Election Results
By Robert Haugh

Here are quick breakdowns of local election races in Santa Clara, ballot measures and other local races of interest in Santa Clara. Incumbents were predominately re-elected, while all four Santa Clara ballot measures (O, P, Q and R – Council & Mayor salaries, Term Limits, Vacancies in Office and Protection of Parks & Open Space) were decided by astonishing margins.

Candidates endorsed and supported by Mayor Lisa Gillmor were highly successful, while the majority of candidates supported and endorsed by BluPac were defeated. The Santa Clara City Council will see a super majority female Council, with five of seven members being female – the Council will continue to be entirely Caucasian.

Santa Clara Police Chief
This race is likely the only race that may take final verification to determine the official tally, as less than 1,000 votes decides this race.
Mike Sellers- 11,609 votes, 52.14 percent
Pat Nikolai- 10,656 votes, 47.86 percent

Santa Clara City Clerk
Incumbent City Clerk Rod Diridon, Jr. scored a commanding triumph for re-election, garnering the most votes of all Santa Clara candidates in the election (14,396). Diridon has been an advocate in establishing stronger ethic practices in municipal government.
Rod Diridon, Jr.- 14,396 votes, 67.37 percent
Deborah Bress- 6,972 votes, 32.63 percent

Santa Clara City Council Seat No. 3
Incumbent Debi Davis scored a landslide win over former City Council member John McLemore.
Debi Davis- 14,054 votes, 64.55 percent
John McLemore- 7,719 votes, 35.45 percent

Santa Clara City Council Seat No. 4
Former Mayor and City Council member Patricia Mahan scored a slim win over three new faces to Santa Clara municipal office races – edging open space and park advocate Tino Silva by 1,100 votes – five percent.
Patricia Mahan- 7,503 votes, 33.9 percent
Tino Silva- 6,403 votes, 28.93 percent
Raj Chahal- 5,763 votes, 26.04 percent
Markus A. Bracamonte- 2,463 votes, 11.13 percent

Santa Clara City Council Seat No. 6
Appointed incumbent Kathy Watanabe garnered a landslide win, scoring almost 50 percent of the total votes, with third-time candidate Mohammed Nadeem and Suds Jain earning 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
Kathy Watanabe- 10,741 votes, 48.89 percent
Mohammed Nadeem- 4,317 votes, 19.65 percent
Suds Jain- 3,275 votes, 14.91 percent
Anthony J. Becker- 1,865 votes, 8.5 percent
Mario Bouza- 1,770 votes, 8.06 percent

Santa Clara City Council Seat 7
Incumbent, Vice Mayor Teresa O’Neill, who served as Interim mayor when former Mayor Jamie Matthews resigned, scored a landslide triumph to keep her seat, scoring almost 60 percent of the vote.
Teresa O’Neill- 12,809 votes, 58.48 percent
Kevin Park- 6,608 votes, 30.17 percent
Ahmad Rafah-2,487 votes, 11.35 percent

Santa Clara City – Measure O – Council member and Mayor salaries
Yes- 16,431 votes, 71.88 percent
No- 6,429 votes, 28.12 percent

Santa Clara City – Measure P – Council and Mayor Term Limits
Yes- 18,662 votes, 80.68 percent
No- 4,418 votes, 19.14 percent

Santa Clara City – Measure Q – Filling Vacancies in Elected Office
Yes- 18,006 votes, 80.83 percent
No- 4,271 votes, 19.17 percent

Santa Clara City – Measure R – Protection of Parks and Open Space
Yes- 21,099 votes, 89.21 percent
No-  2,551 votes, 10.79 percent

Santa Clara Unified School District Trustee Area 2 (two seats)
Albert Gonzalez- 16,885 votes, 49.49 percent

Mark Richardson- 10,117 votes, 29.65 percent
Ashish Mangla- 7,117 votes, 20.86 percent

Santa Clara Unified School District Trustee Area 3
Michele Ryan- 13,785 votes, 51.94 percent
Anna E. Welsh- 12,754 votes. 48.06 percent

West Valley-Mission Community College District – Trustee Area 2
Bob Owens- 6,481 votes, 58.63 percent
Chris Stampolis- 4,573 votes, 41.37 percent

State Assembly – District 25
Democrat Kansen Chu- 44,932 votes, 72.35 percent
Republican Bob Brunton- 17,171 votes, 27.65 percent

US Representative District 17
Ro Khanna- 63,923 votes, 59.43 percent
Mike Honda- 43,645 votes, 40.57 percent

Additional local items of interest:
Santa Clara County Measure A – Affordable Housing
The countywide measure has the required 2/3 vote to be approved, though ballots are still being tabulated. The $950 million bond measure would provide funds for affordable housing targeted towards various populations impacted by this crisis including the homeless, low income families, the disabled, veterans and first-time home buyers.

Santa Clara County – Measure B – Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, Transportation Infrastructure Sales Tax
The half-cent sales tax appears to be approved with a 70/30 vote split in favor. The sales tax, enacted over the next 30 years will serve to: repair streets, fix potholes in all 15 cities; finish BART extension to downtown San Jose, Santa Clara; improve bicycle/pedestrian safety, especially near schools; increase CalTrain capacity, easing highway congestion, improving safety at crossings; relieve traffic on all nine expressways, key highway interchanges; and enhance transit for seniors, students, disabled; mandating annual audits by independent citizens watchdog committee to ensure accountability.

City of Cupertino – Measures C and D – Vallco Development
Both measures, which had differing takes on development plans and amendments to address the property were shot down by voters, leaving no concrete plans for the dilapidated shopping center which has multiple mixed-use projects on the docket – developers and owners will have to go back to the drawing board for next steps with the Vallco site.

Vallco photo courtesy of Betsy Megas