Election results as of 4:46 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2024 show that the council divide in Santa Clara will remain the same, with one candidate endorsed by Mayor Lisa Gillmor winning her race and Gillmor’s favored police chief and city clerk candidates earning a spot.
The vacant District 1 seat, will be filled by Albert Gonzalez who has likely secured the seat, capturing 1,458 votes, 44.14% of the vote. It appears that opponent Satish Chandra has taken second with 1,146 votes, 34.70% of the vote. Harbir Bhatia finished last with 699 votes, 21.16% of the vote.
In District 4, Council Member Kevin Park has retained his seat against opponent Teresa O’Neill, winning 1,877 votes, 57.88% of the electorate.
Incumbent Suds Jain seems to have retained his seat against challenger David Kertes in District 5. As of Wednesday evening, Jain captured 1,958 votes, 52.96% of the vote.
Kelly Cox has defeated incumbent Vice Mayor Anthony Becker, winning 2,229 votes, garnering 51.96% of the vote. Newcomer George Guerra finished second with 1,060 votes, 24.71% of total votes. Meanwhile, Becker finished last with 1,001 votes, 23.33% of the vote.
The city clerk seat will be filled by Bob O’Keefe, who won 6,366 votes, 31.34% of the vote. Opponent Steve Kelly came in second with 5,535 votes, 27.25% of the vote. Poornima Gopi came in third with 5,490 votes, 27.03% of the vote. Paul Tacci finished last, getting 2,922 votes, 14.38% of the vote.
Cory Morgan has defeated opponent Mario Brasil, securing 13,229 votes, 65.90% of the vote, in the race for Santa Clara’s police chief.
Voters have passed the city’s ballot Measure I to secure $400 million in infrastructure money, with 69.35% of voters approving it. Bond measures need a 66% approval to pass.
Over in Sunnyvale, voters have re-elected Mayor Larry Klein over opponent Russ Melton. Klein got 22,323 votes, 72.68% of the vote.
District 2 incumbent Alysa Cisneros has defeated challenger Jim Davis, securing 2,761 votes, winning 67.97% of the vote.
Eileen Le has taken 2,611 votes, winning 54.06% of the vote and securing the District 6 seat. Richard Lesher took second, with 1,487 votes, 30.79% of the vote, while Beverly Blau finished last with 732 votes, 15.16% of the vote.
Charlsie Chang won District 4 unopposed, getting 4,008 votes.
Sunnyvale’s two ballot measures, one to make changes to the charter and another to secure $290 million to build a new main library, both failed, with 58.34% and 36.51% of voters supporting them, respectively. Since Prop. 5, a state ballot measure to lower the threshold for bond measures to 55% failed, Sunnyvale’s bond also seemingly fell short of the needed supermajority to pass.
Finally, Patrick Ahrens has secured the Assembly District 26 seat, winning 48,373 votes, 57.80% of the vote, over opponent Tara Sreekrishnan.
Some lessons from this election:
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The 49ers are great at business. Starting with Measure J, and in every single election since, their ROI on independent expenditures has been extremely positive for them.
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Lisa Gillmor should know by now that being a bully is just bad policy.
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The 49ers have no loyalty to their supported candidates and will dump them when they no longer get any benefit out of them. (See Anthony Becker and Harbir Bhatia as examples).
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The manufactured outrage, the fake blog site, the pseudo ethics pledges, and fake town halls don’t do much to move the needle.
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Future predictions:
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Kathy Watanabe will run for Mayor in 2 years. School Board is just a temporary play so she stays relevant as an elected official until Lisa Gillmor terms out. Raj Chahal will run against Kathy for Mayor. 49ers will pump millions and Raj will easily win.
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Lisa and DA Jeff Rosen will dig for any opportunity to ensnare any of the “49er five” in a scandal in an attempt to oust them, or at the very least smear their reputation, as they did with Anthony Becker.
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Expect more Grand Jury reports. With Bob O’Keefe, a former Grand Juror, now in the City Clerk position, expect new bogus investigations into the “49er five” from him.
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With the Santa Clara Unified School Board now having term limits, expect to see termed out Trustees running for City Council following Albert Gonzalez’ lead.
The school board now has term limits??
You are trying to have it both ways.
You talk about how good the niners are at getting their own way and admire how they will dump someone when they are no longer useful.
Then you call the mayor a bully for fighting back.
How does that work?
49ers are playing the game. They are wringing us dry as a City. Public money for private profits.
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Let’s not forget who brought them here. Patty Mahan. Jamie Matthews. Dominic Caserta. Kornder. Kolstad. Marsalli. Lisa Gillmor. Kathy Watanabe.
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When the 49ers reneged on their promise to the soccer moms, all hell broke loose. Not because of any moral superiority (and not because Jed York is a complete sleazebag), but because Lisa is vindictive (See the latest story from Vickie Fairchild).
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Suds Jain, Raj Chahal, Karen Hardy, Kevin Park fought against the stadium. They are NOT the enemy. Albert Gonzalez is not the enemy. Because they’re not “Yes men” to Lisa, and because Lisa is vindictive that means they’re her enemy. To the 49ers, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, which is why they funded Independent Expenditures for these candidates. The 49ers also had their ears, and used them as much as the councilmembers allowed themselves to be used (even as far as taking a fall for the team in Becker’s case).
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Is Lisa right to fight the 49ers’ usurping of our public funds? Hell yeah.
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Does that mean Suds, Kevin, Karen, Raj are the enemy? Hell no.
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So, yes, it is possible to have disdain for both the 49ers milking the City, AND disdain for Lisa’s bullying and demonizing of good people. If Lisa wants to bully and demonize Jed York himself, no problem in my book. Demonize and bully Dominic Caserta, no problem in my book. Demonizing good people just because they aren’t part of your inner circle? That’s crossing a line.
Slick composition skills.
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The 49ers aren’t the only business in town that has good ROI, the SCPOA is pretty good as well with their represented employees donating a few campaign dollars to secure decades of over bloated salaries and pensions from Lisa Gillmor and gang.
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“Kathy Watanabe will run for Mayor in 2 years.” Kathy doesn’t have her own backbone, without Gillmor by her side she won’t give it more than a thought. However, if Nikolai sticks around town he might try to wear the crown on behalf of the POA.
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“Expect more Grand Jury reports. With Bob O’Keefe…”. Yep.
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The SCUSD Board doesn’t have term limits. https://www.svvoice.com/santa-clara-unified-will-not-have-term-limits-for-trustees/
The POA are certainly looking out for their ROI and are running away like bandits. Highest salaries? Check. Pension spiking for the inner circle lieutenants who make Chief then retire? Check. Making 150% or 200% overtime for working double-badged at the Stadium? Check!
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So then why did the current council approve all the budgets? Why did they approve all the salary increases? They had a super majority. Why didn’t they get the job done?
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Kathy will have Lisa by her side and Kelly Cox there too. I stand by my prediction.
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I was incorrect about the term limits for SCUSD. I still think it’s a >50% likelihood of School Board members to run for Council. Even more likely if they run while their school board term isn’t up for re-election so they don’t lose their seat if they fail to win the Council election.
Suds, Park, and Gonzalez were elected only because of the millions the 49ers poured into their elections and the millions the 49ers spent with their reprehensible and disgraceful negative smear campaign against average citizens running for office. They did not win because they are the best candidates….far from it. The 49ers will next target and pour millions into the next Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office race so the 49ers can seat their District Attorney of choice. I get it that lots of people and organizations donate money to campaigns but it is a drop in the bucket percentage wise compared to the influence the 49ers wield with their huge donations to buy the votes for their candidates. It is truly a broken system that any entity can do this to our city.
District 5 here. I spoke to a lot of our neighbors and none of us were influenced by the 49ers. We voted for the most qualified candidate and we’re all educated voters. Stop assuming we are prey to Niner propaganda.