Santa Clara County school board member Rosemary Kamei is the first new San Jose council candidate of the New Year, seeking to represent District 1 in West San Jose.
“After careful consideration, I am jumping in,” Kamei told San Jose Inside.
Rosemary is vice president of innovation and former chief operating officer at Silicon Valley Education Foundation.
In announcing her council candidacy, Kamei said she has the endorsement of current District 1 Councilmember Chappie Jones, who can’t seek re-election because of term limits. She said she also has the endorsement of 28th District Assemblymember Evan Low.
She previously endorsed two mayoral candidates, Raul Peralez and Cindy Chavez.
Two other previously announced candidates for the District 1 seat are Planning Commissioner Justin Lardinois and Ramona Arellano Snyder, manager of a volunteer program at the Mineta San Jose International Airport.
As a trustee of the county Office of Education, Kamei represents Area 3, which includes Cambrian, Campbell Union, Luther Burbank, Moreland, Union and Campbell Union High School districts and portions of San Jose Unified and Santa Clara Unified. She was re-elected to a second four-year school board term in 2020. She was formerly a director of the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
Kamei previously served as executive director of Building Futures Now in East Palo Alto and is the former director of fund Development at Silicon Valley Education Foundation.
A Bronx, N.Y., native, Kamei also previously served as vice president of development and senior manager at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. She studied at the University of Wisconsin before moving to California.
She resides in West San Jose with her husband Tom. She has two grown children: Ellen, a Mountain View council member who served as mayor in 2021, and Jonathan, an electrical engineer,
The city primary is June 7.
District 1 is the council district whose boundaries were least affected by last month’s redistricting. The district includes West San José west of Highways 17 & 880 and borders the cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Santa Clara and Saratoga.
lifer politicians give you the same as you have right now
crazy high rents
$2000/sqft “affordable” housing development
low pay
bad roads and highest in the nation gas tax
10%ish sales tax
open space as far as the eye can see while poor people double up in the oldest, moldiest, most chaotic apartment farms in the state in underfunded school districts even though they are in the “Capital of Silicon Valley”
$2M starter homes
racially unequal educational outcomes that shock the conscience in the heart of the most progressive part of the most progressive state in the US
transit-adjacent development that evicts independent retailers and then pays “consultants” with the payouts negotiated to help them start over
outrageously expensive and useless transit
Government funded NGO CEO $500K salaries
20 People in the housing department tracking 5% rent increases and 10000 Just Cause Evictions a year, being paid by tenants via fees collected by landlords
kids “learning” in front of screens and not seeing other kids smiles for over two years
stifling regulation and mandates on mom and pops businesses
killer bike lanes
evaporating if not completely eliminated middle class
but by all means, keep doing you Bay Area and vote for the same people that lead you down this hole…
sad, but this is what you vote for, this is what you deserve…