Santa Clara candidate faces complaint for exceeding donation limits

A Santa Clara official wants the city attorney to review mayoral candidate Kathy Watanabe’s campaign donations, alleging violations of the city’s donor limits.

Councilmember Suds Jain’s Oct. 5 complaint said Watanabe’s July campaign filings reported $500 contributions each from Paul Larson and Michael McWalter, but the contribution limits per person are $380. The filing shows a $220 refund to Larson for exceeding the contribution limit, but does not show a refund to McWalter. Jain said he could not find evidence of a refund to McWalter in the July filing or Watanabe’s subsequent filing.

Watanabe, a former councilmember, said Larson and McWalter donated $1,000 through Zeffy, an online fundraising platform, back when she decided to run for mayor. She said the campaign issued one refund check to the couple, then sent Larson a second $20 check after realizing the initial refund was $20 short. Watanabe said the campaign shut down its Zeffy account after discovering the issue and later filed an amendment to correct errors in its campaign finance reports.

“The full refund was made in one check (of $200) as Paul and Michael are married. There was a shortage of $20 as I did math wrong in my head,” Watanabe told San José Spotlight. “I subsequently sent another check for $20 to just Paul.”

She said this is the first time her treasurer has filed disclosure forms, and once Watanabe saw the error the campaign filed an amended form.

Watanabe said she is willing to speak with the city attorney about the complaint and is not trying to skirt campaign finance rules.

The City Council had previously set individual campaign contributions at $760 for candidates who agreed to accept the voluntary expenditure limit. For those who did not, the limit is $380 for candidates. In his complaint, Jain said he noticed Watanabe had not accepted the limits.

The council set the voluntary expenditure limits at $55,890 for citywide contests and $29,590 for district-based contests.

Jain’s complaint asks City Attorney Glen Googins to investigate whether Watanabe’s campaign violated the city’s campaign finance rules and if there are other irregularities in the filings.

Googins was not available for comment.

Jain said he began reviewing Watanabe’s campaign finances while looking through the disclosures for candidates running for mayor and city council.

The complaint comes as Watanabe faces off against other candidates in the Nov. 3 mayoral election. Watanabe previously served on the city council and was among the councilmembers who voted in 2024 to establish the city’s voluntary campaign expenditure and contribution limits.

Jain alleges there are others error regarding cash payments and expenditures in Watanabe’s forms, and said she and her treasurer are liable for that information.

“For somebody who wants to be mayor and for somebody who talks about ethics all the time, for somebody who’s run for office many times, it’s just shocking to me how careless she has been in filling out these financial forms,” Jain told San José Spotlight.

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