Former Brown consultant Steve Glazer’s work with Chamber PAC raises questions

by Brian Leubitz

Let’s put this out there, the 16th Assembly District, given the current candidate list, and barring any major craziness, will be electing a Democrat in November. But that is a statement that can be made in many districts across the state. And given that knowledge, the Chamber of Commerce and its allies are getting smarter. They are supporting moderate Democrats against more progressive candidates. In other words, the Democratic Party’s big tent is stretching further than ever.

One such moderate candidate is Steve Glazer, a member of the Orinda city council, and a consultant to Governor Brown. But what has been raising some questions this week has been his work on behalf of JobsPAC, the somewhat notorious PAC of the Chamber of Commerce and its right-wing allies. Robert Gammon of the East Bay Express dug into this relationship:

During the campaign, Glazer, a Democrat, has repeatedly criticized Sbranti’s union backing, while portraying himself as the true “independent” candidate in the race, not beholden to special interests. But public records show that Glazer, who is part of a new breed of pro-business moderate politicians now increasingly known as Corporate Democrats, owes his financial well-being in part to special interests: Big Oil, insurance, and tobacco companies. In addition, Glazer worked for a powerful political committee at a time when it was only supporting Republicans and was spending huge sums trying to defeat liberal Democrats for the state legislature.

Throughout 2012, Glazer worked as a political consultant for JobsPAC, an influential group operated by the California Chamber of Commerce. Records show that during that time, JobsPAC paid Glazer $172,500. And while Glazer was on the group’s payroll, its three big funders by far were oil companies ($660,000), tobacco interests ($334,500), and the insurance industry ($446,000). The single largest donors were Chevron Corporation ($610,000) and Philip Morris USA Inc. ($334,500).(EBExpress / Robert Gammon)

The June primary is a really big deal here. With one Republican in the race, we will likely see a Democratic likely winner emerge in June. There are plenty of Republicans to push the one Republican into the top two. The only question is which Democrat will join them. Steve Glazer has been working in this kind of race for a while. JobsPAC was involved in the Daly/Garcia race in OC, and getting Tom Calderon elected (before his recent fall from grace). And while Glazer has stated that he was working on supporting moderate Democrats rather than Republicans, he was on the payroll for a long time while JobsPAC was spending nearly all of its money on Republicans.

We are still learning a lot about Top-2 and how it will impact these races, but AD-16 should be a fascinating test case on the success of corporate Democrats in Dem-leaning districts.

Note: I helped design Tim Sbranti’s website