In an effort to wrangle power and secure a favorable majority in her final term, Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor has handpicked two candidates to challenge her loudest critics on the City Council and is supporting two others — a move that could advance her political agenda and shape her legacy.
This November, voters will decide whether to reelect three councilmembers who’ve been at odds with the mayor and part of the so-called “49er Five” perceived to be friendly with the team: Vice Mayor Anthony Becker and Councilmembers Suds Jain and Kevin Park. Voters will also choose who should replace Gillmor’s lone ally on the seven-person council, Kathy Watanabe, who is terming out.
Gillmor tapped Kelly Cox, an assistant dean at Santa Clara University, to run against Becker in District 6 and potentially unseat him. Becker, who unsuccessfully challenged Gillmor for mayor two years ago, has long been an adversary of the mayor. She demanded he resign after he faced charges for allegedly lying about leaking a confidential civil grand jury report that blasted his relationship with the 49ers — an offense that her critics say she is also guilty of.
“The mayor got a hold of me and said, ‘We gotta talk,'” Cox told San José Spotlight. “(I said) ‘I don’t know how I’m going to juggle finishing my masters program and doing it.’ But at that point, she’s like, ‘There’s nobody. There’s nobody running in your district against the incumbent,’ and I agreed we’re in an egregious state.”
When asked to elaborate on Gillmor asking her to run for council, Cox declined further comment.
Another Gillmor ally, former Councilmember Teresa O’Neill, is also on the November ballot. She’s running for her former seat in District 4 after Park unseated her four years ago. Park has been a critic of the mayor and her actions, such as a last-minute proposal to cut the city’s infrastructure bond down from $598 million to $400 million.
O’Neill confirmed Gillmor asked her to run for the seat again. She said she didn’t plan on doing it, but was ultimately convinced by other friends.
Gillmor did not respond to a request for comment.
The mayor’s allies
Gillmor has also endorsed software engineer Satish Chandra to run for the open District 1 seat after Watanabe terms out.
Chandra said Gillmor did not ask him to run for city council, but Watanabe suggested it two years ago. She is now his campaign manager.
District 5 candidate David Kertes launched his campaign at an event with Chandra, O’Neill and Cox last month. Kertes has also been endorsed by Gillmor. He said he wasn’t asked to run by the mayor, but discussed his candidacy with her.
Despite having the mayor’s support, Kertes said he is an independent thinker.
“I may not always vote with Kelly and Teresa, or with Lisa, because we all have different residents with different expectations,” Kertes told San José Spotlight.
A mayor recruiting allies to run for council seats in an attempt to win a friendly majority is not unusual or illegal. But in Santa Clara, it’s another wrinkle in the city’s already tumultuous political scene.
This past year, Gillmor’s agenda has been stymied by stark opposition and a lack of council support. The council majority approved settlements with the 49ers, ending litigation that was supported by Gillmor, and reeled in a noise curfew opposed by the team.
Rich Robinson, a political consultant and San José Spotlight columnist, said if Gillmor’s able to regain control of the council, it could result in “chaos.”
“It will go back to the chaos that was created previously in 2020, when she went after her political enemies, including the 49ers and political opponents,” Robinson told San José Spotlight.
In the race for Santa Clara’s police chief, the only city in California, to still elect its chief, Gillmor has endorsed Santa Clara Police Department Lt. Cory Morgan.
Gillmor is backing retired California Highway Patrol Lt. Bob O’Keefe for city clerk after Hosam Haggag, the current clerk and a Gillmor loyalist, chose not to seek reelection. O’Keefe ran against Jain to represent District 5 on the city council in 2020 and sat on the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury in 2023-24.
Councilmember Karen Hardy worries a Gillmor majority might shun the remaining councilmembers, including herself. She said that’s what happened in 2018 when she first won her seat and Gillmor had a majority.
“Having a scorched earth philosophy of ‘you’re either with me or I’m going to burn you to the ground’ is not useful,” Hardy told San José Spotlight. “There’s’s always going to be cussing and discussion and disagreements, that’s not the problem. I’ve always said it — we can disagree, we just can’t be disagreeable.”
Money pouring in
Endorsements aren’t the only tool to sway voters in Santa Clara’s divisive political climate. Many groups spend millions of dollars supporting their candidates — whether they’re Gillmor allies or not.
The Related Company, which is developing the largest mixed-use project in city history, launched a political action committee last month supporting Chandra, O’Neill, Kertes and Cox — the mayor’s slate. It has not yet raised or spent any money. In 2022, Related spent $200,000 to support Gillmor’s reelection campaign. This was after Gillmor wrote a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, suggesting the developer shouldn’t have to pay workers prevailing wages.
On the other side, the San Francisco 49ers have historically spent millions to support candidates believed to be favorable to the team. Last week, 49ers affiliates put more than $900,000 into four newly-formed committees supporting the incumbents and opposing Gillmor-backed challengers.
“Our organization is proud to continue to support a diverse slate of candidates running for city council this year,” 49ers spokesperson Ellie Caple told San José Spotlight. “We are glad to see that the current council has effectively managed the city’s finances, reduced the city deficit and continues to serve our community.”
Some candidates, such as Chandra, suspect the NFL team is behind a recent push poll that’s circulated negative information about them.
Representatives for the 49ers did not respond to a question about the poll.
Jain said he wishes special interests would stay out of city politics.
“These outside entities are going to do whatever they’re going to do, because I don’t communicate with any of them,” Jain told San José Spotlight. “I wish it wasn’t happening, I wish we could just run completely independent of any independent expenditures, but that’s now how this race is going to work.”
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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