San Jose District 4 Special Election is Today

Voters in San Jose City Council District 4 are choosing their city councilmember today.  Or at least they’re supposed to.  Election officials expect a dismal turnout for this little-known election but that doesn’t make it any less important.  The candidate that takes over for the rest of the term left open when Kansen Chu was elected to the State Assembly last fall will help make decisions about some critical projects and issues in the North San Jose-Berryessa-Alviso district.  Former Councilmember Margie Matthews has been filling in by appointment until a permanent member is elected.

There are about 100,000 residents in the district, just over 40,000 registered voters, a large percentage are Asian Americans, and there are five Asian-American Candidates in the race.  The most qualified candidate in the race, however, is a Latino candidate.  Tim Orozco is a longtime district resident and community activist with strong ties to the business community and is supported by working families and labor unions.

The money trail is led by Manh Nguyen, a journalist whose radio station is providing a hefty in-kind donation of advertising.  Former Planning Commissioner Bob Dhillon is second in fundraising, and has had his campaign signs plastered throughout the district.  Republican attorney Lan Diep is in third place for fundraising, but his politics are going to be hard to sell to a Democratic base.  Orozco has a solid fundraising base, but he’s got people power with labor hitting the streets and phones to talk to supportive voters, just trying to make sure they send in their ballots.

Others in the race: San Jose-Evergreen Community College District board member Rudy Nasol, Berryessa Union School District board member and police officer Khoa Nguyen, economic development consultant Alex Torres and business owner Johnny Lee.  Allen Chiu of Rep. Mike Honda’s office and Thelma Boac of the Berryessa school board, Sara Gonzalez, and Harpal Chahal are also on the ballot, but Chiu and Boac dropped out of the race, and Gonzalez and Chahal don’t seem to have been running much of a campaign..

While mail ballots in Santa Clara County are popular in most recent elections, the use of those mail-in ballots is expected to be close to 90% for this special election.

If no candidate wins 50%+1, the top two will head for the runoff June 23rd.

 

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