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In the days leading up to the special election, controversy has erupted between Aisha Wahab and Melissa Hernandez as the two Democrats bid for a months-long term representing Congressional District 14.
On one side of the dispute, Wahab has been accused of laundering $60,000 in her bid for office with fingers also pointed at her campaign committee and the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee.
A complaint filed by Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley to the Federal Election Commission last Sunday details the allegations of campaign finance law violations against Wahab. Hernandez, who has expressed public support for the complaint in recent days, works as the health care director for Alameda County Board of Supervisors District 1, under Miley’s colleague, Supervisor David Haubert.
“Sacramento politicians play by their own rules while families here pay the price, and this complaint shows exactly how that game works,” Hernandez campaign manager Ajay Mohan said in a statement regarding the FEC filing.
Denying the accusations, Wahab – a state senator who district is based in Fremont and includes parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties – said the complaint was a political stunt and retribution for Senate Bill 1193, her initiative aimed at regulating and enacting supervision over discretionary funding dispersed by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. She also questioned whether the complaint was actually filed.
Meanwhile, voters are slated to decide on Tuesday who will represent the district into January. The winner will succeed Eric Swalwell, who resigned earlier this year amid sexual assault and abuse allegations.
“The Hernandez campaign has needed to create political stunts in order to garner sympathy and attention for her lack of accomplishment,” Wahab told the Pleasanton Weekly.
The complaint alleges Wahab for State Senate 2026 made a $60,000 contribution during her bid for Congressional District 14 around May 5 to the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee.
Aisha Wahab for State Senate 2026 is a state candidate committee, meaning it is allowed to accept contributions from “federally impermissible” sources, Miley said in the complaint. Candidates for U.S. Congress are banned from accepting contributions from corporations, Miley added.
The campaign for Hernandez, a former mayor of Dublin and current BART board president, claims Wahab’s state candidate committee accepted contributions from corporations including Amazon, Google, Meta, AT&T and Comcast, fossil fuel companies and the pharmaceutical industry.
According to the complaint, the Alameda County Democratic Party’s Federal Party Committee began making contributions beginning May 21 to Wahab’s federal candidacy without a history of doing so.
“Given the timing of the contribution and the corresponding expenditures in support of Dr. Wahab — which were wholly out of character for the Federal Party Committee — it can be inferred that Dr. Wahab and her Congressional Committee received an illegal and unreported in-kind contribution from the Federal Party Committee,” Miley wrote.
Wahab denied the allegations in an interview with the Weekly.
“There is not a single corporation that’s doing an independent expenditure for me,” Wahab said. “She’s absolutely, just, purely lying and that is what her campaign is built on: Tearing people down and lying about it.”
Officials at the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee acknowledged Miley’s filing and denied all allegations.
“We are in compliance with federal election laws,” committee officials said in a statement. “As is routine for county central committees, every election cycle, the ACDCC works to support candidates and measures we have endorsed, and our work is independently directed.”
FEC officials did not confirm the filing of Miley’s complaint to the Weekly. “Due to confidentiality requirements, we are unable to provide any information regarding complaints that may be filed with the agency until they are resolved and closed,” FEC officials told the Weekly.
According to Wahab, the FEC has not informed her campaign of a complaint or violation.
“This is political retribution and a vulgar stunt by men who have failed the children in their care,” she added, pointing to issues in the county such as an audit she initiated regarding the Alameda County Department of Children and Family Services.Â
Released last September, the California State Auditor found that from fiscal years 2019–20 through 2023–24, the county department had issues such as not “consistently initiate or complete investigations of child abuse and neglect referrals within the required time frames, leaving youth in potentially unsafe situations”.
Hernandez became the health care services director for District 1 in January 2020, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Wahab also referred to a $12 million settlement the county agreed to this month following the death of an 8-year-old girl after county staff allegedly failed to intervene as her mother neglected and abused her.
“The elephant in the room is also my Senate Bill, 1193,” Wahab said. Supervisors have expressed opposition to the bill following its introduction in February.
“Nate Miley and David Haubert have proven there is no low they won’t stoop to in support of my opponent,” Wahab said. “They have failed morally, ethically and in their most basic duty to protect children. They have no credibility left.”
Wahab also criticized Hernandez for campaign support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying group.
“I have no say over independent expenditures. That is the law, and I see them when you do,” Hernandez told the Weekly in an email interview. “I have thousands of donors and not one of them sets my agenda.”Â
“If Wahab wants to have a conversation about donors, she raised her hand at a public candidate forum and pledged she would not take corporate PAC money, then took more than $360,000 from corporations and industry lobbying groups, including pharmaceutical, fossil fuel and gambling companies,” she said.
Additionally, Wahab said that election mail advertisements distributed against her have darkened her skin.
Hernandez said her campaign has not distributed mail with Wahab’s photo. “I condemn any mail piece that alters any candidate’s appearance,” Hernandez said.
As news of Miley’s complaint began to spread, Livermore resident Kiersten Skov confirmed to the Weekly that she has filed a Hatch Act complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, alleging Haubert, his chief of staff Shawn Wilson and Hernandez have been using county time, facilities, resources and Haubert’s official capacity for Hernandez’s campaign.
Skov alleges Wilson attempted to bribe her to keep quiet about an erroneous notice from the county requiring curbside trash pickup services of her and other residents of unincorporated Livermore.Â
According to Skov, Wilson admitted to running Hernandez’s congressional campaign.
Skov also said she filed a complaint with the IRS, requesting an investigation into political campaign intervention by several tax-exempt organizations.
With the election four days away, Hernandez’s campaign was set to host a press conference regarding the FEC complaint outside Wahab’s district office Friday afternoon. Attendees were set to include Haubert, Miley and Supervisor Elisa Márquez, according to a statement from Hernandez’s campaign.
“I have spent more than two decades in local government, and I have never seen a money trail this brazen. Corporate money that is banned from federal elections does not become legal because it takes a detour through a party committee,” Miley said in a statement. “Voters deserve answers from the FEC, and they deserve them before this race is decided.”
