Will Xavier Campos ever break free of George Shirakawa Jr.’s shadow? Last week, District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced a new felony charge against Shirakawa after the former county supervisor’s DNA was found on a stamp affixed to a 2010 political hit piece against Magdalena Carrasco, Campos’ San Jose council opponent that year. The fraudulent mailers depicted Carrasco as a communist and thereby lowered her standing in the Vietnamese community, helping Campos squeak through to victory the primary, and then the runoff. Campos put out a limp statement, calling the allegations “deeply disappointing and extremely hurtful,” but he never actually denied any involvement in the illegal mailers. The best he could muster: “I have never wanted to be involved in any activities that distract our city’s attention” from critical issues. So, did somebody get bullied? A follow-up call to his office asking for clarification on whether he actually denied involvement resulted in a no-comment, which would be a surprise if Campos ever talked to the press and took responsibility for his actions. To date, the baby bro of Assemblymember Nora Campos has yet to explain his role in the MACSA scandal, which consisted of the X-man doing nothing as chief operating officer while $1 million in employee pension money was stolen. And when it comes to explaining his activities with buddy Shirakawa, Campos has been equally timid. In addition to eating almost a couple dozen meals on the county dime as a Shirakawa staffer and later as a councilmember (he made a token reimbursement of $150), Campos also used Linda Delgado, the mother of one of Shirakawa’s children, as his campaign treasurer. That unqualified hire now has the Fair Political Practices Commission investigating the councilman’s 2010 campaign—and for good reason. A check back at Campos’ disclosure forms shows that it took his campaign three tries to figure out how much money he spent in just a 16-day window in October 2010: $29,016 the first time; $9,987 the second time; and $14,087 the third time. Campos and his buddies may have dined out a lot, but they seem to have exhibited extraordinary culinary skills, at least when it came to cooking the books.