A crowd of San Jose elected officials, community members and business leaders packed into the rustic Studio by Terra Amico Wednesday night to celebrate Councilwoman Dev Davis’ 2020 campaign kickoff.
The D6 rep faces Green Party candidate Jake Tonkel, transit activist Andrew Boone and 18-year-old Marshall Woodmansee in her bid for a second term.
Davis’ guests at the midweek shindig—ex-San Jose Vice Mayor Pat Sausedo, former D6 Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio and Silicon Valley Organization President Matt Mahood, among others—dined on a spread of cheese and crackers, shrimp, fruit and ornately decorated cookies with “Dev” spelled out in icing.
Some desserts decorated for the occasion. (Photo by Grace Hase)
A number of Davis’ business-aligned council colleagues joined the soiree as well, including Mayor Sam Liccardo and D9’s Pam Foley, D10’s Johnny Khamis and D4’s Lan Diep—all whom are endorsing her re-election.
“I have been so continually impressed that she’s had such courage of her convictions to stand up even when it wasn’t popular to say, ‘I know this is the right thing for the community I represent,’” Liccardo told the crowd. “I am so grateful to be serving with a council member with the courage of Dev Davis.”
“She’s been a thoughtful individual,” Diep told San Jose Inside. “She reads and she considers her options. She doesn’t just close her eyes and blindly vote. I appreciate that about her very much.”
Councilmember @DevDavisCA has been a great leader for our city and I’m happy to call her a friend. If you’re in District 6, please support her! #SJD6 pic.twitter.com/PNkNvYsTHy
— Lân Diệp (@LTDiep) October 17, 2019
Davis also revealed her policy platform Wednesday night, vowing to tackle housing, homelessness, traffic and crime. “We need to work together to solve these issues,” Davis said. “That’s the only way we’re going to overcome these obstacles—by working together so that we can build a San Jose that is even better than it is right now, a San Jose where our children can afford to live and not live with us.”
On her campaign website Davis elaborated on these priorities, saying she wants to advocate for LGBTQ-friendly affordable housing, finish the safety improvements on Coe and Campbell avenues and ensure that Fire Station 37 is completed on time.
A number of other council conservative-to-centrist contenders showed up to the kickoff as well, including D10 candidate Matt Mahan, D8 candidate Jim Zito and D2 candidate Jonathan Fleming. “I’m here because Dev is a fantastic person,” Fleming told San Jose Inside. “I think that she’s an honest person full of integrity, fiscally responsible and we need more people like her on the council.”
How can anyone say she is thoughtful ? She put on the Council Agenda for March 26, 2019 approval of Hope Village before informing the community and performing environmental clearance for the site. The first and only community meeting was scheduled for March 18. This was a horrible betrayal and trying to shove this down our throats. I hope a centrist or conservative jumps in, we have enough candidates on the left.
I fully agree! This Republican experiment was a failure from the start. Dev has been totally absent from the district and has no sense of the issues facing her constituents.
> saying she wants to advocate for LGBTQ-friendly affordable housing,
Why can’t the LGBTQ’s just get in line with normal people. They never tire of screeching how normal they are.
ENOUGH IDENTITY POLITICS ALREADY! ! !
Her ONLY qualification seems to be that she is marginally less compromised than any of the other losers.
San Jose and California local politics is S-O-O-O-O awful.
To paraphrase your dear MAGALeader, if you don’t like it you can leave!
> if you don’t like it you can leave!
You’re not being inclusive. Progressives are supposed to be inclusive.
You’re a failure as a progressive.
Probably, you’re a failure in other ways, too. You’re received all the attention you’re entitled to.
Crime in the WG bubble and another term of doing NOTHING! Im sure the astute SJ voters will keep the tradition alive in voting for politicians that will not improve their quality of life. Liberal identity politics are alive and well….
Won’t be voting for Davis again. She has been a disappointment.
Anyone but Andrew Boone. From his comments on Facebook – he is not all together mentally. Just a bizarre guy, to say the least.
She says she wants more affordable housing, but votes in lock-step on every housing issue which increases costs and regulatory burdens on the actual people who provide housing in San Jose. Dev, if you want affordable housing, unleash the market to provide it. We cannot have a set of rules, regulations, fee structures, etc which work only in the favor of a small handful of well-connected (i.e. corrupt Sam Liccardo’s rich buddies) developers and corporate landlords. There are thousands of small Mom & Pop housing providers in San Jose who are slowly being shut out and pushed out of being housing providers.
At the rate the City Council (including Dev Davis) are going, San Joseans will soon have only a very few, very large rental housing providers to chose from.
Dev Davis has not been the small property owners’ friend. When convenience calls, she casts her vote for virtue signalling, first and foremost.
> Dev, if you want affordable housing, unleash the market to provide it.
True dat!
> At the rate the City Council (including Dev Davis) are going, San Joseans will soon have only a very few, very large rental housing providers to chose from.
The OFFICIAL, OPENLY DISCUSSED agenda around city hall is to discourage single family housing and “solve the housing crisis” with high-rise, high-density housing.
This WILL CHANGE THE DEMOGRAPHY of San Jose.
When voters won’t vote the way the politicians want them to vote, get rid of the old voters and bring in new voters.