Last week, it seemed that Robert “Bob” O’Keefe would be wielding the Santa Clara City seal as City Clerk in December. However, since the Weekly’s last article regarding the election results, the vote margin has shrunk and continued to shrink — now the votes lean in Hosam Haggag’s direction.
By Tuesday, Nov. 13 at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voter’s 5 p.m. update the gap between O’Keefe and Haggag is 1.78 percent apart — 463 votes. O’Keefe’s initial lead from last week has now completely flipped in Haggag’s favor. According to the Registrar, 87 percent of ballots have been counted.
In close races, if the gap ever gets within half a percent, a vote recount may be triggered. However, Haggag’s lead seems to only grow and it seems that he will be sworn in as Clerk in December.
If Haggag does secure the win, he would be the first minority to be elected to the City Clerk role. He has served on two City of Santa Clara Charter Review Committees. Also, he currently serves as Northern Vice-Chair of the Arab American Caucus of the California Democratic Party.
So far, over 26,000 votes were counted for the City Clerk’s election — compared to almost 31,000 votes that were cast for Measure M and about 29,000 votes cast for Mayor.
Following the two leaders, who have about 25 percent and 23.5 percent of the votes respectively, Roseann Lacoursiere received over 17 percent of the votes, Peta Roberts has almost 15 percent, Christopher Stampolis received 12.5 percent, and Thomas MacDevitt got over 6 percent.
In February, City Clerk Rod Diridon Jr. resigned from his Clerk duties and the position was then temporarily filled by Jennifer Yamaguma before she left to work for the City of Milpitas. On Oct. 16, the Council appointed Assistant City Manager Nadine Nader to City Clerk until a new Clerk is sworn in for a partial term.
Earlier this year, the City Clerk’s duties were reduced by a City Council decision. The assistant City Clerk assumes all the responsibilities of the Clerk except handling elections and holding the City seal. The assistant Clerk is not an elected position but an appointed one.
Other City Election Totals
In the Mayoral race, Lisa Gillmor now has over 21,000 votes compared to Anthony Becker’s 7,500.
In City Council District 2, Raj Chahal now has almost 2,500 votes. Nancy Biagini has about 1,600, while Mario Bouza has almost 500.
District 3’s Karen Hardy got over 3,300 votes, while Srinivasan Sambathkumar “Sam Kumar” received 1,300.
In the Santa Clara Unified School District race for new Board Members, Vickie Fairchild now has over 20,000 votes while Jodi Muirhead received about 19,500. Both will be welcomed on to the Board. Ashish Mangla received over 7,000 votes. Over 46,000 voters cast their choice for this race.
The Campbell Union High School District encompasses part of Santa Clara. They also had a race for new Board Members. Voters could choose three candidates — the top three are Kristina Arrasmith (33 percent of votes), Stacey Brown (31 percent) and Robert Varich (21 percent). In fourth place is Basil Saleh with over 15 percent.
City Measures M, N and BB have all retained their yes vote majorities.
Update: This article has been updated with the most current election numbers available at the time of posting.
