The future makeup of the San Jose City Council remains in flux as two business and two labor backed candidates have jumped out to preliminary leads in the four competitive races after the release of the first batch of results Tuesday evening.
Following his strong performance in the March primary, George Casey, an ally of San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and business organizations, has jumped out a large lead in District 10 over incumbent Arjun Batra with just over 20,000 votes cast.
In District 8, incumbent Domingo Candelas, who earned the endorsement of labor organizations, holds a slight lead over Tam Truong after winning the most votes in the March primary.
Meanwhile in District 6, former mayoral candidate and Mahan-ally Michael Mulcahy has taken a slight lead over Olivia Navarro in a race for a new representative on the Council.
In the tightest race so far, Pamela Campos has jumped out to a lead over Joe Lopez after he won the most votes in the primary.
This year’s election includes two rematches for the incumbents in Districts 8 and 10. Nearly two years ago, the City Council appointed candidates to fill the seats vacated by now Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas and Mahan, who previously represented District 10.
Candelas has served as District 8’s representative since 2023, when the City Council appointed him to the position over Evergreen School District Board Trustee President Patricia Andrade, city analyst Salvador Alvarez, software manager Sukhdev Singh Bainiwal, and his opponent in 2024, Truong.
But just as in 2023, controversy has surrounded the race. In September, the San Jose Police Department placed Truong on leave after the district attorney’s office charged him with felony grand theft tied to mortgage fraud allegations. Despite proclaiming his innocence, Truong disappeared from the campaign trail and lost the endorsement of Mahan. Adding to the political theater, the Santa Cruz County prosecutors, who took on the case due to a conflict of interest in the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, asked a judge to dismiss the case two weeks ago. However, the option to refile charges is still available.
In District 10, Batra, a former Intel and IBM executive, was backed by Mahan in 2023 when he vacated the seat to become mayor and again during this year’s election cycle.
In the March primary, corporate attorney Casey held a 451-vote advantage over Batra among voters, and both men advanced to the general election over labor-backed candidate Lenka Wright.
Labor and political organizations, however, have attacked Casey over the past two months over previous work with disgraced Chinese developer Z&L Properties.
Before Casey temporarily worked as a part-time consultant for the company, it was tied to several San Jose and Bay Area projects that have come under scrutiny, including the construction of Silvery Towers. That project was thrown into the spotlight seven years ago after authorities discovered that Job Torres Hernandez, an unlicensed subcontractor, was holding immigrant workers in a warehouse and forcing them to work without pay. Casey said he only became involved in helping sell off Z&L’s properties as the company tried to exit the market.
The Santa Clara County Democratic Party, which endorsed Wright, also issued a resolution in October opposing Casey’s candidacy over his principles, including his opposition to the size of the raises received by city workers, which Casey said could lead to future deficits.
Adding more gasoline to the fire, a controversial jail diversion project — which both candidates opposed — near the district’s borders has become a political issue in the race. While Batra said he advocated for his constituents to help stop the sale of the interim housing site at Monterey and Bernal Roads to the county for the project, Casey said it was the residents who deserved credit for defeating the proposal and blamed Batra for not being aware of its impacts on District 10 until the 11th hour.
What is certain in this year’s election is that at least two City Council seats will have fresh blood.
Lopez, a retired 35-year veteran of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office backed by Mahan and business interests, and Campos, a labor-supported policy officer at the Low Income Investment Fund, faced off to replace outgoing District 2 Councilmember Sergio Jimenez, who has termed out. The race initially had taken on a respectful tone between the candidates before both claimed political ads targeting them either misrepresented their views or smeared their reputations.
With District 6 Councilmember Dev Davis finishing her second term, Mulcahy, a local businessman and mayoral candidate was running against Navarro, an insurance agent and union advisor, to represent neighborhoods west of downtown, including Willow Glen, West San Carlos and Fruitdale.
District 4 Councilmember David Cohen received more than 50% of the vote during the March primary, allowing him to clinch another four years on the City Council.