Candidates Vie to Replace Rich Gordon in Assembly District 24

The race for California’s Assembly District 24 appears set, and there are several strong contenders looking to replace Assemblymember Rich Gordon.

• Josh Becker ran against Assemblymember Gordon in 2010 when the seat was last open and made a good showing.  Mr. Becker, a venture capitalist and social entrepreneur, recently sold his business and should be able to devote substantial time, effort and resources to his campaign.

• Vicki Veenker, a successful Silicon Valley patent attorney based in Palo Alto, is not only new to the political scene, but is the only woman running for the seat and is expected to raise substantial funds.

• Current City of Palo Alto Councilmember Marc Berman. Berman was the Development Director at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, but recently left his job to focus on his campaign.  He has been actively campaigning for some time and already has raised a substantial amount of money.

• Mountain View City Councilmember Mike Kasperzak Jr. is well known and has a base that he does not have to split with candidates from Palo Alto.

• Menlo Park Councilmember Peter Ohtaki is the only Republican in the race so far.

• Cupertino Mayor Barry Chang is waging another quixotic campaign.

• Seelam Reddy is a retired engineer.

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