Ex-Santa Clara officials’ confrontation leads to free speech lesson

A recent confrontation caught on video between two former Santa Clara councilmembers, with one running for mayor, led to the cops being called. But instead of anyone ending up in handcuffs, officers informed them of their First Amendment rights.

At the city’s annual Art & Wine Festival on Saturday, Anthony Becker approached Kathy Watanabe at her mayoral campaign booth to ask about a video she had deleted from her social media page, Kathy Watanabe for Mayor 2026. Watanabe said she didn’t want to be recorded and declined to answer questions. After several minutes of ignoring Becker’s questions, she called the Santa Clara Police Department claiming she was being harassed.

Police showed up — only to tell Becker that he was within his First Amendment rights to question and film Watanabe in a public place.

Becker said his husband and a friend recorded the interaction because they have previously been accused of harassment and he wanted a record of the conversation.

“We did this for a reason: to show voters these are the people who are running for office in the city of Santa Clara. And this is what you should see,” Becker told San José Spotlight.

Watanabe described the interaction differently and said Becker continued to harass her and a friend for about 15 to 20 minutes and created a disruptive situation around nearby festival booths.

“It’s harassment,” Watanabe told San José Spotlight. “And because there were other people around, there were other booths and they didn’t know what was going on. (Becker) was creating all of this drama and trying to intimidate my friend that was there with me in the booth. It really was not necessary.”

Lt. Eric Lagergren said police officers responded to the festival, spoke with both parties and determined no crime had occurred. No police report was generated, though the dispatch record shows the call came in at 11:23 a.m. and officers arrived about eight minutes later, according to police records.

“SCPD was present to ensure members of the public are entitled to exercise their First Amendment free speech rights in traditional public forums,” Lagergren told San José Spotlight.

The clash is the latest between city officials and Becker, who in December 2024 was convicted of perjury and failing to uphold his duties as a public official, after leaking a confidential 2022 Civil Grand Jury report to a 49ers executive and lying about it during the investigation. He was sentenced in April 2025 to 40 days in the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Work Program and has appealed the conviction.

With the Nov. 3 election just weeks away, Becker has started a YouTube channel to cover the mayoral race. He said he wants to give candidates more time to answer questions than they typically receive at debates or public events.

He said he approached Watanabe at the festival because he wanted to ask her questions about her deleted video and other issues in the mayoral race. Becker said he had planned to ask other candidates similar questions, and that he was documenting the encounter as part of his work.

“I’ve been a documentary film journalist for over 10 years,” Becker said. “I have a degree in film, radio and television production.”

Regarding the video deleted from Watanabe’s campaign Facebook page, Becker said he interpreted it as a criticism toward  unions and corporations influencing who gets elected in Santa Clara. He questions how that fits in with the support she has received from labor groups like the Santa Clara Police Officers’ Association, which has endorsed her run for mayor.

But Watanabe said her video was prompted by a Sept. 15 San Francisco Chronicle article about the 49ers’ political spending in Santa Clara. The article shows the NFL team contributed $980,000 to independent expenditure campaigns in August, including $645,000 to support mayoral candidate Gary Ferraris and $335,000 to support City Council candidate Kimberley Williams. City officials have had a strained relationship with the team, which plays at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

Watanabe said she removed the video because she wanted to provide more context and clarity about what she was trying to say. She said it had nothing to do with her endorsement from the police union.

“I know what I meant, but I also know that when you have a political page and you have people that are watching, they may not understand what I was trying to say,” Watanabe said.

Watanabe said she plans to redo the video with additional context.

“It’s my political page, so I can actually post or delete whatever I want to do,” Watanabe said. “I didn’t want my words to be misconstrued.”

Contact Maryanne Casas-Perez at [email protected] or @CasasPerezRed on X.