Lobbyists target county supes to push plan for mining operation on lands considered sacred by local Native Americans.

James Rowen just can’t seem to quit Magdalena Carrasco. The political operative who was sued off the Internet for defamation has once again taken aim at the San Jose councilwoman’s fundraising before taking office this year.

In a strategic advance earlier this year, Yellow Checker Cab owner Larry Silva made a calculated decision to hire many of the city’s most well-known lobbyists/consultants before Uber or Lyft made a move.

As Bay 101 floats plans to build a new casino with adjoining hotels closer to competitor Casino M8trix, our selfless public servants in Sacramento are trying to do the right thing by green-lighting the San Jose card club’s exit to Milpitas. At least that's one version of the story.

Since his unsuccessful bid for a seat on the Santa Clara City Council last year, attorney John Mlnarik has been on the legal warpath. To date, Mlnarik has sued: a couple whose diminutive dog allegedly nipped him on the hand while he was campaigning; blogger and political operative James Rowen for defamation; and a former employee, attorney Elena Rivkin Franz, who supposedly misused company resources to start her own firm and steal clients. The last two targets on that list are fighting back, however, and the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC)—the state political watchdog—could have an interest in their allegations.

More than a baker’s dozen have declared plans to run for mayor of San Jose next year, but no announcement was more startling than former councilman Forrest Williams’. Out of the spotlight since his failed 2010 county supervisor bid against Mike Wasserman, his announcement last month came out of left-left field considering his past supporters at the South Bay Labor Council are all-in for former vice mayor and present county supe Dave Cortese. Fly isn’t the only one scratching its head over Williams’ kind-of, sort-of run. He said SBLC officials have called to “ask what’s my plan,” which is code for “WTF, Forrest?” There are some theories that 2010 figures into his new effort. A look at disclosure forms shows that Williams and his wife, Dorothy, had to forgive $116,950 they loaned his supervisor campaign. Williams insisted that he forgave only about $50-60K, though, and isn’t running to help pay off old debts.

Getting San Jose Councilman Xavier Campos to agree to an interview is a difficult proposition. Unless you’re the New York Times or NBC Bay Area’s Damian Trujillo. The latter scored an on-air interview Thursday with the councilman, who invoked the Fifth Amendment in front of the grand jury last month. In his interview, Campos claims that he had nothing to do with a fraudulent political mailer that helped his defeat his opponent, Magdalena Carrasco, in the 2010 council race. He also said he took the Fifth because he doesn’t trust the District Attorney’s office. But, according to NBC’s legal expert, Campos might have said too much, and he could be recalled in front of the grand jury.

The Daily Fetch takes no prisoners—at least that’s what political consultant and lobbyist Dustin DeRollo told Fly when denying he has any role in producing the anonymous links blog. In the past six months, the Fetch—under new ownership—has taken a decidedly aggressive tone in going after everyone from Mayor Chuck Reed, his City Council allies and defeated county supervisorial candidate Teresa Alvarado to Metro and its staff. But one group that has received far less criticism from the blog is the organized labor machine and its elected allies, such as Cindy Chavez. So, when DeRollo’s name turned up as the quasi-editor of a PDF the site posted for a story last week, speculation in Silicon Valley political circles percolated that he and his business partner, Tom Saggau, have been orchestrating the site. Both men say that couldn’t be further from the truth, claiming DeRollo was improperly ratted out as a source for a story he expected not to lead back to him.

The South Bay Labor Council spent almost a quarter-million dollars supporting Cindy Chavez’ successful run for a county supervisor seat, according to forms filed last month with the Registrar of Voters. The details of the labor organization’s staggering campaign fundraising and spending have not been made public until now. Taking into respect money spent by the Chavez campaign and other groups supporting her, it appears more than $750,000 was spent getting her into office. While few candidates can pull together a coalition of support like Chavez, the coordination between her campaign and outside groups raises some serious questions for the Fair Political Practices Commission.

Today’s primary for the District 2 county supervisor seat is an enormously critical one-issue ballot. Seven candidates are up to to replace disgraced former county Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr., with Teresa Alvarado and Cindy Chavez looking like the frontrunners to extend the race to a runoff.

Here it comes. The biggest, baddest sports spectacular in the United States of America. Super Bowl L—that is L as in roman numeral 50; and “L” as in “L”ove it—will be an unofficial national holiday. This is an extravaganza and event so special that it dwarfs all other sporting events. And to think it all started with one man’s vision, a letter and a personal visit.

Push polls are a common occurrence in campaign season. They are designed to leave voters with a more positive or negative reaction to topics and/or individuals after answering questions. Political consultant Rich Robinson recently wrote a column on San Jose Inside about his distate for the leading questions, which are often asked without proper context, he argued. Based on email records obtained through a court order last week, it can be said that Kathleen King, executive director of the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, does not share this opinion about push polls.

Cindy Chavez’s campaign manager, Ed McGovern, acknowledged Tuesday evening that his client has a found a way to circumvent state laws that prevent independent committees from coordinating with candidate campaigns.

Xavier Campos is a public servant who doesn’t like to talk to the media. For this reason, and maybe a few others, the San Jose councilman refused to answer Fly’s questions about his former campaign treasurer, Linda Delgado, who handled accounting duties for his council race in 2010. Treasurers aren’t usually a hot topic of conversation, but Delgado also happens to be one of the absentee accountants who facilitated George Shirakawa’s embezzlement of more than $100K in campaign contributions.

Fly isn’t the only one captivated by the professional diaries of Mercury News opinion editor Barbara Marshman. Two weeks after Metro revealed that Marshman made a quid pro quo offer of “lavish praise” to Water District candidate Barbara Keegan in exchange for her removal from the race, a shadow group called Political Record Strategies (PRS) made a request for all electronic communications between city of San Jose officials and Marshman, as well as the rest of the paper’s editorial board.

The San Francisco 49ers broke ground Thursday on their new stadium in Santa Clara and threw a tremendous party replete with football royalty, current players, politicians and, most importantly, volunteers from the Measure J campaign that made the day possible. The model used by Santa Clara and the Niners should be replicated in San Jose for the new A’s stadium.