Despite a few significant policy differences, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan on Friday endorsed Anthony Tordillos for the downtown District 3 City Council seat, less than two months before he squares off in the June 24 runoff against Gabby Chavez-Lopez.
Earlier this week, Santa Clara County election officials confirmed Tordillos, a Google engineer and the chair of the city’s planning commission, who had squeaked by Matthew Quevedo, Mahan’s deputy chief of staff, by the slimmest of margins — prompting an automatic recount.
Although Mahan acknowledged he and Tordillos do not see eye-to-eye on every issue, he said there was enough common ground between the two on issues like public safety and housing affordability to secure his endorsement.
“I’m focused on progress, on delivering the outcomes that our community is demanding, and after a number of long conversations, I firmly believe that Anthony Tordillos is the only candidate left in this race with the pragmatism and independence to deliver those,” Mahan said Friday. “He’s smart, a free-thinking individual who is data-driven and is committed to figuring out what works, and he knows that the status quo isn’t working.”
Tordillos was one of the seven candidates that appeared on the April 8 special election ballot and looked to replace disgraced former City Councilmember Omar Torres, who resigned in November due to sex abuse charges he pleaded no contest to last month.
Chavez-Lopez, the executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, led the pack from election night through certification, gaining 30% of the overall vote. Her strong performance, however, was not enough to clinch an outright victory, which required more than 50% of the vote, turning the race into a head-to-head duel between Tordillos and Quevedo for the runoff spot.
Tordillos finished in second place with 22.18%, six votes ahead of Quevedo. Irene Smith, who challenged Torres for the District 3 seat in 2022, earned fourth place with 16%, followed by Adam Duran, Tyrone Wade, and Phil Dolan.
From the outset of his campaign, Tordillos had identified homelessness, affordable housing development, public safety, and improving downtown vibrancy as his chief priorities.
“I think that folks really are ready for results,” Tordillos said. “They want a councilmember who can make progress on staffing up our police department, make progress on addressing blight downtown and make progress on building thousands of new homes in the downtown near transit and across our city that San Jose residents can actually afford.”
Tordillos has also supported Mahan’s proposal to tie merit raises for department heads and the City Council to performance.
But while he and Mahan built some agreement on the city’s most pressing concerns, Tordillos indicated both in interviews and at campaign forums that he was not on board with some of the policy directions coming out of City Hall.
For example, Tordillos had opposed Mahan’s “Responsibility to Shelter” initiative, which would allow the city to charge homeless residents who refuse available shelter three times over 18 months with trespassing. The primary goal is to create an avenue for the city to petition behavioral health courts to get them into treatment in cases when drug or mental health afflictions are causing people to resist services.
Tordillos also previously voiced his opposition to a permanent policy shift allowing greater flexibility for using funds from Measure E, the 2000 voter-approved ballot initiative for affordable housing, homelessness prevention and support programs.
Although Tordillos agreed that the city needs to increase its shelter capacity, he believes the long-term solution is to continue investing in permanent housing.
“I do think that we need to balance that against these short-term investments, so we can support people who are living in shelters down the street today, and so we can also make good on some of the quality of life concerns residents have raised,” Tordillos said.
Mahan’s backing of Tordillos has also raised questions about how a June victory could impact City Council policy-making.
While Quevedo was likely to have rubberstamped the mayor’s agenda and solidified his power base on the dais, Tordillos presented himself as more of an independent candidate as he swore off contributions from lobbyists and corporate interests.
At the moment, Mahan and his allies maintain a slight majority on the City Council, but that could swing if Chavez-Lopez emerges as the winner.
Mahan downplayed the battle between business and labor interests and said the race was critical because the City Council needed more “pragmatic problem solvers.”
“I’ve said many times I don’t see the world through the lens of business or labor that are inextricably linked,” Mahan said. “They need one another … I’m focused on delivering outcomes for the community, and to do that we need a different culture and a new approach at City Hall, at the county offices and at the state.”