A top PG&E executive helped run San Jose City Council candidate Gabby Chavez-Lopez’s campaign for this year’s District 3 special election — while a special interest group funded by the controversial utility company spent independently to support her candidacy.
Emails obtained by San José Spotlight show Teresa Alvarado, a regional vice president of the Bay Area’s $40 billion power utility, ran meetings three times a week with campaign volunteers to discuss fundraising, endorsements, mail and media strategy for Chavez-Lopez.
In addition to fundraising and endorsements, Alvarado set an agenda for discussing phone banking, house parties, media opportunities and strategizing responses to issues emerging over the course of the campaign.
Alvarado closes out one email encouraging the recipients to help get Chavez-Lopez elected.
Alvarado founded the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, which Chavez-Lopez now leads as executive director. The two have been close for years.
San José Spotlight obtained the January email — along with other emails showing Chavez-Lopez’s advisors responding to Alvarado with progress updates — from a source familiar with the campaign. The source asked for anonymity for fear of reprisal and that the messages not be published.
Alvarado and Chavez-Lopez — who’s facing off against Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos in the June 24 runoff — both denied a direct campaign relationship.
“I am not engaged in any local race,” Alvarado told San José Spotlight. “I know Gabby very well as I am the founder of the Latina Coalition and people have asked me about her, but I do not endorse or contribute.”
The email was sent to Chavez-Lopez’s supporters and advisors, including community activists, elected officials and nonprofit leaders.
San José Spotlight reported in March that Alvarado donated $100 to the Chavez-Lopez campaign, which was later refunded.
Sean McMorris, a leading political transparency expert with California Common Cause, reviewed the email with the source’s permission.
“It raises concerns,” McMorris told San José Spotlight. “It’s a big deal that you have a VP of a huge special interest running the campaign. The public has every right to question what PG&E wants out of it and how they’re utilizing the information they’re getting to help their bottom line.”
Blurring the lines
After this news outlet explained it had seen her email running campaign meetings, Alvarado hedged on her denial of involvement.
“I provided Gabby with some personal advice (as a former candidate myself) early on but then stepped away,” she said. “I do think she’s a wonderful person and highly qualified for the role, but I have not endorsed anyone. If you have questions related to PG&E, that is another team entirely and I have had no involvement there.”
She did not respond to further questions.
Chavez-Lopez said those meetings never happened.
“That’s a resounding ‘No.’ I was never in a meeting with Teresa about anything regarding my campaign,” Chavez-Lopez told San José Spotlight. “From the beginning we kept a really good distance. This is probably the least I’ve spoken to her in years because we both knew it could be sensitive. I didn’t want to bring that perception forward. I wanted to keep things as clearly separated as possible. That’s been the No. 1 motivating factor of this entire process.”
A PG&E spokesperson said Alvarado isn’t involved with the company’s political spending and denied any coordination between PG&E and Chavez-Lopez’s campaign.
“Any political participation by Alvarado is as an individual and not as a representative of PG&E,” spokesperson Lynsey Paulo told San José Spotlight. “PG&E adheres to the highest levels of compliance and ethics in its campaign finance activity. Whenever the company or its PAC contributes to a committee that makes independent expenditures, we make it explicit the contribution is not earmarked for any purpose or candidate and must be used at the discretion of the committee.”
A political action committee (PAC) primarily funded by PG&E — “Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy” — donated $30,000 on March 26 to another PAC set up specifically to help Chavez-Lopez. PG&E contributed $200,000 to the “Californians for Jobs” PAC in several payments between 2023 and 2024. The most recent payment happened last July, months before the November arrest and resignation of disgraced former Councilmember Omar Torres created a vacancy in District 3.
McMorris said there’s enough plausible deniability between Chavez-Lopez’s campaign and PG&E’s independent spending. But he said the public has every right to question whether there’s improper coordination happening.
“The optics still look suspect,” McMorris said.
Knowing the rules
State and federal laws prohibit coordination between candidates and PAC spending because it can circumvent direct fundraising limits for candidates. The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC ruling has empowered PACs to independently spend unlimited amounts of money on ads supporting and attacking certain candidates.
Chavez-Lopez said she and Alvarado are clear on what the campaign finance rules are.
“She’s the most ethical person and has a lot of integrity,” Chavez-Lopez said. “I couldn’t even imagine where she would do anything outside of the lines of what would be appropriate.” 
A spokesperson for Tordillos’ campaign called Alvarado’s email a “brazen violation of the community’s trust.”
“Our community deserves a councilmember we can count on,” Tordillos’ spokesperson Kurt Frewing told San José Spotlight. “Not a rubber stamp for the corporations raising our bills.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.
