Council's Esparza draws two challengers
Her District 7 foes are Vietnamese Americans, who are not represented on the City Council
While San Jose Councilwoman Pam Foley is all but guaranteed another fouryear term in office, the city's other incumbent, Maya Esparza, will have to fend off two opponents — both Vietnamese Americans — in the June primary to keep her seat on a council that currently has no Asian American elected members.
In the District 7 race to represent a diverse array of neighborhoods south of downtown San Jose from Little Saigon to La Tropicana to Tully Santee, Esparza will face off against San Jose Fire Capt. Bien Doan and Van Le, a trustee for the East Side Union High School District. During the first month of fundraising, Esparza raked in more than $40,000 in outside donations while Doan reported $14,650.
District 9 Councilwoman Foley, who represents neighborhoods between Willow Glen and Almaden Valley such as Cambrian Park, is running unopposed.
The city's three remaining odd-numbered district races do not feature an incumbent since those council members already served the limit of two consecutive four-year terms.
Esparza, 51, a former Franklin-McKinley School District Board trustee who worked for the nonprofit housing organization Destination: Home, was first elected to her seat in 2018
when she beat the district's then-incumbent Tam Nguyen. Esparza has been endorsed by the South Bay Labor Council, Santa Clara County Democratic Party and San Jose Firefighters.
While on the City Council, Esparza has led efforts to implement new traffic safety measures in District 9, increased the number of Dumpster Days to curb blight and illegal dumping and advocated for the city to address equity issues between East and West San Jose, including response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With another term in office, Esparza said she hopes to continue to expand upon the achievements she's accomplished and advocate for resources and assistance for residents and businesses in her district that were disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
“I have listened to the needs of my community
and brought new resources to the district,” she said, “but there is a lot more work to continue and that record of hard work and dedication is something our community desperately needs.”
Both of Esparza's opponents have in part decided to run for a seat on the council to provide representation for the city's large Asian American population. Nearly 40% of San Jose residents identify as Asian yet the City Council does not currently have any elected officials who reflect that segment of the population.
“It's unheard of in any major metropolitan city to have something like that, and I think our city should thrive to have equal representation on the council,” Doan said in an interview.
Doan, 57, has been with the San Jose Fire Department for 21 years, including the past 11 years as a fire captain. Doan has been endorsed
by the Silicon Valley Biz PAC, as well as San Jose Councilwoman Dev Davis and former Councilman Johnny Khamis — two of the most conservative members of the council in recent years.
If elected, Doan said he wants to reduce taxes across the board for both residents and corporations and to hire hundreds of more police officers and firefighters by providing them with higher salaries and better benefits.
Doan argues that the district's current representative, Esparza, has failed to provide the leadership necessary to adequately address the number of unhoused residents living on the street in the district and wants to work with the county to place get more of them into mental health and drug addiction treatment, he said.
“I know that as an elected officer of this
city I will work day and night relentlessly to make changes,” he said. “I'll do that by listening to the needs of all constituents, businesses, community members, neighborhood groups and schools.”
Le, 63, owns a State Farm Insurance office in San Jose and has served as a trustee of the East Side Union High School District since 2010. She's also been involved in several regional and statelevel organizations like the California School Board Association and Vietnamese Americans in Northern California. In 2018, she ran against Esparza for the same council seat but failed to garner enough votes to make it to the runoff.
Le immigrated to San Jose in 1975 after the fall of Saigon in Vietnam — a background that she says has taught her “the importance of hard work and public service.”
If elected, Le said, she would use her business and school board background to look for ways to cut costs and free up funds to bolster the city's Police Department and get more unhoused residents into permanent housing. Le also said she wants to “hold city staff accountable” for reducing the number of unhoused residents on the street, as well as hold unhoused residents accountable for taking available shelter beds or permanent housing units when they open up.
“It's important to treat the homeless with compassion but also accountability,” she said. “We'll support them but they have to understand that they need to support themselves.”
With no challenger in the city's District 9 race, Foley, 62, is set to remain the district's representative through 2026.
Foley, who previously served as a trustee on the School Board for the San José Unified School District, was elected to the council in 2018. Recently, she led the effort to ban flavored tobacco in San Jose and has been a vocal proponent of addressing traffic deaths across the city, including serving as vicechair of the city's Zero Vision Task Force.
“The reason I think I'm running unopposed is that I do a good job of reaching out to my community, listening to them and responding with respect, honesty and integrity,” she said. “When residents call my office, we have a policy of saying `how do we get them to yes?'”