Moore, Suzuki, Stump lead in Los Gatos Town Council race

The next election results update is expected Wednesday, Nov. 4 by 5 p.m.

Los Gatos could be charting a new future with a couple young progressive Town Council candidates coming out on top.

The town has three open, at-large council seats with six candidates vying for them. As of Wednesday, Mayor Rob Moore has come out on top with 23.8% of the vote, or 4,361 votes. Jeff Suzuki is in second with 18.7% of the vote, or 3,426 votes. Rob Stump has taken third place with 17.9% of the vote, or 3,279 votes. Councilmember Mary Badame is trailing behind in fourth at 16.8% of the vote, or 3,070 votes. In fifth place is Steve Raspe with 13.1% of the vote, or 2,405 votes and in sixth is Heidi Owens with9.5% of the vote, or 1,743 votes.

The county voter turnout is at 28.4%. Approximately 337,600 ballots remain unprocessed countywide, according to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.

Moore, 28, wants to provide rental assistance for older adults, decrease homelessness and to build more housing to meet state guidelines. Suzuki, 28, centered his campaign on building more affordable housing in the affluent community where the average home price is $2.6 million. Stump, 69, wants to keep the town’s quaint feel intact. All three candidates support finding ways to alleviate the traffic jam on the streets where Highway 17 meets Highway 9 due to people driving to and from the beach.

It’s a big change from 2024 when the town of 33,000 people held no election because two incumbents ran unopposed. There are five seats on the town council.

“I think Los Gatos is a community that maybe regionally surprises people,” Moore told San José Spotlight. “I think these election results show that we need leaders with a pragmatic, nuanced approach to housing that don’t just say no (to developments).”

The town failed to meet the Jan.31, 2023 state housing certification deadline, which opened the door to more than a dozen high-density builder’s remedy projects that are effectively exempt from local control. The state requires the town to build 1,993 new homes by 2031.

All three candidates believe in having the town decide what housing projects should get built. Over the past year, Los Gatos approved about 800 new homes, including three-story townhomes, Moore said.

“I think many of them are in really excellent locations, and I think that is going to be a good model for the town in terms of how we meet our housing demands,” Moore said.

With him and Suzuki coming out on top, Moore said it opens the door to move the needle on building affordable housing.

“The town has, during the last four years, not taken a proactive approach to go out and find an affordable housing developer who could work with us, and I think we may have the opportunity to do that,” he said.

Moore’s one-year term as mayor ends in December, but he wants to stay on the council to focus on issues including youth mentorship, wildfire preparedness, mitigating beach traffic and maintaining compliance with state housing law.

Suzuki, an economic analyst for a legal research firm, has worked on housing and beach traffic as a former planning commissioner and serves on the Complete Streets and Transportation Commission. He’s a Los Gatos native who also founded and runs the Los Gatos Anti-Racism Coalition.

He felt voters connected with him due to his grassroots campaign and his forthrightness in addressing fundamental issues such as housing and traffic. He and his team knocked on more than 9,000 doors, he said.

“I don’t overpromise and I am generally honest with voters,” Suzuki told San José Spotlight. “My team and I worked really hard and it’s very rewarding to see that hard work reflected.”

Suzuki said he will play a major role in making sure the town is communicating with the state on its housing goals and working proactively to meet state requirements.

But Stump is just 209 votes ahead of Badame, with ballots left to be counted. Stump, a retired tech executive, is a third-generation Los Gatos resident whose grandfather moved to the town in 1924.

Should he maintain his lead, one major goal he plans to accomplish as councilmember is fixing the beach traffic jams once and for all. On the campaign trail, he put forward an idea to work with navigation app companies so that cars aren’t constantly being redirected to travel through Los Gatos’ streets on their way to the beach.

“It may have to be through a legal order, but I just think we can’t sit around for four or five years and wait for a new freeway interchange to be built,” Stump told San José Spotlight. “I’m for any solution that will bring relief starting this next beach season.”

This story will be updated.

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.