With less than two weeks until election day, the candidates vying for open seats on the San Jose Council have raked in more than $1 million as special interest groups from developers to realtors and labor unions try to stake out a role in the outcome.
Matt Mahan, a tech entrepreneur who founded the nonpartisan voter network Brigade, not only has nabbed the most high-profile endorsements among the 15 candidates but also raised the largest amount of money, $184,924, according to his latest campaign finance report.
All four incumbents — District 2 Councilmember Sergio Jimenez, District 4 Councilmember Lan Diep, District 6 Councilmember Dev Davis and District 8 Councilmember Sylvia Arenas — are running contested but have significantly outraised their competitors.
The March 3 election could shift the power balance on the council, currently split between a six-member majority primarily backed by business groups and a five-member minority largely supported by labor unions. Two of the seats filled by labor-backed candidates and three occupied by business-backed candidates are up for grabs.
The elected councilmembers will be making critical decisions affecting San Jose’s future — from reaching a development agreement with Google to devising a plan to reduce pedestrian deaths to beefing up the ranks of the police force to curbing displacement of longtime residents.
The race to fill the District 10 seat, which will be vacated by termed-out Councilmember Johnny Khamis, is among the most competitive, with Mahan supported by Mayor Sam Liccardo, Vice Mayor Chappie Jones, Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian and the Silicon Valley Organization PAC, the political arm of the region’s largest chamber of commerce.
Mahan, who said he wants to focus on improving data-driven accountability in government, has received more than 500 individual donations from community members and stakeholders, with some of his most notable donors including developers Jay Paul and KT Urban, the California Apartment Association and Laborers Local Union 270.
“We’ve run a very focused, grassroots campaign for the past six months,” Mahan said in an interview this week. “And I think the large base of small-dollar and in-district donors that we’ve been able to attract is pretty rare in these local elections and gives me real independence.”
Mahan’s opponents include retired business owner Helen Wang, who has raised $40,315, including $8,000 in personal loans, and Women’s March Bay Area President Jenny Higgins Bradanini, who has brought in $31,731, including $8,000 in personal loans.
Bradanini, whose most notable contributors include local labor unions, temporarily suspended her campaign in December after she struck and killed 66-year-old pedestrian Tim Starkey. Details surrounding the collision have not yet been released, as the case is still under investigation by the Los Gatos Monte Sereno Police Department.
In the District 4 race, Diep has outpaced his competitors by raising a staggering $166,751, including a $2,000 loan. Employment attorney Huy Tran trailed in second with $79,052, including a $5,000 personal loan. Berryessa Unified School District Trustee David Cohen raised $67,666, including nearly $20,000 in personal loans, and tech worker Jamal Khan reported $11,501 in contributions, according to the latest campaign finance reports.
Tran, who wants to see the council impose stricter affordable housing requirements on developers, equated the donations to Diep’s campaign from developers like KT Urban to “a fox guarding a henhouse.”
“We’re getting a lot of support for people in the community and advocates who want to see the priorities on the council change, and so I’m not surprised that we’ve seen a ton of developer money come into this race,” Tran said.
Diep, who won his seat against an incumbent in 2016 without the backing of labor unions or the Silicon Valley Organization and with significantly less money than his opponent, disagreed.
“I have a record of votes and policy making, and I have gained some allies in that,” Diep said. “But I don’t think anybody can be bought for $600.”
In San Jose, individuals, businesses and labor unions can only donate a maximum of $600 to a single candidate, but that doesn’t stop candidates from raking in multiple big-dollar contributions from various employees at a single company. Employees of the real estate firm Sares Regis Group, for instance, donated a total of about $2,000 to Diep’s campaign.
In District 6, Davis, who is running for reelection in the most crowded field, has raised $153,309, including a $5,000 personal loan — far outpacing the rest of the candidates in the field. Biomedical Engineer Jake Tonkel, who has been endorsed by the South Bay Labor Council and numerous labor organizations, came in second with $51,122, including a nearly $5,000 loan, while Marshall Woodmansee and Ruben Navarro each has secured less than $10,000.
While on the council, Davis — the only candidate in her race who has held public office — has pushed for the completion of Fire Station 37 in her district and has staunchly defended increases in the city’s police department budget to help expand the force.
In District 2, Jimenez has brought in $76,354, while his sole contender, Jonathan Fleming, raked in $44,342, including a $10,000 loan.
Jimenez and Fleming offer voters two stark options for the open seat. Jimenez, backed by labor, has lived in the community for more than two decades and spent six years on the city’s parks commission before winning a seat on the council in 2016. During his first term, Jimenez played a vital role in preserving 937 acres of Coyote Valley, acquiring funding for a police substation in south San Jose and working on a maintenance agreement with Union Pacific along its tracks. Fleming, a conservative who has never held political office, moved into the district less than a year ago. He opposes levying any additional taxes on residents and thinks the city’s role of building affordable housing should be limited.
In District 8, Arenas, backed by more than a half dozen local unions, has secured nearly double the fundraising contributions — $90,331 — as her opponent, Jim Zito, a member of the Evergreen School District board. Zito, who recently lost all of his big-name endorsements in the wake of publicity surrounding his 2007 divorce case, raised $46,535, including a $2,500 loan, according to this week’s filing.
Earlier this month, some of Zito’s divorce records — in which his ex-wife accused him of exhibiting overly controlling and emotionally abusive behavior toward her and their daughters — were posted on an attack website by the San Jose Police Officers’ Association PAC, which has endorsed Arenas and donated to her campaign. Although Zito said the documents only told one side of the story, prominent city leaders and organizations such as Liccardo and the Silicon Valley Organization PAC quickly pulled their support for the candidate.
“It’s unfortunate that my endorsers have pulled out without understanding the full truth, but it’s not that important because I’m not working for my endorsers, I’m working for my community,” Zito said.
Arenas has been a champion for improving services for families and children in her district, including reopening a community center and establishing new teen programs. Arenas said she was “aghast” by the accusations made against Zito and that “no family should have to go through what that family was allegedly put through.”
