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San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo tonight staked out what could be an insurmountable lead over Assemblymember Evan Low, a fellow Democrat, in the first Election Day returns.
Preliminary, unofficial results in the first published returns at 11:45pm from Santa Clara and San Mateo counties showed Liccardo with 108,984 votes and Low with 73,299 votes, a nearly 60%-40% margin. The first returns represented approximately 50% of the anticipated final vote tally in the district.
The early returns did not include central San Jose, the heart of Liccardo’s support. To win, Low would have to win about 60% of the remaining ballots in those city precincts—which likely explains Liccardo’s celebratory mood late tonight.
Liccardo has been the top vote-getter in his bid for Silicon Valley’s 16th Congressional District since the March primary.
The two-term mayor and former prosecutor has been slugging it out with the openly gay former Campbell mayor in a bruising two-part campaign that began nearly 11 months ago: one three-month, 11-person free-for-all followed by a second six-month stretch run that couldn’t begin in earnest until after a contentious two-month recount decided the final pairing.
The intense primary drained campaign war chests and considerable campaign energy. From the start, it was a battle for endorsements and money, where candidates’ images and resumes—rather than policy statements or campaign promises—prevailed. This was true in the primary, and for the General Election face-off.
In the primary, Low had staked out the progressive left, while Liccardo maintained a solid stance in the party’s center. Low was endorsed by the Democratic Party, a range of Asian-American and LGPTQ groups and by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Liccardo benefited from a Silicon Valley PAC, a New Democratic Coalition endorsements and a $1.5 million boost from New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
The seat representing the sprawling 16th District, stretching from Pacifica in the northwest to Campbell and west San Jose on the south, opened up in December when Rep. Anna Eshoo announced she would not seek re-election, after more than 30 years in Congress. About 80% of the district residents live in Santa Clara County, and 20% in San Mateo County.
Before the March recount request by tech executive and former Liccardo staffer Jonathan Padilla, the 16th District was headed to a three-person November contest: Liccardo, Low and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian.
When the dust cleared May 1—after a roller-coaster recount of the March 5 primary votes that had been requested and funded by a former Liccardo staffer—Low had five more votes than Simitian. The two men had been tied with 30,249 votes apiece from both counties when official totals were certified April 12, five weeks after the primary, by the California Secretary of State—more than 8,000 votes behind Liccardo’s March total.
After Low was declared the victor in the recount, he and Liccardo didn’t waste any time beginning the General Election campaign for the coveted Silicon Valley congressional seat.
The day that the final recount was announced, the Liccardo campaign accused Low of trying “multiple times to undermine and stop the recount process.”
Liccardo consistently took the high road in the spring recount—distancing himself from the recount request and from what many observers said was a strategy that benefitted a frontrunner—standing by “the principle that every vote should be counted.”
“Despite the efforts of some to stop this recount, we should all celebrate that democracy prevailed,” Liccardo said after the May 1 announcement. “We can now re-focus on our work ahead, toward solutions to our region’s and nation’s great challenges, such as homelessness, the high cost of living, climate change, public safety, and protecting reproductive rights.”
Despite his flattery and wooing of Simitian—Liccardo praised Simitian’s “decades of public service” as “an inspiration to me”—the county supervisor steadfastly declined to endorse either Low or Liccardo in the congressional campaign.
Likewise, Eshoo, who had endorsed Simitian in the primary, also declined to endorse either of the two finalists who competed this month.
In the primary, Liccardo tallied just 21% of the total votes, compared to 17% for Low. In the summer campaign, the two men went after the more than 83,000 votes—and the money—that had gone to other candidates.
