Santa Clara Connections: Jason Baker – County Supervisor Candidate
Editor’s Note: In 2018, there will be an election to replace County Supervisor Ken Yeager who is finishing his final term. The district includes Santa Clara. So we will ask candidates to share with us their connection to Santa Clara in 300 words. Jason Baker submitted the following. Other candidates will be offered the same opportunity, too, and we’ll print their information in the coming weeks.
I have deep connections to Santa Clara. I’ve represented Santa Clara (and all the cities in the county) on the County’s Homelessness Task Force, and on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
I went to Santa Clara University Law School, where I met my wife. She was born and raised in Santa Clara, and her dad, my father in-law Tim O’Keefe, taught history at Santa Clara for over 40 years. My wife and I were married at Mission Santa Clara; and although our home parish is St. Lucy’s in Campbell, we attend church at Mission Santa Clara several times a year to celebrate holidays with family and friends.
I am in Santa Clara several times a week to pick up my kids from their grandparents’ house after school.
Over the years, I have enjoyed a number of presentations for elected officials at Santa Clara’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, and served on an ethics panel there. In law school, I worked for the Katherine and George Alexander Law Foundation, an affiliate of Santa Clara University, which offers free legal services to those who can’t afford them.
Finally, in my role as a Board member at VTA and as an early and key leader on Measure B, I voted to bring traffic relief and BART to Santa Clara.
I recently attended the Bill Wilson Center lunch focused on homeless youth and youth in foster care, issues about which I care deeply.
Going forward, I intend to hold a series of community coffees and house parties in Santa Clara so residents can learn more about the campaign and my experience and passion for the issues like traffic relief, the environment and more. I can learn and listen as well.
Jason Baker
Former Campbell Mayor
[…] Community Fund dinner, too, he tells us. Baker has lots of solid roots in Santa Clara as he’s shared with us on this site so that should be a good event for him to reconnect with the […]
[…] We were really impressed with the strong connections Baker has to Santa Clara which he listed in a piece he wrote for this website. He may have a shot at winning the Mission […]
He has a lot of connections to Santa Clara. I like that. I will definitely consider voting for him. One of my neighbors was taught by Mr. O’Keefe and says he’s a good teacher and very popular.