Assemblyman, ex-mayor vie for open seat

Voters in District 3 will choose between Kansen Chu, who leaves state capitol, or Otto Lee, who served on Sunnyvale City Council

In a race for the only open seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, voters next month will have a choice between a state representative who wants to bring his experience home and a former city councilman who has broad high-profile support.

On Nov. 3, state Assemblyman Kansen Chu, D- San Jose, will face off against former Sunnyvale City Councilman Otto Lee for the District 3 Board of Supervisors seat vacated by Dave Cortese, who has termed out. The district encompasses Milpitas, portions of Sunnyvale and northern San Jose, including Alum Rock.

The candidate elected to fill the open seat will play an integral role in shaping the county’s COVID-19 response and recovery plan, its approach to moving more of the county’s thousands of homeless residents into temporary and stable housing and preventing those teetering on the edge from becoming homeless, as well as make key decisions on the county’s investments in social services, public health care and mental health programs.

Lee, a retired Navy commander, may not have as much name recognition as Chu, but over the course of his campaign, he’s gained a broad coalition of support: Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, state Assemblyman Marc Berman and the mayors of San Jose, Fremont and Sunnyvale. As a former Sunnyvale councilman and mayor, Lee lost an election 12 years ago for the District 3 supervisor seat to Cortese.

Now, with more experience under his belt and more time on his hands after retiring from the Navy, Lee said he is ready to serve his community again. Lee bills himself as a “unity candidate” supported by both labor- backed and business-backed officials.

“I think it’s important to be more independent,” he said in a recent interview. “It makes me more solutions- driven.”

Lee supports the California Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 5, which will ask voters to decide in November whether Proposition 209, the state’s ban on affirmative action, should be repealed, which is an amendment that Chu abstained from casting a vote on earlier this summer. He wants to increase both inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment and services available through the