By Robert Haugh
We had a pretty good record with our predictions for the June election.
We predicted that Pierluigi Oliverio would take second behind Susan Ellenberg in the Santa Clara County Supervisor District 4 race. But Don Rocha overtook Oliverio for the second spot as ballots continue to be counted.
San Jose Inside reported on the change in election tallies:
Rocha’s lead grew from 551 votes Monday to 660 (or 20.71 percent) the following morning, according to county election officials. Oliverio trails in third with 12,636 votes (19.68 percent). Ballots still to be counted: 12,000 provisionals, 7,700 mailed in, 2,600 from precincts and 300 conditional registrations for a total of 22,600.
The South Bay Labor Council also reported the shift in their Left Hook blog, where they said, “With 96% of the ballots counted, it is virtually impossible for Oliverio to get the votes needed to secure a spot in the General Election.” Labor co-endorsed Rocha in the race and our local version of Voldemort. So, if Rocha hangs on, they will have gotten lucky that they didn’t get shut out of the runoff.
According to a Mercury News article yesterday, Oliverio congratulated ‘likely finalists,’ but was not ready to concede.
But on a brighter note, we had also predicted the Santa Clara Chamber PAC would shoot themselves in the foot. They did. More on that tomorrow.
Thank you for this great coverage. I tuned out in frustration a long time ago due to retreads like Mahan and Kolstad and the apparent effort in every election to keep ‘outsiders’ from winning council seats. The few times I addressed the council in years past I felt their dismissive or disinterested attitudes. Now I see some fresher faces on the council. I sorely wish one of the appointee candidates was now among them. Kudos to the City Attorney for his emphatic comment!
Today, there is a much more organized movement for citizens to be HEARD. I will consider joining in!