After asking the city’s workforce to accept 10 percent cuts in compensation to help avoid a fiscal disaster, councilmembers Kansen Chu, Xavier Campos and Nancy Pyle voted Tuesday against docking their own pay.
Read More 44Xavier Campos
Ford and Bonilla Sue Rosenthal Over Website Prank
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A visit to the website fordandbonilla.com is not as entertaining as it once was. For a few weeks this summer, visitors to the site were redirected to a cell-phone video capturing a heated exchange between San Jose political consultant Ryan Ford and council candidate Aaron Resendez, who was then running against Xavier Campos, the brother of Ford’s then-boss, Nora Campos. (Whew!)
The vid was blurry and the sound was bad, and it would have made no sense to any potential client shopping for services from Ford and his partner, Rolando Bonilla. But local insiders got a kick out of it—that was the point. The redirect was a prank pulled by another political consultant, Jay Rosenthal, who had registered the URL when he found out Ford and Bonilla were launching their enterprise.
Read More 4Carrasco Camp Claims Fraud
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![](https://www.sanjoseinside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/cindy_xavier_hug-140x90.jpg)
While Xavier Campos seemed to recover from his scandal-induced loss of the ability to speak this week, all but announcing victory in his tight race Magdalena Carrasco on Tuesday, the Carrasco camp is claiming voter fraud in the Eastside San Jose City Council race. Kevin de León, the LA state assembly member (and Carrasco’s ex), says he’s been hearing from eyewitnesses who claim to have spotted some shenanigans by members of the South Bay Labor Council (SBLC) in District 5.
Read More 62Political Parties: Election Night Part 2
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Though trailing to Xavier Campos, District 5 candidate Magdalena Carrasco’s election night party was nonetheless packed with about 100 exuberant wellwishers.
Downtown San Jose councilman Sam Liccardo attempted to set a mood for the evening: “You guys took on the machine, and I know your going to win tonight!,” Liccardo shouted, to a round of applause.
Read More 34MACSA Search Warrant Released
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Campos Clams Up
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![](https://www.sanjoseinside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/MACSA_Raid_2-140x90.jpg)
District 5 San Jose City Council candidate Xavier Campos still refuses to address any details about the two decades he spent working at the embattled Mexican American Community Services Agency (MACSA).
Five days after MACSA’s Youth Center on 660 Sinclair Dr. was raided by armed investigators from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office , Campos, the organization’s former chief operating officer (COO) insists through intermediaries that there’s no reason for him to address the issue.
Read More 13Carrasco Calls for Campos to ‘Come Clean’
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DA Investigators Raid MACSA
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![](https://www.sanjoseinside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/MACSA_raid-140x90.jpg)
Armed investigators from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office raided the Mexican American Community Services Agency (MACSA) Youth Center at 660 Sinclair Dr. in East San Jose Thursday.
The raid began some time this morning. By 5pm, at least five officers with badges around their necks and guns on their belts were loading two unmarked police vehicles from a side door of the community center.
Read More 21Xavier Campos and the MACSA Mess
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In 2004, Miguel Baldoni was working as a substitute teacher in rural Appalachian Ohio when he heard about a new charter school opening on the East Side of San Jose. He uprooted himself, came to California and got a job teaching chemistry at the Academica Calmecac, which was run by the Mexican American Community Services Agency (MACSA).
He says he was pleased that the position offered him a chance to change the lives of at-risk students who had been left behind by traditional public schools. But he freely admits that the exceptional retirement package promised to all MACSA teachers really cemented his decision to pack his bags and come to Silicon Valley with 10 bucks in his pocket.
“This was the biggest reason why I took this job,” Baldoni says.
Read More 25A Letter from District Attorney Dolores Carr
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This is to correct and clarify several points contained in your article “SBLC Helps Big Political Contributors Erase Their Tracks,” [Sept. 22]. Your article states: “Enforcement of city election laws falls on the Government Integrity Unit of the District Attorney’s Office.” That is inaccurate. Section 12.06.260, which prohibits contributions from card rooms to candidates or candidate controlled committees is found in the San Jose Municipal Code, Title 12. Enforcing violations of Title 12 fall within the jurisdiction of the City of San Jose and its Elections Commission. Title 12 lays out an entire regulatory framework for the investigation of Title 12 violations, including campaign contribution violations.
Read More 4Politicians in Glass Houses
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Last week, Nora Campos took City Council candidate Magdalena Carrasco to task for accepting campaign money from a controversial L.A. lawyer named Francisco Leal. Campos’ brother, Xavier Campos, is facing off against Carrasco for Nora’s soon-to-be-vacant District 5 seat, and the outgoing East Side councilwoman publicly questioned Carrasco’s ethics. She also wondered aloud whether the $250 Leal contribution is evidence that Carrasco is selling her district out to Southern California interests.
Read More 20Nora Campos Accuses Magdalena Carrasco of Selling Out to L.A.
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![](https://www.sanjoseinside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/NEWS_Campos420-140x90.jpg)
A $250 campaign contribution from a Los Angeles lawyer to San Jose City Council candidate Magdalena Carrasco is drawing fire from District 5 Councilmember Nora Campos. Campos, whose brother Xavier Campos is running against Carrasco to represent San Jose’s East Side, suggests the money is evidence that Carrasco is somehow in cahoots with politicians from L.A.
Read More 25Impolite Politics
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Anybody who has met Aaron Resendez can attest to his aura of sincerity and old-school charm. A longtime community leader who has dedicated his life to the East Side, this is a guy who, during his unsuccessful run for a District 5 council seat in June, visited the ill father of competitor Magdalena Carrasco in the hospital, just to say ‘hi’ and offer support. What a decent dude. That may be why Resendez is so worked up about that public spat he had with Ryan Ford out in front of San Jose City Hall back in May.
Read More 4
Four Election Night Parties in Three Minutes
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All in the Family
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![](https://www.sanjoseinside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/magdalena_reed-140x90.jpg)
It was a family affair at Magdalena Carrasco’s election night party. The former First 5 official and about 60 of her closest friends and family gathered at her campaign headquarters on Story Road to watch as the poll results rolled in.
At 8:30pm her results, which were projected onto the wall, were neck and neck with Xavier Campos. However, that didn’t stop the mother of four from offering thanks to all her family and supporters before celebrating.
Read More 7Family Union
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![](https://www.sanjoseinside.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/NEWS_MT1023_NCampos_8558-140x90.jpg)
The South Bay Labor Council and its legions were out in full force in the lobby of the swank California Theater for political siblings Xavier and Nora Campos. Familiar faces sampled the fancy spread of sesame chicken, quiche, brie and fruit while watching results roll in around a large computer screen mounted by the entrance.
At 10:30pm, the mood was celebratory, despite the fact that what once seemed like a safe dynastic succession had turned into a November runoff and some candidates, like Forest Williams, fared worse than expected.
Read More 14