Who's got outside money?

Santa Clara mayor Mahan claimed that a vote on the stadium would "allow outside opposition money to influence" the debate.

Fine, let's see who's got outside money.

If you have been to City Council meetings recently, you may have seen some stadium supporters waving a sign with the web address supportourniners.com. The people waving the banner were all very nice regular people, so I assumed this is some kind of grassroots supporter's network.

In fact, at one meeting that I attended, I remember the Mayor telling the supporter to hold the sign so that it can be seen by TV cameras. A not-so-discreet thumb pressing on the scales of Justice, but whatever...

However, if you go look at their website, you will see a tiny little logo at the bottom left of the screen that says, "Site design and operation by JA". It is a live link to jathinking.com. Here's a screenshot of it in case they decide to disavow any knowledge of my, err ... their, existence:

Curiouser and curiouser!

Being the Alice-in-Wonderland inquisitive type, I followed that link and suddenly found myself in the big-moneyed world of ... [surprise!] ... the San Francisco 49ers! You see, JA Thinking is something like an ad agency or may be a public relations firm. They are based in Brentwood, TN. (How outside can you get!) They proudly boast that they do $42 million of business with the likes of Taco Bell, KFC, and the 49ers.

So there you have it. The pseudo-grassroots stadium booster website is run by the 49ers' own ad agency. Presumably said ad agency is paid for by the 49ers because

• why in sand hill would some bidness people in Tennessee give a horsefeather about a stadium all the way out there in California?
• what kind of grassroots organization can afford a national ad agency, and if they got that kind of money, I respectfully submit that they are, by definition, no longer grassroots.

Compare-and-contrast, if you will, their booster club with ours. This website is all volunteer-run. We put it up on blogger.com, partly because it's hip, but mostly because it's free! We all have day jobs. We're doing this on our own dime. Why? Because we want you, dear fellow Santa Clara residents, to get the facts and make your own decisions.

So here's the debate on turning the hen house into a KFC. The supporters are bankrolled by Foxes, Inc. The opposition are, OK fine, a bunch of chicken littles. And da mayor has the gall to throw veiled accusations about "outside" opposition money. Harooomph!