It was a family affair at Magdalena Carrasco’s election night party. The former First 5 official and about 60 of her closest friends and family gathered at her campaign headquarters on Story Road to watch as the poll results rolled in.
At 8:30pm her results, which were projected onto the wall, were neck and neck with Xavier Campos. However, that didn’t stop the mother of four from offering thanks to all her family and supporters before celebrating.
“Thank you to my husband for being a single father. He’s been raising four children entirely by himself. I’m lucky to be your wife, honey,” she said, her voice cracking.
The crowd, who included Elsie Aranda, chair of the East Valley/680 Neighborhood Action Coalition, cheered their support.
The room was packed with kids sucking on juice pouches as they waited in line to enjoy the pasta salad and nachos from the eclectic potluck buffet. Carrasco took Fly aside and especially pointed out a brobdingnagian green and white cake that read, “Congrats Abby and Sebastian.”
The overwhelming confection featured photos of her daughter and nephew in honor of their kindergarten graduation, which Carrasco had attended just that morning.
Wearing a black and white printed tunic, slacks, large hoop earrings and pointy black high heels, Carrasco was fussing more over the unmistakable finger concaves in the cake’s frosting than the poll results.
Ironically one of Xavier Campos’ campaign mailers said something about “Mother knows best” referring to his own mother’s endorsement of his candidacy.
Smart District 5 voters realized why should we vote for Campos based on his mother’s ideas when we can vote for a real mother in the race?
Magdalena has been called the “outsider” by the Labor forces behind Campos—yet it was those very same labor leaders and workers at Campos’ election night celebration IN DOWNTOWN SAN JOSE at some swanky hotel. He doesn’t even like to be seen in Eastside San Jose and the district he thinks he is born to represent on election night!!
I’ll take a potlucking, true to her roots city councilperson in Carrasco over the fast car, fancy suit too good for the ‘hood Campos anyday! Thank God so will so many other of my district 5 neighbors!
Good show Magdalena!
The absentee voters seem to have liked Ms. Carrasco even more than the people who voted on Election Day. Absentee vote are STILL being counted, as of Friday, at 2:31 pm, she is only 14 votes behind Xavier Campos.
I’m sure she’ll win the run-off in November, and I think she’ll make a better Councilman than her opponent (although frankly, she’s still too much a part of the cozy political insider establishment to have been my first choice on Tuesday…but still better than the corrupt and/or incompetent Xavier Campos).
in another post by FLY:“The South Bay Labor Council and its legions were out in full force in the lobby of the swank California Theater for political siblings Xavier and Nora Campos. Familiar faces sampled the fancy spread of sesame chicken, quiche, brie and fruit while watching results roll in around a large computer screen mounted by the entrance.”
The SBLC and other union folks pretend to be for the little guy, but they have a fancy party for district 5 people well outside of D-5. Limousine liberals at their finest.
‘Wearing a black and white printed tunic, slacks, large hoop earrings and pointy black high heels, Carrasco was…’
Uh, please tell me again why it matters at all what Carrasoco was wearing? Does it somehow indicate her level of competence in fulfilling the role of a City Council Member? I’m going to guess NO, it does NOT. And as a side note, I could not help but notice there was no comment in the article on the duds the Mayor (who was prominently displayed in the picture) was sporting, is that perhaps because he’s a male?
Let’s please drop the stereotypical sexism in the articles and focus on what matters: A candidate’s qualifications.
Tina
Yeah, Fly, you didn’t report on what Tom Campbell or Larry Pegram or Jeff Rosen were wearing at their parties.
I’m sure if Mayor Reed had been wearing a black and white printed tunic, slacks, large hoop earrings and pointy black high heels, that would have gotten equal press. I think he would really look quite attractive in that outfit, especially if he showed a little cleavage.
While this may be slightly off-topic, I have a question about the relative population of the various San Jose City Council districts. In theory, they are all supposed to be of equivalent population, correct?
According to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters,* a total of 7,532 people voted in the District 5 City Council election…as compared to 7,284 people who voted for Don Rocha alone, in the District 9 City Council election (Rocha received 43.16 percent of the total number of votes cast in District 9 ie., 16,878). And District 9 is comprised of 65 precincts, while District 5 is comprised of just 40 precincts.
I suppose its possible these two districts have equivalent populations, but that District 9 voters simply turn out to vote at a rate of over 224 percent the rate of voters in District 5, but I’m frankly skeptical. District 3 presents a similar dynamic, with just 38 precincts, and a total of 7,502 votes cast (in fairness, the District 3 race wasn’t as competitive or noted a race as the ones is Districts 5 and 9).
And if you look at the results in District 10, from June 3, 2008,** you find that there are 66 precincts, with a total of 12,757 votes cast (despite it being a minor race where incumbent Nancy Pyle wracked up over 89 percent of the vote).
I’m not saying something fishy is going on here…but I think its fair to ask whether something just might be. I get the feeling that the area comprising Districts 9 and 10 really ought to be three districts, and that between Districts 3,5, and 7, there should really only be two districts.
Anyone have any thoughts?
*http://www.sccgov.org/elections/results/jun082010/
**http://www.sccgov.org/elections/results/june2008/