among the fired employees were “non-participating bystanders” and weren’t actively involved in workplace activism.

A Google spokesperson told CNN last month that the corporate was investigating the “physical disturbance in our buildings on April 16.”

“Our investigation into these incidents is now complete and we have terminated the employment of additional employees who were found to have been directly involved in disruptive activities,” the Google spokesperson said on the time.

But affected employees say they mustn’t have been fired for protesting the corporate's actions.

“We must oppose Google’s suppression of labor organizing and demand that Google be held accountable for its retaliation against employees who demand ethical use of their work,” said Zelda Montes, a former Google software engineer who was convicted for her participation within the Protest was released in an announcement.

Google employees' protests against the corporate's cloud computing cope with the Israeli government come greater than six months after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, and after Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza has now killed greater than 34,183 people in Gaza, based on figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. According to the ministry, greater than 70% of those killed in Gaza were women and kids.

The ongoing carnage amongst civilians in Gaza has deeply divided the American public, and in recent weeks there have been protests on college campuses and across the American economy against U.S. government and business support for Israel.

In the wake of the protests at Google, CEO Sundar Pichai sent out a company-wide memo asking employees to maintain “politics” out of the workplace. Pichai told employees, “This is a business, not a place where you can behave in a way that disrupts your co-workers.” Pichai further urged Google employees to not “argue about disruptive topics” within the workplace or to debate politics”.

The CNN Wire
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