San Jose mayor: Sam Liccardo wins close battle; Cortese concedes
By Mike Rosenberg
mrosenberg@mercuryne ws.com
POSTED: 11/10/2014 05:10:42 PM PST0 COMMENTS| UPDATED: 3 MIN. AGO
SAN JOSE -- Sam Liccardo will be the next mayor of San Jose, as the city councilman emerged victorious following a year of campaigning, two close elections and, now, a week of ballot-counting.
County Supervisor Dave Cortese called Liccardo to concede the race late Monday, as it became clear a last-second comeback would be just about mathematically impossible. Heading into Tuesday, with only a few thousand ballots remaining, Liccardo was leading by about 3,500 votes and had 51 percent of the tally -- an advantage he has held since the first results were released on Election Night.
Sam Liccardo at his campaign headquarters in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014. (Gary Reyes)
Liccardo, 44, will take office Jan. 1 and replace termed-out Mayor Chuck Reed, who had held the post since 2007. Liccardo will be joined by several new council members and figures to have the votes on his side to champion a frugal approach toward slowly restoring services following nearly a decade of mostly budget cuts under Reed.
"With Mayor Reed having led us through very stormy seas, this is a great opportunity for a new mayor to come in and really take San Jose to the next level, and I'm excited about that opportunity," Liccardo said.
Liccardo praised Cortese for being a "very formidable opponent" who "ran a very strong and spirited campaign."
On the biggest issue in the campaign, Liccardo had vowed to continue fighting for voter-approved pension reforms and use the savings to hire more police officers, though the city has seen its short-staffed police force shrink dramatically in part because the retirement cuts have angered officers. Cortese had vowed to undo parts of the pension reform to appease cops and open the floodgates for hiring officers more quickly using revenues from the recent economic boom, but there were serious questions over whether the city could afford it.
Cortese had gained the most votes in a June primary that featured five major candidates, and had a slight lead in polls last month. But Liccardo was apparently able to consolidate support from backers of the three pension-reform candidates that were eliminated in the primary while winning over enough of the huge chunk of voters that were recently undecided.
Political experts say the historically low turnout also benefited Liccardo. With about 43 percent of San Jose's registered voters casting ballots -- roughly 10 percentage points lower than in the last open mayoral contest, in 2006 -- analysts say those who did participate were likely to be more conservative. Although both candidates in the non-partisan race are Democrats, Liccardo was seen as more of a moderate and was endorsed by Republicans.
San Jose mayoral candidate Dave Cortese, current Santa Clara County Supervisor, speaks to San Jose police officer Brian Meeker outside of the San Jose Police Department in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) (Nhat V. Meyer)
And some voters interviewed at the polls said they were turned off by the scare tactics used by Cortese's supporters, mainly the police union, which sent mail advertisements and gave media interviews depicting criminals running wild under a Mayor Liccardo.
Cortese hasn't shown any indication that he would ask for a recount, which would be very uncommon with a 2 percentage-point gap in the results.
Heading into Tuesday, there were roughly 5,000 estimated provisional votes left to be counted in the mayor's race, although that number will shrink as some ballots get disqualified. Cortese was tailing by about 3,479 votes.
County elections officials expect to post new results daily and be finished by Friday evening. County Registrar Shannon Bushey said the proposed outside independent review of the election, launched after concerns over the registrar's head of IT quitting just before Election Day, would not affect the ballot counting.
Although the contest was bruising at times, Liccardo says there are no hard feelings. He says the two candidates worked well together on the City Council last decade and he has no doubt they'll do the same while Cortese serves two more years on the Board of Supervisors.
But Liccardo added: "I'm certainly happy that the campaign is behind us."
Contact Mike Rosenberg at 408-920-5705. Follow him at Twitter.com/RosenbergMerc
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