Los Altos City Council candidate Ibrahim Bashir is raising eyebrows, not with his campaign speeches, but with sky high fundraising numbers and allegations of a spotty attendance record when he served on the Los Altos Library Commission.
An ad appearing in the Palo Alto Daily Post last week posed the question, “Where’s Ibrahim?” and said his attendance issues also would be a problem on council. The ad was funded by a “community-led” organization, Golden Gate Voices United, which received $3,000 contribution from Los Altos Vice Mayor Pete Dailey. The organization, a SUPER PAC identified by Open Secrets, allegedly works to support “inclusivity, collaboration and accountability,” according to its website.
Dailey said he was exercising his First Amendment rights and “bringing sunshine” to the issue by placing the ad.
He said Bashir missed 50% of the meetings before resigning 17 months into his tenure. His last year on the commission was 2019.
“Since Ibrahim’s ballot statement and campaign make it clear his experience on the Library Commission is central to why he’s running, and the central qualification for office on which he should be judged, the voters of Los Altos deserve to know that record is more of a disqualification than a qualification,” Dailey said.
But the ad did not sit well with some community members, who believed the ad was an unnecessary attack.
“It is disheartening to see a sitting council member engage in personal attacks rather than focusing on the critical issues facing our community,” wrote in Nadia Khan to the council and Town Crier.
Bashir served on the library commission from 2016 to 2019. The commission meets six times a year.
He told the Town Crier there were other life obligations that impacted his attendance at the time, but he is in a better position, career-wise, to contribute time to public service.
Other opponents have focused on Bashir’s fundraising – more than $64,000 as of Sept. 21, and that the vast majority of his 122 donors were from outside the city.
“Many of us in the community are worried about the agenda behind all this money,” noted Amnon Levy. “We see the donor list and are puzzled by the fact that so many contributors are from outside of Los Altos. What do they stand to gain by supporting a candidate in our local election? It raises serious questions about influence and transparency that need to be addressed.”
Bashir said his support is from friends and colleagues he’s worked with that live in surrounding cities – including Palo Alto, Redwood City and other parts of the Bay Area – and across the country.
“This idea that it’s outside money makes it sound, I’ll be honest, (like) some racial undertones to the question,” said Bashir, born in Saudi Arabia and raised by Pakistani immigrants. “There’s not Emirati money coming into Los Altos trying to control our elections. We’re talking about neighboring cities like I have lived all over the Bay. I have friends, family, well wishers.”
As for the amount of money raised, Bashir said he doesn’t have the benefit of “having lived in Los Altos 50 years,” so he felt he had to raise money for online platforms as well as print, direct mail and door-to-door to achieve name recognition.
“All the channels we’re using are only targeting Los Altos voters exclusively, so no one at a national/global level is seeing my ads,” he said.
Bashir has lived in Los Altos since 2015.
