August 31, 2006

Despite protesters, Chamber’s 24th annual
COMPAC barbecue raises over $310,000

By Julie Davis Berry
Executive Editor

Calling this year’s annual COMPAC barbecue the most successful in its 24-year history, Pat Dando was effusive in her appreciation of what the Chamber claimed were 950 attendees and volunteers who helped to make the event a success.

Former chamber-endorsed mayoral candidate Michael Mulcahy catches up with old friends at the COMPAC barbecue.

“Along with the COMPAC Board of Trustees and the Chamber leadership, I am delighted with the overwhelming support that made this year's COMPAC barbecue the most successful in its 24-year history,” said Dando, president of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Although there was some concern that the usually non-partisan event would be a bust due to contentious COMPAC-sponsored political mailers sent out before the June 6 election, the event actually raised a record-breaking $310,000 for the embattled group.

Notably absent from the barbecue was the subject of those mailers, Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez, who is running for mayor against Councilman Chuck Reed (who did attend) in the Nov. 7 election.

The city’s election commission ruled that the COMPAC campaign violated city regulations about how certain independent expenditures must be funded and the group is facing a significant fine. COMPAC’s response was to file a lawsuit in federal court to overturn the regulation as an unconstitutional constraint on free speech.

Approximately two-dozen protesters greeted participants as they entered the barbecue.

Dando and members of COMPAC were unbowed by the protesters. “The funds raised by COMPAC will allow the business community to encourage voters to choose candidates with a record of open, honest government, of spending taxpayer dollars as if it were their own, and of supporting public policy that will do no harm to businesses that work hard to grow our local economy,” said Dando.