What’s in a candidate statement? According to critics of Santa Clara City Council contender Robert Mezzetti, a lie.

Mezzetti, who is running for an open seat in the city’s sixth district, claims in his candidate statement to voters that he’s lived in Santa Clara for more than 50 years, adding “My roots and commitment to Santa Clara are deep.”

But a small dive into public voting, real estate and divorce records show he may have fudged his housing history as he vies for votes in a heated race. Those records show that for about a decade inside those 50 years, Mezzetti lived in San Jose, where his law office is also based.

Today Mezzetti is registered to vote in Santa Clara’s District 6, according to recent voter rolls.

Mezzetti later acknowledged the time away from the city in a Facebook post, saying “I have lived in Santa Clara (in what is now District 6) for all but 10 years of my life. I am 65 years old. I live in the family home purchased by my parents in 1955.”

Santa Clara’s election is heating up with four seats up for grabs and a potential upset on the majority of council allies that Mayor Lisa Gillmor has enjoyed in recent years as the city goes head-to-head with the San Francisco 49ers over rent payments, transparency, curfew disputes and everything in between.

In District 6, three candidates are after the seat left open by Gillmor ally Debi Davis: Anthony Becker, Gautam Barve and Robert Mezzetti.

Becker has positioned himself, along with a crew of candidates in other districts, as the answer to shaking up the mayor’s stronghold on city decisions. Barve is the lone republican in the race. Mezzetti, meanwhile, is seen as a Gillmor’s ally. Documents show he has offered legal services to Gillmor and she appraised some of Mezzetti’s properties during his divorce.