Dave Cortese refuses to go gently into that good night. The county supervisor and San Jose mayoral candidate announced Wednesday, a day after the election, that he will not concede victory to Sam Liccardo due to the large number of votes still yet to be counted.
After releasing an individual statement saying as much Wednesday afternoon, Cortese and his wife, Pattie, followed up with an email to supporters, thanking them for their help in the campaign and noting that "the jury is still out" on final returns.
"Out of respect to them and the voters of San Jose, we are going to wait until we have conclusive results before making a final statement," the Corteses wrote. "Any attempts in the media to call the race beforehand does not respect the democratic process which ensures that every vote counts."
Cortese has a strong argument. San Jose Inside spoke with county Registrar of Voters Shannon Bushey on Wednesday afternoon, and she estimated her office as still has 120,000 to 150,000 vote-by-mail ballots to go through, as well as 14,000 provisional ballots to check. Several local media outlets have pegged the number of outstanding ballots affecting the San Jose mayor's race at about 50,000 to 70,000—based on the math that San Jose makes up about half of the county's registered voters.
Below is the full statement from Dave and Pattie Cortese:
"The profound sense of gratitude we have for everyone who has been a part of this campaign is more than we can describe, but we'll try. We are greatly humbled by the hundreds of volunteers who took time from their busy lives to knock on doors, make phone calls, put up lawn signs or talk to their neighbors. We thank you for your tremendous efforts. Thank you to all the people who made financial contributions--some only able to spare a few dollars, which meant so much to us. Thank you to our wonderful campaign staff who often worked into the middle of the night. Thank you to all the working families, nurses, firefighters, cops, and teachers who were a part of this effort. Thank you to every community member who shared their input. Thank you to everyone who entrusted their vote to our shared vision of a community that works for everyone. Your faith in us is an honor and a responsibility we do not take lightly.
"As for the final outcome, the jury is still out. With less than 2,200 votes separating us from our opponent and tens of thousands of votes still to be counted, the race is still too close to call. This election is too important for everyone who has invested part of themselves into making our city a better place. Out of respect to them and the voters of San Jose, we are going to wait until we have conclusive results before making a final statement. Any attempts in the media to call the race beforehand does not respect the democratic process which ensures that every vote counts.
"So together, we wait. But we couldn't let this day pass without sharing our deep appreciation for all of you who gave of something of yourself to get us to this point."
Ball them up and throw them up , because now its a fight. Never give in
The fight is completely over. If it’s not time to give in, now, you’ll have to give in within the next few days.
then a few more days it is
San Jose voters you should be ashamed. Not for who wins but for a city of a million barley 200,000 even took the time to vote. Be careful of what you wish for and the next time you need public safety be prepared to wait a long time. And open your pocket books because taxes are coming to pay for failing city services.
And this council still wants to spend millions on a ball park that will never come, spend more millions on a law suit over pensions which they have already lost 90% and you wonder why your streets suck.
There are 2 tragedies in nearly all modern elections of which this most recent mayor’s race is no exception.
The first tragedy is how few people actually vote. In this last mayoral election, less than a third of eligible voters actually voted, only about 150,000-200,000 (maybe less) in a City of about one million, and of that third, barely 50% voted for Liccardo who then, inexplicably and arrogantly, declared victory before a third of the votes were even counted.
The other tragedy, and possibility the greater of the 2, is that the “average” (but certainly not every) voter is grotesquely uninformed. I doubt that all but a very few who voted for it actually read Measure B and that only a very few of those pondered the implications of it and very few again even knew where the candidates stood on it, or almost any issue, and why. It’s as if the uninformed, read that “average” (describing some but absolutely not every) voter casts a ballot for a “brand name” or a “celebrity” whose name they recognize. The victor is then the individual who can put together the best advertising campaign. (The latter made easier by a rich daddy, with connections, who lives in Saratoga). It has almost nothing to do with issues. It is as Winston Churchill said, “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter”.
Liccardo is no idiot. Knowing that his public safety policies are destined to fail, upon taking office, he will immediately begin selecting a suitable scapegoat and establishing a “chain of blame” so as to avoid accountability for his failures. He will also work to position himself to seize credit (whether he was involved with it or not) for anything that, if by some miracle, goes well.
Example: Reed and Liccardo ignored the warnings about the likely devastating effects of Measure B on public safety but instantly began work toward vilifying and scapegoating the Police Officers Association and falsely labeling its president, Mr. Unland as a “Union Boss” as if Unland was Boss Tweed or Jimmy Hoffa, when in reality he is an intelligent, mild mannered, and unpretentious individual (I’ve met him), in short, the complete opposite of Liccardo (I’ve met him too), who I found to be condescending, disingenuous and someone who might be so arrogant as to declare election victory while a third of the votes were uncounted and his margin was only about 1%-2%.
Liccardo’s likely scapegoats will be: Greedy, lazy cops with their fat undeserved, unearned pensions; The SJPOA and its president; The stupidity of anyone on the City Council who doesn’t agree with him and whose stupidity impedes his greatness (and further political aspirations); And, of course, as always, not enough tax money; and anyone but himself.
I hope I’m wrong but if not, God help us all, and pass the plywood, I still have one unbroken window.
Even Cortese wanted
Unland gone…also, I know enough good people in Cortese’s leadership to know that if he is elected both Dave and Sam would take a tough love negotiation approach with the unions to create a reasonable pension plan and keep our streets safe.
Mr. SJC, what would this “tough love” approach you speak of be? I also wonder how or why it is that all these other police departments in this area and throughout the state can offer pay, benefits and pension plans that are far superior to those that San Jose offers? Is their form of “tough love” just far superior to San Jose’s? Are their politicians just smarter, or maybe even less corrupt? Help me out here.
Granted, we have seen a couple of bankruptcies, Stockton and Vallejo, 2 cities out of hundreds across the state, but this seems to have been the result of extremely poor political leadership, moronic investment strategies and possibly a dash of corruption. Of course, it is always just easier to cover one’s political tracks and incompetence by simply blaming those evil pension plans, those “greedy” cops and fire fighters and those “Union thugs” for all fiscal problems.
Like much of Mr. Liccardo’s canned, insincere, political rhetoric, his demonizing and characterizing cops, fire fighters and other city employees as bloated, gluttonous pension swilling swine is just politically easier and more popular. It is the preferred tactic of any politician who has no actual ideas and no real solutions, particularly at the local level. It gives the appearance of progress or reform while not actually doing anything and while keeping the focus on and preventing the escape of a valuable political scapegoat.
People like Mr. Liccardo seem always to ignore the massive amount of money that the employees themselves pay into the retirement system. People like Mr. Liccardo seem always to ignore the huge amount of money earned by the City from the interest and returns on investments made through use of employee contributions to the pension fund.
Again, I must ask; How is it that all these other cities are able to offer better pay and pension benefits, without going bankrupt, while San Jose cannot? I hope you have an answer because I can assure you, without fear of intelligent contradiction, that Mr. Liccardo does not.
Unland’s January2015 retirement from SJPD, the one that coincides with the expiration of his current term as president of the SJPOA has been common knowledge for quite sometime….it was a no Brainerd for Cortese to capitalise on a event that was CERTAIN to occur.
“Liccardo is no idiot. Knowing that his public safety policies are destined to fail, upon taking office, he will immediately begin selecting a suitable scapegoat and establishing a “chain of blame” so as to avoid accountability for his failures. He will also work to position himself to seize credit (whether he was involved with it or not) for anything that, if by some miracle, goes well.”
Sounds a lot like Obama
Perfectly Stated. San Jose has become a truly Pathetic place to be , But a great place to be from
Josh,
Were you having champagne with Sam because your first sentence is wrong. Might want to use spell check.
Haha Retired…your critiquing of someones poor sentence structure is rich. You structured your first sentence poorly as well. When you ask a question, leave a question mark (?). :-)
Glad to hear this! I wouldn’t concede now either when that many votes have been left uncounted, and the margin of difference is only 2,200.
Sam was disrespectful to voters by claiming victory BEFORE all the votes were counted. He should have followed Honda’s lead, and waited to hear the will of the voters.
You never know, if Dave wins, the press can get a nice shot of Dave holding the Murkey News article with Liccardo claiming victory on its cover like Truman did with Dewey! LOL!
Disgusted….its not a fight. Its arithmetic…and with 15,000 votes added its a net gain of over 300 for Liccardo…..your thought that its now a fight leads me to believe that you think its ok to try to manipulate the vote unethically to favor your candidate….if i am wrong – please correct me.
Personally I hope you get Liccardo cause we don’t want him back at the DA’s office.
Amen, that is why I took my pension and moved out of SJ to a much safer city.
No , I just simply don’t believe in ever giving in. Its a fight to the end , afterward you can shake hands and walk away with an earned respect for each other. But giving in , never going to be an option
Kathleen, still being a belly achin’ hater.
Sam wasn’t being disrespectful. His trending numbers could be telling him he’s going to pull a victory. We don’t know where those ballots are from. Maybe they are from districts he polled well in. You just don’t willy nilly claim victory unless you have a strong case internally. And he’s a pretty cautious person about such things.
If Sam sneezed you’d be screaming that he’s purposefully going around giving people the cold to keep them from voting.
Just admit you don’t like him and don’t concoct fake reasons to justify your hatred.
KATO- I think we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one. Despite your ridiculous claim, I don’t hate anyone. As a matter of fact, I respect anyone who runs for public office. Campaigns are exhausting, costly, and stressful.
Having said that, I stand by what I said, I disagree with Sam claiming victory without all the votes being counted because every vote counts. At least Honda has the integrity, and professionalism to be respectful of the process, even though he is further ahead in his race against his opponent than Sam is with Cortese.
It’s a tough call for me. Although I am a Liccardo supporter and can confidently say that most of these mail in votes are probably coming in from Sam’s base in West SJ and I understand the transition period is short as the new mayor is sworn in on New Year’s Day, this is an election that Dave Cortese has been looking forward to for his entire life, I say give him the dignity to wait until more votes come in and he determines it is right to concede.
It SUCKS losing a close election and I feel sympathy for whomever is in that position.
SJC- Agreed. If someone has never run for office, or run a campaign, or worked on one, they will never know what is involved. Volunteers work their butts off and deserve to know without a shadow of a doubt that their candidate either won or lost fair and square. Voters deserve the same piece of mind, so respecting the ENTIRE process is vital.
I didn’t work on anyone’s campaign this year, but I have in past elections. Seeing your candidate lose is tough. I wish them both the best of luck. Regardless of who wins or loses, nothing is stopping these two candidates from working together to make San Jose a better place to live.
Do we agree that he is not saying don’t count those votes? Yes. Do we agree that he is not asking to stop counting while he is leading? Yes.
So we agree.
He’s saying given the trend, I won.
Honda MIGHT be saying, this wasn’t even a race so I’m not acknowledging it.
Regardless, those votes will be counted whether we want them to or not.
And as far as I know, it is pretty standard protocol to announce victory and concede when the statistical trends point to an outcome.
I stand by my original statement, anything to muddy him up you will do and will continue to do. A partisan yoddler. This has nothing to do with candidates but your opposition to Sam and his policies.
Kato Tomahto: “I stand by my original statement, anything to muddy him up you will do and will continue to do. A partisan yoddler. This has nothing to do with candidates but your opposition to Sam and his policies.”
You can continue to make this personal if you choose, but it isn’t personal to me. It is a simple matter of respect for the process. Plain and simple.
May the best man win, and my the people’s choice prevail.
Kathleen and I are on different sides of the issue – she supports Cortese and I support Liccardo but I think she has been fair and pragmatic on her posts in this forum. She wishes the future mayor (whomever he may be) well…….but even I concede that Sam could have settled down a bit and waited a couple days to claim victory. You can still make all the calls and commence a transition without having to claim victory – everyone else knows what the current results are to deduce Sam is the odds-on favorite to be the next mayor………just chill on making public declarations until a few more votes are counted and it has time for the Cortese camp to let things sink in….and the process is for the losing candidate to contact the winning candidate. For the winning candidate to essentially call the losing candidate and beg for a concession is a little unnecessary.
What I like about Sam is his $2,095,000.00 give away for a sliver of land in his district for a train station that would deliver fans to a baseball stadium that was known to never get built for a baseball team that is never coming or a new franchise that will never be.
What was slick about Mr. Lic was his then allowing the drug rehab center in a $750,000,00 residential area next to a community park to stay and allowing the owner, a dentist living and working in Sunnyvale, to lease back the land, buildings and continue the business for a $1.00 a year until the stadium is built, so forever. Bottom line, his friend got $2,095,000.00 for his then worthless sliver of land and the neighbors got the expanded Rehab Center. Glad he will be your new mayor but I want every vote counted ten times over to be sure.
Some of the mailed in ballots have been counted today, and it’s going in Liccardo’s direction. If the same trend continues tomorrow, Cortese has to face the statistical mathematics and concede.
The Liccardos should take the Corteses to dinner at Original Joe’s once this election is over and that should become SJ Mayoral post-election tradition from here on out. Two decent couples who worked extremely hard in this election.
SJC- Agreed!
agreed
What a wonderful idea. The Liccardos and the Corteses going to Original Joe’s for dinner. Liccardo should drive the couples there. I think a late dinner, maybe around 11:00 PM or so. Sam should park his car in that little pay parking lot on the east side of First Street, just a little south of Joe’s. It’s that parking lot with the little shack illuminated by a single light bulb at the far end. It might be a little dark as they walk through the lot but I’m sure it will be fine. As long as they stay back from that nearby public toilet, since the junkies tend to get upset when someone disturbs them while they are tying off and shooting up in there.
Oh course, they’ll have to make sure they don’t wander too far south and end up in the area of Second Street, between San Salvador and Reed streets. The prostitutes tend to crowd the sidewalk a bit and they can sometimes get a little rowdy with each other if there isn’t enough room on the corners or enough customers for everyone. And I hope they will steer clear of those 2 motels there on Second near Williams. Those girls in the short shorts, tank tops and high heels aren’t always as nice as they initially try to be. SJPD used to have a Street Crimes Unit that would control all this activity but since staffing has dropped to nearly nothing, the Unit was disbanded and now the prostitutes just sort of police themselves, on the honor system.
I’m sure Sam’s car will still be there when they all get back. Let’s hope so anyway since with abysmal staffing levels, SJPD doesn’t much have an Auto Theft Unit anymore anyway but maybe the police might still be able to get the frame back; someday.
At least the odds of a wino, doper or pimp sitting on any one particular car and scratching or tampering with it is still fairly low. Of course, before staffing dropped to nothing such that patrol officers no longer have time to do it, the odds of punks loitering in parking lots was even lower, when cops had the time to do walk-throughs of some of the parking areas downtown.
If Sam’s car is still there,but the window is smashed out and the stereo is missing, he can always call the police. Any patrol officer can just finish up the domestic violence call; the simple assault call; the traffic accident call; and check out the report of possible gunshots at Kelly Park, all of which had probably just been pending for a couple hours themselves, and be over to check out Sam’s car burglary in less than 2 or 3 hours. He just needs to make sure he tells the 911 operator that he is the mayor since SJPD doesn’t usually send an officer out on car burglaries anymore, due to staffing, at least not for the “little people”. Many of these types of reports are just taken online, since the insurance company won’t generally cover your damage/theft claim without some type of police report. It’s just as well since there aren’t enough detectives to do any follow-up on burglaries anymore anyway.
I think a post-election “reality dinner” should become a tradition; the later at night, the better. With all he’s done so far for public safety, Sam should feel perfectly safe drawing out cash from an ATM machine downtown at night too.
Although you seem to wish ill will and harm to our elected officials, fortunately not everyone shares your beliefs. The bitterness that you have where you believe that either of these two candidates dont want to reduce crime is not grounded in reality.
Whomever is elected will end up negotiating with the unions. Sam is not the same as Reed as Dave is not the same as Campos, but we all have our allies….stop painting everyone with a broad brush. Give whomever the mayor-elect is a chance in a post-Reed San Jose.
SJC , Im just asking a question , but I’m curious as to how Liccardo is any different than Reed ? seems to me that they have literally been joined at the hip .
Mr. SJC, sir. From your previous posts, I can see that you are a thoughtful and decent person and, as such persons are often want to be, perhaps a bit naive in matters relating to the reality of crime. That is absolutely not a put down. You may also have misinterpreted my post. There is no bitterness, only sadness. It is not a diatribe, but is instead, a lament.
Prior to Reed, San Jose was rated as the #1 safest big city in the US. After Reed’s tenure, San Jose has slipped to #4. If you compare just violent crime alone, without factoring in overall crime, San Jose is actually #5. This is according to Forbes. There was a time when one of San José’s big attractions was the fact that, unlike San Francisco and some other Bay Area cities, a person could enjoy downtown San Jose at night without having to worry about being mugged at an ATM or accosted by drunks, prostitutes and dopers and be reasonably secure in the knowledge that their car would be undamaged and where they parked it when they returned.
I’m sure Reed and Liccardo don’t want to take responsibility for the rise in violent crime but the fact is their policies, most notably Measure B, eviscerated and demoralized what was once arguably the best big city police department in the country. Where once there was a deluge of applicants trying to join, now SJPD can’t even fill half an Academy class. The PD is no longer able to proactively make arrests and prevent street crime. They can only document it now after it happens and hope those few still in Investigations can pull it from under a pile of other case files and work on it a bit.
You mentioned that Liccardo is not Reed. Perhaps it was the fact that Liccardo sat on Reed’s lap the whole time,, with Reed’s hand up his back and that while Liccardo was talking, Reed tried not to move his lips, that fooled me. Liccardo enthusiastically supported Reed on Measure B. Can you think of a single substantive issue where Liccardo did not support Reed? My memory isn’t perfect but I can’t think of one.
I don’t wish harm to anyone. I would step between a bullet and Mr. Cortese, his wife or anyone dear to him and I don’t know any cop who would do otherwise. And while I believe a bloody nose would, at many levels, do Liccardo a lot of good, I wouldn’t allow any serious harm to come to him either.
However, if you think that Liccardo has any chance of reaching even mild détente with the POA, you are sorely mistaken. The cops will NEVER trust him; not ever. You can freeze it (while shopping for baseball stadiums), but you can’t cut a cop’s pay by 10% thus taking 10% of their family’s monthly grocery money and quality of life away, and expect them to forget it. Liccardo could repeal Measure B tomorrow and give them a big raise and while they would appreciate it, the cops will NEVER trust him.
On the other hand, from his time on the City Council and as vice mayor, Cortese has already demonstrated that he is willing and able to work with the POA. While the Police Officers Association knows that Cortese may occasionally have to do things the POA won’t like, they trust him. Trust is what mends relationships, not empty, politically expedient promises from smarmy, elitist rich boys from Saratoga.
J.S.,
You seem like a thoughtful guy – I understand where you are coming from but the election is over, my friend. I dont know what official vote count will come out too but probably come this weekend San Jose will have a mayor-elect and I think the first hundred days will say a whole heckuva lot.
For City Council, there are two sets of coalitions – labor and non-labor…doesnt mean its right, thats just the way it is. Liccardo chose to ally himself w Reed, Cortese chose to ally himself with Xavier Campos and Shirikawa. Did Liccardo voting w Reed mean that hed lead in the same way – not it doesnt, but he was following his lead. I happen to not be a fan of Reed…he was tooo divisive, but politics make strange bedfellows. I wouldnt say Xavier would be half the mayor Dave may be, but Dave endorsed him. Reed endorsed Sam and they arent the same.
Once whoever is in the big chair has a chance to get settled in lets see how things go before judging – the election is over. Reed doesnt negotiate – Sam will. Sam endorsed Ash Kalra for crying out loud, he has built friendships – Reed is pretty much a loner.
Ps- i have it on high authority if cortese was elected he woulda turned his back on the unions so quickly, they wouldnt know what hit them
Also J.S. nothing in your diatribe said how wonderful the Chicken Parm is at OJ’s…if you are a true San Josean you would come correct on that :-)
Mr. SJC, your points are well taken and there is no sense belaboring the point further, The election is over and unfortunately so too may be San Jose’s chance of ever regaining its rating as the #1 safest big city in the US..
I have little doubt that your high authority is providing reliable information. The POA never had or has unconditional trust in any politician. The difference between Cortese and Liccardo though is that Cortese tends to stab the POA in the front.
And another thing, “Chicken Parm”? Ehgads man, everyone knows that at OJ’s, it begins and ends with the ravioli.. There was a time when downtown San Jose offered great food, easy parking, and had a police department that kept the riff-raff in check so people could confidently walk to restaurants and entertainment spots in safety. While Reed and Liccardo, et al, have pretty well destroyed the latter, at least they have left my ravioli alone. Yes, you can still get a good meal at OJ’s, you just have to be more careful getting to and from your car and watching where you park.
I’ve met both candidates. The are both great San Jose Citizens. Dave is a class act. I believe his stance is taken out of context on this. His quote reasonably sums it up… “Although I congratulated Sam Liccardo this morning on a great campaign, this race is still too close to call,” Cortese said Wednesday. “I’m confident in the democratic process and want everyone to understand that every vote does indeed count.”
Don’t think Cortese really wanted to win as badly as Liccardo. Didn’t see him out there pressing the flesh or flashing his smile like Liccardo. His biggest smiles are now that it looks like he is going to lose. He is probably relieved he does not have to do this.
Funny. I was thinking the very same thing. He is probably relieved that he may not inherit the mess that this city is in. It will be a HUGE job to correct and I don’t think liccardo can do it. He will NEVER, EVER have the trust of the employees–EVER, and that is what it will take to repair the relationship.
SJC said” Kathleen and I are on different sides of the issue – she supports Cortese and I support Liccardo but I think she has been fair and pragmatic on her posts in this forum. She wishes the future mayor (whomever he may be) well…….but even I concede that Sam could have settled down a bit and waited a couple days to claim victory. You can still make all the calls and commence a transition without having to claim victory – everyone else knows what the current results are to deduce Sam is the odds-on favorite to be the next mayor………just chill on making public declarations until a few more votes are counted and it has time for the Cortese camp to let things sink in….and the process is for the losing candidate to contact the winning candidate. For the winning candidate to essentially call the losing candidate and beg for a concession is a little unnecessary.”
Thank you SJC. I agree with everything you’ve said.
Sam has a lot to learn about grace, professionalism, and collaboration. I understand that he is anxious to get started but if he is to become our next Mayor, he needs to be inclusive, show respect for the process/his opponent/Police/Fire, and show professionalism/grace in his dealings with our community.
I’ll be honest, deciding who to vote for Mayor was very difficult for me. I don’t agree with or support some of the things Dave has done while on the Board of Supervisors.
I don’t agree with or support a lot of Sam’s actions while he has been on the Council either.
Having said that, here is what I had to weigh in my decision:
Sam went out of his way for my murdered friend’s family when they reached out to him for support. (My friend was murdered in Sam’s district.) He and his staff volunteered on their OWN off time, to help circulate fliers from the SJPD to find individuals being sought in connection with the case. I’m deeply grateful to Sam for doing that.
Dave has a beautiful kind heart too. He helped my friend’s family too. Dave has always worked to improve the lives of children and families, something I deeply respect him for.
In the end and at the end of the day, I went with Dave because I honestly believe he can/could heal the divide in our City between Police/Fire and employees, and start bringing people together. I do not believe Sam can do that. I hope he proves me wrong because I’m tired of seeing this discourse and division. Our community and public safety is in dire need of healing. Here’s hoping we get it!
San Jose is a great City, with incredible employees, public servants, and citizens. It is time to move forward, TOGETHER~
Again, thank you SJC. Good luck to you, and your chosen candidate! :-)
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Santa-Clara-County-Registrar-of-Voters-IT-Head-Left-Post-on-Eve-of-Election-Day-281856041.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_BAYBrand
Slowest count I have seen…that’s for sure. IT Head webgeeks move around all the time. I hope whichever replacement we get is able to speed up the process somehow. But hope the guy gets his personal stuff sorted out.
Kathleen, I have seen you post this link here and a few other places…whomever is elected, no need to try to delegitimize this election for that person. The last thing we need is for conspiracy theorists on either side to weaken someone we hope helps us turn the page from the Reed Era – which we botg agree is divisive enough.
SJC- This issue is much bigger than who wins this election. My concern is with the Registrar of Voters and what is going on in their office. There have been a lot of mistakes made by their office, and I think people have a right to know what is going on.
Oh ya it is a consensus on ALL sides that the ROV is a 19th century antiquated piece of crap and needs to be eliminated. You have my agreement there – Abraham Lincoln’s election went by quicker than this one.
SJC- Something really needs to be done about this office. Voters are posting everywhere on Facebook that their ballots haven’t been counted. Hundreds of ballots were returned last year for insufficient postage, the list of mistakes is becoming outrageous!
It is bad enough that voter turn out is low, but these kinds of mistakes are just not acceptable. Not in this day and age!
Amen to that. I know a lot of Liccardo and Cortese voters who felt the same way…maybe one issue all San Joseans can unite around.
Have you heard the news? The guy in charge of the voting has disappeared. Oops all the bogus vote counts since the voter approval of the San Jose City Hall through the Measure B vote were rigged. Wow!
Wouldn’t that be something if the vote counts actually were rigged? Scary thought.
This is what you conspiracy theorist do…if Cortese had the 3600 vote lead…you wouldnt be calling this into question
SJC, if you are responding to me, I was simply responding to what NATE wrote. Did you read it? I have no idea about any of what he wrote, but it would be a scary thought. Just sayin’.
PS–It would be a scary thought no matter who was leading. Doesn’t matter who the candidate is. I would have said the same thing.
SJC, sir. If Cortese had the 3600 vote lead and there were still thousands of votes left to count, he wouldn’t be declaring victory. That is not a conspiracy, it is proper etiquette and class.
Of course, some people are just not as arrogant or have such a strong feeling of entitlement as others. I’m surprised Liccardo felt there had to be an election at all before he could claim victory. And why not? Seems everything else has been handed to him all his life.
The next mayor takes over in a month and a half…we agree Sam was overzealoua in declaring victory but even if my candidate was losing by 3647 votes and with over 30,000 votes counted for mayor had only gained 26 votes for mayor – I would hope he concedes rather than drag this out….the voting turnout in SJ was abysmal – but aftee thousanda of vallots have been counted, the vote gap hasnt really changed at all.
Nate- All of us should be focused on WHY the head of IT walked out. People don’t just walk off the job for no reason. While I have no proof of this, I think he left his job out of sheer frustration with his superiors, not because fraudulent vote counting was going on. From all that I’ve read about him, he was very good at his job. It is not unusual for a dedicated employee to get fed up and walk off a job when their input is ignored.
I also heard that the system the County uses to count votes is outdated. If that is the case, that needs to be corrected. The problem is that as long as the Registrar of Voters keeps claiming everything is fine, we can’t fix the problem.
SJC- “I know a lot of Liccardo and Cortese voters who felt the same way…maybe one issue all San Joseans can unite around.” May be we have finally found some common ground! :-)
I say YES! Let’s band together and demand that they do a better job.
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_26893145/santa-clara-county-election-commissioner-asks-inquiry-after
> Ps- i have it on high authority if cortese was elected he woulda turned his back on the unions so quickly, they wouldnt know what hit them
Interesting.
Who knows if this is true or not.
But I think it is hugely significant.
There was very little to distinguish Liccardo and Cortese except Cortese’s close association with the SJPOA. And at the end of the day, the SJPOA (and their insolent supporters) were just too much for voters to stomach.
The story about SJPOA leader Unland discouraging officers and recruits from joining the SJPD and to go somewhere else sent an unmistakable message that the SJPOA (and Cortese) really didn’t care about San Jose.
The report that Cortese wanted Unland to step down suggests that Cortese realized that the SJPOA was a boat anchor for his campaign.
I suspect that in the privacy of his thoughts, Cortese realizes that he coulda, shoulda been mayor if he’d just picked his friends better.
Hey here is about a 2 year old scoop for you: Unland will be retiring from THE SJPD in January 2015 which coincides coincidentally with the expiration of his current term as SJPOA President. Cortese’s statement that change was needed was a PR stunt that had the desired affect = people who don’t know any better (like YOU J.R.) applauded.
Throwing awful union people under the bus for political gain…yep, happens all the time.
The SCC Registrar of Voters updated the unofficial semi-final results a few minutes ago. I guess they get overtime pay.
Choice Votes Percent
SAM LICCARDO 80,448 51.16%
DAVE CORTESE 76,801 48.84%
Total 157,249
157,249 votes cast in a mayoral election in a city of over a million people. That isn’t sad, it’s pathetic. With 80,448 votes cast for him, in a city of over a million people, I’m sure Liccardo will now not only claim victory but declare he has a mandate as well. I think I will try to cheer myself up by watching the ending of “Ol’ Yeller” and imagining I’m a dog.