State senate candidate says she received death threats due to false campaign mailers
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Aisha Wahab of Hayward, Calif. (left) and other supporters listened to Gov. Jerry Brown during a get out the vote rally in 2014.
State Senate District 10 candidate Aisha Wahab and her campaign spoke out Wednesday alleging that two political action committees sent voters across Alameda and Santa Clara Counties “false and bigoted attack ad mailers” that used rape for political gain.
Wahab, currently serving on the Hayward City Council, said she received death threats after the mailers were sent to Bay Area homes.
The PACs allegedly involved — identified as Keeping California Golden and Keeping California Working — are funded by the California Association of Realtors, Uber Technologies, California Correctional Peace Officers Association, Edison International and California Building Industry Association, Wahab said in a press release. The release said Wahab received “a number of death threats,” which were reported to police.
Campaign contribution records showed that Keeping Californians Working contributed over $221,000 in support of her opponent, Fremont Mayor Lily Mei’s campaign, while also paying for over $100,000 worth of ads in opposition of Wahab. Records also showed Keeping California Golden spent nearly $300,000 in support of Mei’s campaign while spending just over $13,000 for ads in opposition of Wahab. Representatives for Keeping California Golden and Keeping California Working could not be reached for comment.
In a statement from Wahab’s campaign, Wahab slammed the PAC’s for using rape as a political tool. “In support of my opponent, Lily Mei, these organizations’ PACs funded half a dozen or so false mailers attacking me with nearly $1 Million. These disgusting lies have caused panic, triggered and re-traumatized survivors of sexual assault, and emboldened certain individuals to make death threats,” the statement read
The release said that Wahab’s campaign immediately responded to the “misleading” ads by sending a cease and desist letter to attorneys representing the two PACs. The law firm representing Keeping California Golden responded to the cease and desist letter from Wahab’s campaign, according to the release, by affirming its assertion — which appeared in a mailer — that Wahab supported Brock Turner’s lenient sentencing in the high-profile sexual assault case out of Stanford in 2015.
Turner was convicted on three counts of sexual assault and sentenced by Judge Aaron Persky to six months in prison, which sparked a national outcry against lenient punishments given to white men. Persky was recalled in June 2018, the first California judge recalled since 1932, following the public uproar.
Wahab publicly denounced Persky’s lenient sentencing of Turner in the Mercury News four days after the 2016 sentencing was announced, according to the release. “Aisha was one of the first people to publicly condemn Turner’s 6-month sentence…. Aisha Wahab supported the recall of Judge Persky and stood with survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence,” the committee to recall Judge Persky said in Wahab’s press release.
“Any suggestion to the contrary is not accurate,” the committee, which has endorsed Wahab, said. “We are confident that when she is elected she will be an advocate for survivors of sexual violence.”
The press release from Wahab’s campaign stated that her opponent, current Fremont Mayor Lily Mei, had not condemned the attack ads. Mei could not be immediately be reached for a request for comment.
Bay Area Congressman Ro Khanna tweeted out a statement of support for Wahab on October 8 after the alleged attack mailers were sent, saying “Aisha Wahab has always been an advocate for Justice and women & children. Playing on racial stereotypes to say otherwise is wrong.”
Jordan Parker (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jordan.parker@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @jparkerwrites.