WIDE ARRAY OF RACES
Voters will make decisions on host of local issues as well as picking city, county and state candidates
Santa Clara County voters have plenty to decide when casting ballots for the Nov. 3 election — from granting more oversight to San Jose’s independent police auditor to banishing RVS from most of Mountain View’s streets to electing new candidates to represent them in the city, county and state.
Here are some of the most notable races and measures in Santa Clara County:
State
In the competitive race for the state Senate District 15 seat, Democrats Ann Ravel and Dave Cortese, with their long histories of public service, are battling to replace termed- out incumbent Sen. Jim Beall to represent a major section of Silicon Valley — from Cupertino east to Mount Hamilton and Los Gatos north to San Jose’s Alum Rock neighborhood.
Ravel, a public interest attorney, served two decades as the top attorney for Santa Clara County before becoming the chairwoman of the state Fair Political Practices Commission and later receiving the nomination by President Barack Obama to the Federal Election Commission. Cortese, who is terming out of his seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, has spent the last decade on the county board and previously served as a San Jose city councilman and vice mayor.
In the race to represent Assembly District 25, a largely Democratic district that straddles Santa Clara and Alameda counties, policy advisor Alex Lee will face off against Republican businessman Bob Brunton for the seat vacated by Kansen Chu. Lee is a former staff member for state Sen. Henry Stern and state Assemblymember Evan Low and Brunton, who lost three consecutive challenges to Chu, is a former Ohlone College board member.
County supervisors
In the supervisorial race for District 3, state Assem
blyman Kansen Chu (D-san Jose) and former Sunnyvale Councilman Otto Lee are competing to fill Cortese’s seat. Chu served two terms on the San Jose City Council before being elected to the Assembly. Lee, a retired U.S. Navy commander, was on the Sunnyvale City Council from 2003 to 2011 and then served a year in Iraq.
City councils
Two seats on the San Jose City Council are up for grabs in the election, with an outcome that has the potential to shift the balance of power on the council from a business-backed majority to one largely supported by the city’s strongest labor unions.
In District 4, incumbent Lan Diep, who is heavily backed by the city’s business a nd development community and opposes rent control, will face off against Berryessa Union School Distr ic t boa rd member David Cohen, who has the support of the largest unions in the city and favors sanctioned homeless encampments.
In District 6, Dev Davis — a nonpartisan incumbent who is part of the business- backed majority on the council and opposes changing the single-home zoned neighborhood to allow taller and denser buildings — is running against Biomedical engineer and Green Party candidate Jake Tonkel. He wants developers to pay higher fees and supports increasing zoning across the city to allow for more affordable housing.
In Mountain View, nine candidates are facing off to claim four open seats on the city council. Renters in the city have been in a pitched battle with landlords since the passage of the 2017 rent control act, which has become a source of controversy for the council,
Progressives want to oust residentialist bulwark incumbents Lisa Matichak and Margaret Abe-koga to solidify a pro-rent control voice on the council. But if progressive voices are stifled this election, those who consider themselves residentiali s t s a r e s e t t o c ont i nue their slowg row t h pla n s for Mountain View after years of development.
For the first time in history, voters in Santa Clara County’s second-largest city — Sunnyvale — will directly elect their mayor at-large. Three current Sunnyvale council members — Larry Klein, Nancy Smith and Michael Goldman — are vying for the seat.
Measure C
Measure C asks Mountain View voters to decide whether the city should prohibit oversized vehicles such as RVS from parking on streets that are 40 feet or less in width, an ordinance initially passed by the city council last year. If passed, Measure C would effectively ban RV residents from parking in residential streets in Mountain View, relegating them to the industrial and commercial parts of town. Advocates say the policy goes handin-hand with safe parking, while opponents believe
Measure C would criminalize many of the city’s poorest residents.
Measure G
San Jose’s Measure G would amend three separate areas of the city charter. Most notably, the measure would expand the power of the Independent Police Auditor, including providing them with the unredacted review of officer-involved shootings and use of force incidents that resulted in death or significant bodily injury and the review of department-initiated investigations against police officers.
It also would expand the number of members on the city’s planning commission from seven to 11 to increase racial and geographical diversity and allow the council to establish timelines for redistricting when census results are late.
Measure H
San Jose’s cardroom revenue measure — Measure H — would raise taxes on the city’s two card rooms — Bay 101 and Casino Matrix — from 15% to 16.5% and increase the number of table games in the city by 15 per cardroom. The additional taxes are expected to generate another $15 million a year for the city.