Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo's hopes of filling the seat vacated by retiring Rep. Anna Eshoo were energized this week by results from a weekend poll showing the former mayor topping a field of eight possible opponents.

If no other candidate emerges, Mayor Matt Mahan will be the first unopposed mayoral candidate since the first popular election of a San Jose mayor in 1966.

Independent political action committees were big spenders for the 2022 mayoral candidates.

Chavez is the architect of many of our city and county’s key policies on crime, homelessness, housing and government accountability. The problem is those policies are failing. They don’t need to be defended; they need to be changed.

As the 2022 election season enters its final quarter, the San Francisco 49ers – whose money boosted prior campaigns in both San Jose this spring and Santa Clara in 2020 – may be staying on the sidelines.

The contests for mayor of San Jose, Santa Clara County sheriff, all four of the contested San Jose City Council races and the one contested county supervisor race will have runoff elections in November with the top two finishers.

Cindy Chavez had 39% of the vote, with 33,596 votes compared to 32.3% for Matt Mahan, with 27,751 votes, according to preliminary unofficial returns reported by the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Elections Division.