June 16, 2006

ELECTION ‘06

Reed and Chavez will face off in a run-off election in November

Reed takes top spot in a set of surprising results

By Daniel DeBolt
Staff Writer

Voters decided last Tuesday that mayoral candidates Chuck Reed and Cindy Chavez will be competing against each other for the next five months to win the November run-off election.

Chuck Reed waves to clapping fans after delivering his victory speech. Standing behind him is: Scott and Kim Campbell (son-in-law and daughter), his wife Paula, and his son Alex. Photo by Jeff Frazee

In an election marked with controversy and the kind of big-city politics San Jose isn’t used to, Chuck Reed—the one council candidate who kept himself above the fray and out of the headlines—took the top spot.

It may have been a shock to many that Chavez didn’t take home the most votes after a Mercury News poll showed her in the lead in May and a CBS poll last week showed her with a seven-point lead among voters.
Councilmember Forest Williams gave a speech at Chavez’ party at the Hyatt on Tuesday night.

“All of this is going to culminate in this big explosion of joy and success, because you made it happen,” said Williams to Chavez supporters while election night was still young.

But it didn’t happen that way on June 6. There was no victory speech, and Chavez’ staff were wrapping up the party after midnight when it was obvious that Reed had too much of a lead for Chavez to close in and win.

Chavez said she wasn’t sure if the campaign mailers sent out by the Chamber of Commerce detailing her votes on eminent domain and the Grand Prix was something she could put behind her.

“Given that the Chamber spent $250,000 against me personally, it’s a miracle I’m in the run-off,” Chavez said. “What that speaks to is the number of people who came out and helped.”

Chavez said she would continue the work she has done to improve downtown, to make communities safe and to continue fighting for programs like children’s health insurance.

Chavez said she will continue her campaign “focused on the issues,” such as schools, libraries and parks, things she says her achievements show she is capable of achieving.

At the other end of town Reed was happily surprised by his victory.

“I think it was a function of having a clear message of honesty, fiscal responsibility and open government and a voting record on those issues,” he said. “People can see what I’m going to do.”

Reed said voters sent a clear message that they wanted a change from the problems of what he called the Chavez-Gonzales administration. Despite Chavez’ long list of high-level endorsements and polls showing her in the lead, she received 23.21 percent of the vote, with the other 76 percent spread among her nine opponents on the ballot. Reed got the most votes at 28.6 percent.

Cindy Chavez (at podium, center) said she would continue the work she has done to improve downtown, to make communities safe and to continue fighting for programs like children’s health insurance. Photo by Daniel DeBolt

Huy Tran, a Chavez campaign staffer, said he would much rather go up against Reed than Councilman Dave Cortese in a run-off. It was predicted in polls that Cortese would take the second spot in the election, but he ended up in fourth with 16 percent of the vote. Some suggest that the accusations by Chavez supporters Councilwomen Nora Campos and Nancy Pyle that Cortese might have acted inappropriately regarding the Evergreen Task Force issue might have hurt his campaign. At the June 7 Rules Committee meeting the charges were not on the agenda as Campos said they would be. It remains to be seen whether Campos will pursue the investigation further.

The man who campaigned as an outsider who took out a mortgage on his home to fund his campaign, David Pandori, took third with 17.84 percent of the vote.

The way the race unfolded seemed to baffle onlookers at Chavez’ party. “Pandori is in third?” one woman said.
Even though he’s out of the mayor’s race, Cortese said there is still good work to be done before his term ends as city council member in 2008.

“We put on an extremely competitive campaign on the streets and it wasn’t enough,” Cortese said. “Hundreds of people were involved … it was an honor to be a candidate supported in that way.”

He has not decided whether to endorse Reed or Chavez.

“I’ll have to sit down with each of them and have a conversation to see how I feel after that,” Cortese said.

Adan Lupercio is a volunteer for Chavez’ campaign when he’s not busy as the Evergreen Valley College student body president. He said the next five months are going to be difficult and require “out-of-the-box” thinking to defeat Reed.

“It’s going to be a tough campaign but she is going to win,” Lupercio said. “We’ll have to work double time from now until November.”