Welcome to Special Interest Watch.org, a website dedicated to bringing you up-to-date information about Sunnyvale candidates and their money and the special interests that support them. These special interests include employee unions, whose contracts the City Council must approve, developers and lobbyists whose multi-million dollar projects the City Council must vote on, and companies who do business with City. We think often there is implied conflict of interest when your elected officials receive the major portion of campaign money from these sources to finance their campaigns and are then asked to make decisions that affect the City as a whole. Voters should know just who is paying to put our elected officials into office.

In this site you will find useful information showing from whom and how much candidates are being funded. The information contained here is all public information. We are not out to spy on candidates and surreptitiously gather and parade secret, personal information, we just want to report what they have taken based on public forms they file according to California State law. If you want a peek, all the information is here for your perusal.

In addition, we have also included data on Sunnyvale City employee salaries and retiree pensions. The Sunnyvale employee unions have been one of the most prolific donors to Sunnyvale candidates having given tens of thousands of dollars to select candidates. The return on this "investment" has been handsome. Over the past 6 years, total Sunnyvale union employee compensation has increased an average of about 36%, more than double what the private sector has received (based on statements made by the City Manager). In total, these excessive raises have amounted to $20 million per year, taxpayer money that could have funded projects that more directly benefit the residents of our City.

Summary finance totals for the November 8, 2016 election are shown below. You can see the source of the contributions in the individual candidate or ballot measure pages accessible to the left.

Candidate	Business & Developer	Non- Resident	Resident	Candidate	Union	Other	Total
Seat 4
Klein	$11,078	$1,700	$7,166	$0	$0	$0	$19,944
Cordes	$0	$2,150	$850	$10,000	$0	$800	$13,800
McCarthy	$0	$0	$0	$4,500	$0	$0	$4,500
Seat 5
Melton	$34,400	$8,850	$7,601	$3,000	$1,250	$1,590	$56,691
Meyering	$0	$0	$0	$1,000	$0	$0	$1,000
Seat 6
Smith	$500	$14,994	$14,994	$6,401	$0	$250	$37,139
Davis	$3,185	$8,350	$700	$0	$0	$0	$12,235
Seat 7
Goldman	$0	$0	$0	$5,714	$0	$0	$5,714
Martin-Milius	$15,800	$15,600	$11,375	$0	$0	$0	$42,775
Banks	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Total	$53,885	$49,944	$35,520	$30,615	$1,250	$2,640	$173,855

Candidate	Business & Developer	Non- Resident	Resident	Candidate	Union	Other	Total
Measure M
Yes On M	$0	$2,000	$13,178	$0	$0	$0	$15,178
No On M	$0	$0	$22,018	$0	$0	$0	$22,018
	$0	$2,000	$35,196	$0	$0	$0	$37,196

This information is brought to you as a public service and is independent of any campaign organization or committee.