Anthony Tordillos jumped out to a substantial lead over Gabby Chavez-Lopez to become the next San Jose District 3 City Council representative after the release of the first batch of election results Tuesday evening.
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Of the 6,456 votes counted as of 8 p.m., Tordillos received 4,176, or 64.7%, making the runoff much less anticlimactic than the primary, which saw several twists and turns in the pecking order and even a recount due to the razor-thin margins of the contest.
Chavez-Lopez, a nonprofit executive, and Tordillos, the city’s planning commission chair, advanced to a runoff after finishing as the top two vote-getters in the April primary, beating out a field of seven candidates vying to replace disgraced former City Councilmember Omar Torres, who resigned in November amid a sex abuse scandal.
Should the results hold, it would complete a meteoric rise for Tordillos, who entered the race as a dark horse candidate against a crowded field with significantly more political experience and connections.
Votes will continue to be counted at least into next week, as the Registrar of Voters will still accept mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day for another week.
Regardless of who emerges from Tuesday’s runoff, the seating of a new councilmember could help heal the distrust and wounds opened up by scandals that had shrouded the District 3 office.
Police arrested Torres, who was already embroiled in a separate sex scandal that prompted him to shrink from the public eye, on child molestation charges that he later pleaded no contest to earlier this year.
In granting the wish of District 3 residents to hold a special election to pick the next representative, the City Council also appointed local businessman Carl Salas in late January to serve as a caretaker until a winner emerged.
Chavez-Lopez led the seven-person field in the primary, earning approximately 30% of the overall vote. But because no candidate received more than 50% of the vote, the intrigue of the race came down to who would join Chavez-Lopez in a June 24 runoff.
In what many pundits considered an upset, Tordillos eventually overcame a slight deficit on election night to overtake Matthew Quevedo, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s deputy chief of staff, by six votes. As mail-in votes trickled in over the week, Tordillos and Quevedo flip-flopped positions in the race multiple times before a recount moved Tordillos on to face Chavez-Lopez.
Rounding out the rest of the field were former District 3 challenger Irene Smith, retired law enforcement officer Adam Duran, former mayoral challenger Tyrone Wade and knife sharpener salesman Phil Dolan.
The candidates generally agree on what the district’s most pressing issues are: homelessness, affordable housing development, public safety and blight, and creating a vibrant downtown core.
However, while both candidates were adamant that they were ready to hit the ground running, they differed in some instances on how the city could make meaningful progress.
For example, both candidates opposed a long-term shift in the use of Measure E dollars toward interim housing solutions and supported the concept that the long-term solution to homelessness is more affordable housing. While Chavez-Lopez emphasized the need for resources to prevent homelessness, Tordillos believed the city still needed to invest in a full spectrum of solutions at the moment, including expanding its shelter system.
Backed by several current members of the Santa County Board of Supervisors, Chavez-Lopez also emphasized the need for a more collaborative approach among all levels of government to address the homelessness crisis, adopting a softer tone than the sometimes antagonistic one from the dais that has led to a prickly relationship between the city and county.
With Chavez-Lopez and Tordillos sharing some similar policy views, questions surfaced over how the electorate that supported other candidates in the primary would vote.
Despite not seeing eye-to-eye on every issue with Tordillos, Mahan chose to put his political muscle behind him in the runoff, citing Tordillos’ independent, free-thinking attitude that was focused on outcomes.
“Anthony, with his background as an engineer (and) manager, service on the planning commission, and leadership in his neighborhood association, has the kind of pragmatism but also the handle on concrete issues that affect us every day that I think we need more of at City Hall,” Mahan said in a recent interview.
But along with giving residents a more permanent voice on the dais, the District 3 race has higher stakes because it could determine how successful Mahan is in implementing his policy agenda moving forward.
In the early years of his tenure as mayor, Mahan had seen his policy agenda stifled at times due to the then-progressive-leaning makeup of the City Council. However, since the November election, when he gained a few more allies on the dais, Mahan has been more successful in advancing his policy ideas.
For example, Mahan had enough votes to push his budget proposal forward this year, which included the controversial Responsibility to Shelter proposal that creates an expectation for homeless residents to come indoors when there is available shelter or face potential arrest.
Although the City Council passed that policy earlier this month, Mahan’s Pay for Performance proposal, which called for a small portion of elected officials’ pay to be tied to metrics, was defeated.
While Chavez-Lopez opposed both policy proposals, Tordillos indicated he had mixed feelings — supporting Pay for Performance while opposing the arrest of unhoused individuals who refuse shelter.
How both candidates could impact policy direction moving forward remains to be seen, but while Mahan and Tordillos may have disagreements on the means to solve problems, they share common ground in that they believe constituents are fed up with the status quo.
The winner of Tuesday’s election will represent the District 3 seat when the City Council comes back into session in August.