From the CEO: Ex-San Jose mayor hurts voters by ditching public forum

When you’re a journalist, ruffling the feathers of politicians and people in power comes with the territory. You might even call it a badge of honor.

I once had an editor who assured me that if I wasn’t ticking them off, I wasn’t doing my job. It’s expected and it’s not uncommon.

What is uncommon, however, is when a politician denies voters an opportunity to ask questions and hear his platform before a consequential election because he doesn’t like a news organization’s coverage. Coverage that’s been accurate but critical of his decisions while in elected office. That politician is former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, and the story of his so-called “thin skin” is nothing new to journalists in the South Bay.

Liccardo is running for the open Congressional District 16 seat against Assemblymember Evan Low.

Since its launch in 2019, San José Spotlight has hosted more than 40 policy discussions and candidate forums with people who want to represent you. These events are core to our mission. They ignite civic engagement and empower communities to advocate for themselves, participate in policymaking, to show up at the polls and demand solutions to the region’s problems. Our panels explain how government works, why representation matters and help readers make informed decisions at the ballot box. They ensure marginalized communities have a seat at the table.

Despite assurance from Liccardo’s campaign team that he’d participate in a candidate forum this year, his spokesman Orrin Evans inexplicably pulled the plug earlier this month. When we asked why, Evans complained that he didn’t like our coverage of the race.

Meanwhile, Liccardo’s opponent agreed to show up and has never wavered on that commitment.

“It’s unfortunate that Sam Liccardo is refusing to participate in a candidate forum held by a local news organization. Voters want to know where the two candidates stand on the issues,” a spokesperson for Low’s campaign said.

It’s no secret our publication has been critical of Liccardo. The former San Jose mayor shielded thousands of pages of public records by using his personal Gmail account to skirt public disclosure. We filed a lawsuit to force the release of the records pertaining to city business, including emails about public health policies, economic development, a massive Google project and homelessness. A judge ruled last year that Liccardo violated state sunshine laws by failing to search for those records.

Our transparency work inspired state legislation, headlined panel discussions at legal and journalism conferences and won two major awards.

Nothing we’ve reported has been inaccurate. But it has been inconvenient for Liccardo.

We revealed how Liccardo is linked to a political consultant who requested a controversial recount in his congressional race — despite Liccardo saying he had no hand in the recount. We followed the money to show how the recount was funded, leading to two federal complaints about dark money. We exposed how that same consultant and Liccardo had ties to California Waste Solutions — a recycling hauler at the center of a major FBI investigation.

We’ve been watching as the ex-mayor quietly planned his moves. We were first to report on a political action committee he formed while in office to influence elections — including his successor Mayor Matt Mahan — igniting criticism from his colleagues. We explained how Liccardo’s close friend, lobbyist Carl Guardino, helped write a city policy that benefitted Guardino’s energy company. We chronicled Liccardo’s ties to a tech executive who threatened to “crush” a woman in a heinous eBay stalking campaign.

Liccardo responds to inconvenient facts with Trump-style attacks on the press — he’s called San José Spotlight a “blog” in an attempt to discredit our news organization. Our publication has earned 30 journalism awards from our peers and now reaches a quarter million readers a month, netting more than half a million pageviews.

But this isn’t about us or a self-serving attempt to change Liccardo’s mind. This is about our readers and the people who will miss an opportunity to hear from a man asking for their votes. This is about transparency and access. It’s about allowing people from all walks of life — including those who access our free events and paywall-free journalism — to ask a question, shake a politician’s hand and hear their ideas and plans.

These readers are not the enemy, regardless of what Liccardo thinks of San José Spotlight. The readers, in fact, are the reason we fight the good fight each day. Our loyalty is to them.

Our readers are voters in the congressional district Liccardo is trying to represent. The misguided decision to bail on a public discussion hurts them.

As voters head to the polls this November, they’ll be bombarded by lots of political messaging. Whether they vote for Liccardo or Low, they deserve access to facts, transparency and truth — Liccardo owes them that.

Contact Ramona Giwargis at ramona@sanjosespotlight or follow @RamonaGiwargis on X, formerly known as Twitter.