Most 49ers’ candidates leading mayor’s in Santa Clara council race.

Former Sunnyvale Councilman Lee ahead of state Assemblyman Chu

In a race that’s turned into a proxy fight between Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor and the San Francisco 49ers, the team has taken the early lead as three of four candidates supported by the mayor were losing, according to early Tuesday night election results.

Meanwhile, former Sunnyvale councilman Otto Lee was firmly ahead of state Assemblyman Kansen Chu in a contest for the District 3 seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors that’s been held by termed-out Supervisor Dave Cortese.

For his part, Cortese was ahead of former California Fair Political Practices Commission Chairwoman Ann Ravel in the running for the District 15 state Senate seat long held by termed-out Sen. Jim Beall.

Nine candidates are running for four district seats on the Santa Clara City Council. Two of the seats are open and two are being defended by incumbents Kathy Watanabe and Teresa O’Neill, who have sided with Gillmor in ongoing feuds with the 49ers over a litany of issues including management of Levi’s Stadium and entertainment curfews.

49ers owner Jed York has contributed $3 million to a political action committee that’s promoting four candidates for the seats: planning commissioners Anthony Becker and Suds Jain and local activists Harbir Bhatia and Kevin Park.

Watanabe was ahead of Bhatia in District 1 by single digits, while Park led O’Neill led by double digits in District 4, Jain was pulling far ahead of Bob O’Keefe in District 5 and Becker held a single-digit lead over Robert Mezzetti in District 6, with Gary Barve far behind.

Gillmor has accused York of trying to buy seats on the council to thwart her and ensure the 49ers can wield more influence on city decisions. The team contends it’s simply trying to get more diversity on a council that’s controlled by the mayor.

In the supervisor’s race, Lee and his supporters have called for Chu’s resignation, claiming the assemblyman made racist remarks to a Chinese language newspaper about African American and Latinx children’s ability to learn.

In Cupertino, the top four of five candidates running for two seats were all separated by single digit margins, with Hung Wei leading the pack, followed by Planning Commissioner Kitty Moore, then Joseph “J.R.” Fruen, and current Councilman Steven Scharf.

Los Gatos has three seats open on its town council and seven total candidates. Two seats are for four-year terms and one is for a twoyear term.

For the four-year seats, three top candidates were all just a few percentage points apart, led by former transportation commissioner Maria Ristow, Planning Commissioner Matthew Hudes and former Cisco manager of customer listening Heidi Owens. Former planning commissioner Michael Kane was further behind, Personnel Board member Larry Maggio was holding less than half of votes the top candidates had.

For the two-year seat, Planning Commissioner Mary Badame held a commanding lead over Rob Stephenson, carrying more than two-thirds of the vote.