Top image: Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara. Photo: David290 / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

In most Silicon Valley cities, a well-funded City Council campaign might raise tens of thousands of dollars. In Santa Clara, home to Levi’s Stadium, the most important number this fall is $2.6 million, and none of it belongs to a candidate.

Two independent expenditure committees funded by the San Francisco 49ers have put roughly $2.6 million into Santa Clara’s Nov. 3 election, according to a campaign finance review by The Silicon Valley Voice. That compares with a combined $138,700 raised by all the candidates through loans and donations. The committee active in the mayor’s race, “Affordable Santa Clara Supporting Ferraris and Opposing Watanabe and Kertes for Mayor 2026,” has received about $1.87 million; its counterpart in the District 2 council race has received about $753,000. As of Oct. 8 filings, the committees had spent about $886,700 in the mayoral contest and $385,000 in District 2, mostly on television ads, the Voice reported. (The Voice discloses that the 49ers committees have bought advertising from it.)

A candidate who didn’t ask

The District 2 race shows how lopsided the money can get. The committee backing Kimberley Williams and opposing Yvonne Inciarte reported at least $270,137 in spending supporting Williams and $25,288 opposing Inciarte through Oct. 1, San José Spotlight reported. Williams’ own campaign reported $5,938 in contributions through Sept. 25, including $3,053 in personal loans. Inciarte reported $15,709.

Williams, a university administrator and board president of the Santa Clara Schools Foundation, said she did not ask for the team’s backing and cannot control it. “To me, it’s excessive and somewhat troubling to see that much money being put into this kind of a local election,” she told the Spotlight. She worries that voters may assume her campaign has access to the money.

Inciarte, a government relations director and former aide to Rep. Ro Khanna, was blunter. “Honestly, it’s pathetic. The 49ers are spending millions of dollars in a desperate attempt to keep control of City Hall,” she said.

“We are proud to once again support a diverse slate of candidates running for city leadership — consensus builders who will tackle the affordability crisis, and manage the city’s finances responsibly while investing in the city’s future,” a 49ers spokesperson previously told the Spotlight.

Williams faces a separate controversy. Her campaign posted photos from the Schools Foundation’s booth at the Sept. 20 Santa Clara Art & Wine Festival that tagged the nonprofit and showed its banner, giving the impression of an endorsement, Local News Matters reported, republishing San José Spotlight. Williams said a volunteer made the post and took it down once she learned of the error, and the foundation is setting new guidance for board members who run for office.

In District 3, where Councilmember Karen Hardy is terming out to run for mayor, the 49ers have stayed out so far. “I hope they stay out of our race,” candidate Kyle Madej told the Spotlight. His opponent, Planning Commission Chair Eric Crutchlow, said he doesn’t take money from companies.

Self-funded candidates, team-funded campaigns

The Voice’s review found that candidates have lent their own campaigns more money ($84,100) than they have raised from donors ($54,000). David Kertes leads mayoral candidates with $41,900, nearly all of it self-loans; Kathy Watanabe has $19,500. Gary Ferraris, the candidate the 49ers committee supports for mayor, reported about $8,000, with donors including AFSCME-affiliated committees and many city employees.

The long view

As the team’s own phrase “once again” suggests, this is not the 49ers’ first foray into Santa Clara politics, and the stakes extend well beyond football: the city’s finances, its stadium authority and its relationship with one of the region’s most valuable sports franchises. What is new is the scale relative to the candidates. When outside spending exceeds the candidates’ own fundraising many times over, the campaign voters see on television is largely one the candidates did not write.

That has prompted calls for change. In a San José Spotlight op-ed, a writer argued that public campaign financing could help level the field. Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, independent expenditures can’t simply be capped, so public financing and stronger disclosure are among the few tools a city has.

For the rest of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara is a preview. As tech companies, developers and franchises with business before city councils discover how much a small municipal electorate can be moved by six-figure ad buys, the 49ers’ approach may become a template.

Sources: The Silicon Valley Voice (Oct. 13, updated Oct. 16, 2026); San José Spotlight (Oct. 9, 2026); Local News Matters/San José Spotlight (Oct. 16, 2026). Candidate figures reflect filings through Sept. 24-25; committee figures through Oct. 1-8.