Progressive activist Kimberly Ellis made a mad dash to San Jose to administer the oath of office at the Monday evening ceremony.

A candidate for Santa Clara County supervisor was censured by the local Democratic Central Committee over a sexual harassment claim.

Will quiet bias keep LGBTQ candidates out of office, or has shifting consciousness made the South Bay a safe place to run a gay campaign?

Watching returns come in from the special election for San Jose’s District 4 council seat, Steve Kline noted there was something wrong. “There are too many spoiled ballots, “ he said.

The special election to succeed former San Jose Councilman Kansen Chu—and by extension his temporarily appointed fill-in Margie Matthews—takes greater shape next week, when candidates must file their first campaign disclosure forms for 2015. But what have they been doing in the meantime?

A report going before the San Jose Ethics Commission is expected to clear Sam Liccardo’s mayoral campaign of breaking city fundraising laws, save for one count of improper disclosure.

Complaints allege that Sam Liccardo solicited donations before he could legally start fundraising and failed to record in-kind contributions.

Turning the page on 2012, it’s also time to close out the final chapter on emails between politicos and Barbara Marshman, the opinionated opinion editor of the Mercury News.

San Jose-bred Pierluigi Oliverio works tirelessly for his constituents and is fully immersed in his district’s business. While sometimes too idealistic for his own good, his independence and intelligence make him a strong asset on the dais. Willing to speak his mind even when it has a political cost is rare in local politics, where compromise and backscratching can sometimes lead to lowest common denominator policy making.

Dysfunction within the Gay Pride Celebration Committee of San Jose could put the city’s annual LGBT Pride parade in jeopardy, according to a report published Thursday by the Bay Area Reporter. Meanwhile, a key issue in the fight for the District 6 City Council seat revolves around the fate of the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center. Incumbent Pierluigi Oliverio put out a memo the same day as the report asking that the city-owned property be listed as the last sold by the successor agency of the now-defunct Redevelopment Agency.

Santa Clara County’s Democratic Central Committee held a meeting Thursday to sign off on its endorsements for this June’s election, and things got weird. Factions formed when it came time voice support for candidates in each district of the San Jose City Council, and the choices showed a surprising split in the house of labor.

San Jose Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio says he didn’t raise campaign money at the end of December out of respect for the holidays. At this point, he’ll also be able to solemnly respect Easter, Passover and Cinco de Mayo. Campaign disclosure forms go public later this week, but Oliverio proudly leaked that he raised the maximum amount of money allowed for the District 6 primary—$121,000—in just the last two and a half months.

Today is President’s Day, which means no one is working at City Hall. And because the national holiday falls on a Monday, as usual, this means the City Council won’t be meeting until next week. After taking a quick look at the committee agendas, it doesn’t seem like much of anything important will happen this week. But there was one item about a newcomer to the District 6 City Council race that garnered some attention.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed makes no secret of his distaste for the union-aligned sentiments of some City Council members. And while he may or may not have beat the bushes for challengers in the upcoming election, rumors suggesting just that may have something to them. This weekend Reed will open his home to host a campaign kick-off fundraiser for Tam Truong, the San Jose police detective who favors pension overhaul like the mayor and is challenging Kansen Chu in District 4.

Some residents in San Jose were surprised to receive a holiday card last month from Steve Kline, who is running for a City Council seat in District 6 against incumbent Pierluigi Oliverio. Kline says the card was nothing more than him and his husband wishing a happy holidays to a few of their close friends and neighbors. How many friends and neighbors? Oh, Kline’s ballpark figure is about ... 1,000.

Steve Kline—a lawyer, former political consultant and current city activist—recently sent a letter to the San Jose City Council asking for a full hearing on the land option agreement with Lew Wolff that gives the A’s owner a sweet deal for a future ballpark. It was a shot over the bow, not a lethal attempt to kill the stadium.