Patricia Martinez-Roach

Sources: FBI Investigates County Ambulance Provider Rural/Metro

Fly has learned that the FBI has been investigating county ambulance provider Rural/Metro for its creative political activity. The investigation’s scope is not fully known, but sources say investigators have been looking into the ambulance company’s connection to Pacific Printing, a political mail house aligned with local organized labor.

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Cindy Chavez Wins County Supervisor Election, PR Flack Continues Media Blacklist

Election nights have morphed into a game of cat and mouse between Fly and Stacey Hendler Ross, PR flack for the South Bay Labor Council. In the county supervisor primary and then the runoff, which took place Tuesday, Hendler Ross has taken to her new role as bouncer. No more than a minute into this week’s election night party for new county Supervisor Cindy Chavez, Hendler Ross grabbed a San Jose Inside reporter by the arm and tried to escort him out before realizing she should use her words. Noting that it was a private party and only “legitimate media” could enter, Hendler Ross also gave an SJI intern the boot, once again stifling the free press. Or so she thought.

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Alvarado Files Papers for Supervisor Race

Teresa Alavarado made it official Thursday, when she filed papers and paid the $1,430.31 fee to run for the vacant District 2 county supervisor seat. San Jose Inside just so happened to be checking up on Registrar of Voters records when Alvarado and her campaign manager, Peter Allen, walked into the office.

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Nguyen Won’t Run for Supervisor Seat

Madison Nguyen has ended her soul-search over a run for George Shirakawa Jr.‘s vacant county supervisor seat, deciding she’ll focus on the 2014 mayoral race in San Jose—despite some of her colleagues prodding her to get into the special election. That leaves a field that will likely soon include Cindy Chavez.

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Shirakawa Scandal Dishonors Community, Future Minority Candidates

As an active resident in Santa Clara County’s District 2, I, like so many others, am ashamed of George Shirakawa. The former supervisor blatantly violated the trust of the most vulnerable residents of our district. His deplorable actions have led this district, which suffers from high rates of poverty, gangs, drug issues, under-education and lack of healthcare, to have absolutely no representation until August.

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The Super County Supervisor Race

The county’s four remaining supervisors voted Tuesday to hold a million dollar special election on June 4 to fill the seat of soon-to-be-jailbird George Shirakawa Jr. If only there was an app for that. Considering the job pays six figures, provides a CalPERS pension, comes with all kinds of perks—assuming you don’t exceed a $3,000-a-year local meal allowance with your P-Card (really?!)—and could last 12 years if all three terms are completed, there should be no shortage of entrants.

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Lame Duck School Board Scrambles to Appoint New Member

Will school board and council loser Patricia Martinez-Roach, shown at left with unsuccessful council candidates Brian O’Neill and Steve Klein and labor leader Cindy Chavez in June, get appointed to Alum Rock as a consolation prize?

Alum Rock Union School District trustees are making moves to fill a vacancy left by Darcie Green’s departure. School board watchers believe the existing majority has settled on one of two candidates: Patricia Martinez-Roach, who lost two elections this year; and Javier Gonzalez, who was passed over for a county education post. The apparent fast-tracking of the process has created a firestorm in the community.

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Story of the Week: District 8 City Council Race Approaches $1 Million in Spending

Thursday marked the last filing deadline for campaign disclosure forms and independent committee expenditures before the Nov. 6 election. This means the next 11 days will feature a flurry of campaign spending, the details of which won’t be known until after people go to the polls. One thing that can be said for certain, though, is that the District 8 City Council race between Rose Herrera and Jimmy Nguyen is costing major money. How much? More than $700,000 so far, and it could approach $1 million by the time the election is held.

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Herrera Camp Collects, Spends Most Money

Councilmember Rose Herrera not only raised the most money of any candidate for the San Jose City Council primary in June; she also spent more than any other candidate raised in the five districts. Nonetheless, she’ll still face Jimmy Nguyen in the November runoff.

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Rose Herrera Shuffles Campaign Staff

July is the political offseason in San Jose, but a shake-up recently occurred in the re-election staff of Councilmember Rose Herrera. Eric Crane will no longer serve as her campaign manager heading into the November runoff for the District 8 seat against surprise challenger Jimmy Nguyen.

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Post-Primary Election Awards

Now that we’ve all had a little time to absorb the results of the June 5 primary election, as well as the fallout in a few key races, it’s time to dish out some awards. As you might expect this time of year, there’s a baseball theme.

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Pruning Rose

The San Jose Police Officers Association started its attack ad blitz for the June 5 primary election, and the cops aren’t just doing mailers and push polls—they’re also pulling out all the social-media stops.

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