The City of Milpitas is full of campaign drama this year. The first hot ticket item is the Mayor’s race. Heavy hitters are challenging outspoken Mayor Rich Tran, who was condemned by the City Council for unprofessional conduct as Mayor. The most formidable is one of those councilmembers, Bob Nuñez, who is also the outgoing Chair of the Santa Clara County Republican Party. Former Mayor Jose Estevez is also jumping into the race to take on Tran. Estevez, who termed out of office two years ago, is eligible to run once again, but his conservatism, which is out of step with his community, and his attachment to disgraced former City Manager Tom Williams, who got caught stealing from the City, will be significant challenges for him.
Councilmembers Marsha Grilli and Garry Barbadillo are closing out their first term and running for reelection in November. Grilli and Barbadillo will face a number of opponents including Karina Dominguez, who most recently was a staffer for Senator Bob Weikowski and Van Lan Truong, a former policy aide for Supervisor Cindy Chavez. Also running are former Milpitas councilmember Carmen Montano, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2016 and unsuccessfully for State Assembly earlier this year, and Suraj Viswanathan, who was active in the campaign to elect Congressman Ro Khanna and has been involved in numerous local community advocacy groups. The City of Milpitas elects their councilmembers at-large, so the two Council seats will go to the top two voter-getters.
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