Late last year a developer (Ponderosa Homes) backed by Carl Berg (a billionaire) decided to gather signatures for a measure that would change our general plan and devastate open space in San Jose. The petition seeking signatures to put the measure on the ballot was successful due to the signature gatherers telling people that the petition was for a measure that would build affordable housing for Seniors and Veterans.
In fact the measure sought to completely rewrite our 2040 General Plan which protected open space, required developers to build for density, and looks to the future of how we need to be smart about where we build our housing/employment areas. The Measure was over 300 pages long.
As a means to try to undo the damage that would be done if this measure passed our local city council put a competing measure on the ballot, Measure C (it passed with 100 percent support from the city council, something that rarely happens here).
Measure B was backed, literally, by billionaires. Every day voters in San Jose were receiving mailers supporting Measure B as a way to provide affordable housing for seniors and veterans, as responsible and environmentally good development (in fact none of these things were true). What was left out of the mail was that this measure would change our entire general plan.
Every day there were ads on TV against measure C, ads that ran at least three or four times an hour.
Not one organization backed Measure B, as a matter of fact both the local Democratic and Republican parties opposed the measure. AARP opposed the measure, almost every elected official either opposed the measure or did not weigh in. There were only two electeds who supported this measure, one was a former city council member, and the other person was a former school trustee.
The No on B group was outspent 10 to 1. We had literally NO money when all the mail started pouring in, the Yes on B group had millions of dollars that they were spending on staff, polling, mail and TV.
We had local volunteers who knocked on doors, made calls and became active speakers at community meetings in debates with the Yes on B people.
The No on B campaign did manage to send out about 4 or 5 pieces of mail, but no TV ads. And yet….as time went on, as we reached out to the community and more and more people and organizations stood up to denounce this horrific measure support in the community started to tank.
Our local paper published a scathing opinion piece on the measure, our mayor actively campaigned against the measure (more then he campaigned for his own re election), and more and more people from the community knocked on doors, made calls and worked hard to spread the word about this deceptive measure.
On Tuesday we learned that our hard work beat back the billionaire!!!! As of today the vote is:
NO: 70,311 (57.51%)
Yes: 51,957 (42.49%)
And Measure C passed as well (by even bigger margins).
As we move on to November don’t ever think that money will always win, as you can see money lost big time here in San Jose, CA. People power CAN win elections, and if we join together and work hard we can, and will, do great things in November.