Four candidates swoop in to run for termed-out supervisor’s seat

In the world of politics, it’s not unusual for ambitious candidates to seek the next highest office that becomes available and sometimes even to skip a rung or two.

So when Dave Cortese’s seat on the Board of Supervisors opened up for the March 3 primary because he’s termed out, state Assemblyman Kansen Chu, D-San Jose, surprised many when he announced he would run for it instead of seeking a fourth term in the Legislature.

As a result, Chu will find himself vying against San Jose Councilwoman Magdalena Carrasco, former Sunnyvale Councilman Otto Lee and former San Jose Planning Commissioner John Leyba, the only Republican candidate, for the District 3 seat, which covers North San Jose and parts of Sunnyvale and Milpitas.

Chu, who served two terms on the San Jose City Council before he was elected to the Assembly, said he wanted to focus on his community rather than deal with issues affecting the entire state.

“It’s kind of distracting sometimes,” Chu said about his Assembly job. “I’m coming home to focus my efforts.”

If one candidate wins a simple majority of votes in the election, he or she will win the seat outright. Otherwise, the top two vote-getters will face off in the November general election.

Chu has raised more money so far — $256,000 in 2019 — than the other candidates, including contributions from the County Employee Management Association, colleagues in the State Assembly and from his own Assembly campaign account.

Lee is close behind, having raised at least $200,000 last year and loaning himself an additional $100,000. Carrasco raised $113,504 while Leyba is largely funding his run through a $125,000 loan.

In interviews for this story, the candidates all cited affordable housing and homelessness among their top concerns. They said the county needs to keep building affordable housing, including on its own property, as well as emergency housing for the homeless in the short term, such as tiny homes.

Carrasco, who worked in the foster care and adoptions department at the county for a decade and was elected to the San Jose City Council in 2014 and 2018, says San Jose’s Measure E — a transfer tax on properties worth at least $2 million — could be a model that the county should consider following.

Noting that large corporations need to “step up to the plate,” Chu indicated he’d favor charging an employee “head tax” on businesses, based on the number of employees they have within the county, as part of a general funding solution.

Leyba is the only candidate to call for a crackdown on homeless encampments and public camping once the county has added adequate shelter space.

“We could use our criminal justice system as a front door to direct people toward appropriate services,” said Leyba, a PG&E manager who grew up in Alum Rock, served on the San Jose Planning Commission in 2018-19 and has been active in the Alum Rock Educational Foundation and his neighborhood association.

“We’re getting to the point where we have no consequences, and we’re just pushing the bubble around,” Leyba said.

Lee said the county needs to beef up funding to significantly expand existing mental health services for homeless individuals and the general public.

Lee had a career in the U.S. Navy before becoming a patent attorney and served on the Sunnyvale City Council from 2003 to 2011 before leaving to serve a year in Iraq as part of the Naval Reserve.

He applauded the county’s efforts to expand hospital beds for people with acute mental health problems and said people shouldn’t have to wait or be sent to another county to receive treatment.

“The programs are in place, but we need more,” Lee said. “We can’t turn people away, we have to deal with in that very moment.”

Carrasco, who has been endorsed by the South Bay Labor Council and Service Employees International Union Local 521, which represents 12,000 county employees, said county hospitals are “a great system being exhausted” by the growing need for them and the county has to fill vacancies to help out workers with high caseloads.

A December 2019 county report found 3,068 vacant jobs countywide, with no recruitment started for 735 of them.

“We need to support by making sure those slots are filled,” Carrasco said.

On transportation issues, Lee and Carrasco both said the system should prioritize frequency and reliability for people who rely on transit as their main or only mode of transportation.

Carrasco, who serves on the board of the Valley Transportation Authority, said that board should push to complete a light rail expansion to Eastridge Mall.

“It’s my east side neighbors who have been paying into the pot,” Carrasco said.

Leyba said he has “major issues” with the Eastridge expansion, including the loss of carpool lanes on Capitol Expressway and the overall cost. He said the county should explore other solutions, such as on-demand rideshare programs.

Lee said the county also needs to prioritize greening its fleet.

“Electrifying Caltrain is great, but how come our buses aren’t electrified? China accomplished this three years ago, and I don’t see anybody else talking about it,” Lee said.

Chu said he would implement the recommendations of a recent county grand jury report on Valley Transportation Authority, among them restructuring the agency’s board with full-time members.

The candidates had mixed reactions to County CEO Jeff Smith’s recent warnings that the economy could be cooling, which in turn would slow the flow of property tax revenue the county has relied on to fuel its growth in recent years.

Lee and Carrasco said they expect property tax revenue to continue growing enough to keep funding the county’s main priorities even if the economy hits a bump.

Carrasco said savings from vacant county positions could be used to help finance the needs of the county’s most vulnerable residents

“If we’re going to tout being one of the most progressive, compassionate counties in the state, then we have to continue supporting those who, at the moment, cannot support themselves,” Carrasco said.

Leyba, who is more critical of the county’s spending growth over the last five years, said the budget includes “a lot of frivolities” such as a $4.5 million valet parking program for its Civic Center that should be cut to free up money for homelessness,

“If somebody says, ‘we’ve got some injustice’ or whatever, I don’t want an ombudsman of social justice and diversity if we’ve got people on the street,” Leyba said.

Two other seats on the board are up, though in both the incumbents are seeking re-election.

Supervisor Cindy Chavez is running for a third term to represent District 2, against law student Anthony Macias and county health service representative Jennifer Celaya.

In District 5, incumbent Supervisor Joe Simitian is running unopposed.