In a decisive call for a change in City leadership, 33% of voters cast their ballots for County Supervisor Dave Cortese in a crowded field of candidates to take over as Mayor of the 10th largest city in America. Council member Sam Liccardo will challenge Cortese in a November runoff, coming in 9 points behind Cortese with 25% of the extremely low turnout vote.
“Eight long years of failed leadership is finally coming to an end,” Ben Field, Executive Officer of the South Bay Labor Council, told a crowd of labor-backed candidates and volunteers. “Dave Cortese is going to take San Jose from austerity to recovery, from attacks on city workers to restoration of city services, from rising crime to improved public safety.”
SBLC Political Director Dennis Raj instructs a field volunteer on distributing campaign literature
Labor Council volunteers spent thousands of hours phoning voters and knocking on doors to deliver information about Cortese’s campaign for Mayor. Emilie Gatfield says she dedicated her time working phone banks because Dave Cortese is in a league of his own among candidates who were “anti-worker.”
“The City of San Jose has public safety problems because it has employee morale problems” said Gatfield, “and Cortese has shown (as a county supervisor) that he will be able to address those problems far better than any of the other candidates who caused them in the first place.”
In the five City Council spots on the ballot, Paul Fong pulled off a first place showing with 28% of the vote; he’ll face Charles “Chappie” Jones in November in District one. In District 3, Liccardo’s downtown council district, San Jose police officer Raul Perez nudged ahead of Don Gagliardi on their way to a runoff as well. District Five Councilmember Xavier Campos lost his bid for re-election to Magdalena Carrasco, who garnered more than 50% per cent of the vote, enabling her to avoid a runoff. In District 7, Madison Nguyen’s termed out seat, Tam Nguyen and Maya Esparza will face off in November; and Don Rocha held onto his District 9 seat with a whopping 75% of the ballots cast for him.
Sheriff Laurie Smith also sailed to a decisive win, avoiding a runoff against challenger and retired Deputy Kevin Jensen. See more election results HERE.
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