In a last-ditch effort to reverse a previous City Council decision, Mayor Matt Mahan and his chief of staff, Jim Reed, rolled out the results of a poll showing overwhelming voter support for holding special elections to fill two vacant Council seats. Who funded this last-minute poll? Solutions for Silicon Valley, a political advocacy group founded by none other than Mahan’s chief of staff, Jim Reed.
To conduct the poll, Solutions for Silicon Valley turned to its favorite political consultant, Eric Jaye, and his firm, Storefront Media, despite their history of running deceptive and racist political campaigns in San Jose.
In 2020, on behalf of the Silicon Valley Organization, Storefront Media launched hit pieces on San Jose City Council District 6 candidate Jake Tonkel featuring photos of anti-Apartheid rioters in South Africa, asking voters, “Do you really want to sign on to this?”, alleging Tonkel supported defunding the police. That same year, Storefront Media also manipulated photos of Sylvia Arenas in her run for re-election to the San Jose City Council, making her skin tone appear darker.
Both campaigns were widely condemned as racist, so much so that board members and financial supporters resigned, as did its longtime CEO, Matt Mahood. To try and earn back the trust of the local business community, the organization was forced to rebrand (as the San Jose Chamber of Commerce), dissolve its political action committee, and pledge to stop endorsing political candidates.
You would think local leaders would be reticent to work with a political outfit with this checkered past. Not Jim Reed. He has seen to it that another San Jose mayoral administration relies on Eric Jaye and Storefront Media to inform its political tactics.
We hope that is a decision Mayor Mahan actually does have the power to reverse.
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