Lan Diep Wants Rematch in San Jose’s District 4 Council Race

San Jose’s north side councilman will face a familiar opponent in his bid for re-election. Lan Diep, who lost by 13 votes to Manh Nguyen in last year’s District 4 City Council race, is back for a rematch.

“With the divisive battles of Measure B now behind us, we need thoughtful representatives to lead the healing process,” Diep said in an email announcing his candidacy. “Given the chance, I know I can be a such a leader.”

Diep, a 31-year-old public interest attorney, said that as councilman he would focus on public safety, creating jobs, investing in transit and reining in the skyrocketing cost of living.

“North San Jose has a central role to play in our city’s future development, and it deserves a serious representative who enjoys constituent interaction, who can craft good policy, and who can articulate a shared vision on behalf of the district,” he said, taking a shot at Nguyen. “We do not have such a representative now.”

Nguyen, who owns a Vietnamese-language media company, beat Diep in the April 2015 election and won against state legislative aide Tim Orozco in the runoff.

Come election day June 7, San Jose will vote in five council districts—three with termed-out representatives. Unless a candidate wins a majority of votes in June, the top two vote-getters will square off in a runoff Nov. 8.

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Source: City Clerk

7 Comments

  1. “…creating jobs, investing in transit and reigning [sic] in the skyrocketing cost of living….” Lose the “g”.

  2. The interesting thing about this race is Manh already has a short track record, so it’s basically him running his first race all over again with a bit of voter experience already behind him.

    I *think* he may be favored by the mayor.. Not sure, but I remember working on his campaign. So Diep has his work cut out for him.

    • I haven’t been following closely the votes this year, but I’m pretty confident that Manh Nguyen will be even more loyal to the Mayor’s line on the council to ensure his support. If nothing else, Diep running helps the Mayor consolidate his base on the council. Diep is a Republican so I don’t see why Liccardo would feed into the narrative that he is Republican acting like Democrat that Reed fell into.

      If I remember the Orozco-Nguyen-Diep-Dhillon (and the rest) race correctly, Diep actullay was the Chamber backed candidate as a Republican with Orozco obviously being labor given who he works for in Sacramento. It was a close race, but given that orozco hit his cieling in the run off, it was clear some non-labor candidate would win. The left hook interrupted the win as being about Nguyen being Vietnamese…which is true for both Nguyen and Diep.

      • Lan is not a republican and worked for obama, he is rapidly left win and should not be in the party. Can people just avoid ever getting a job? And just run for office the whole time, sick

  3. We currently have great representation. Mahn Nguyen may be a man of few words but he’s getting things done. We see him cleaning up our creeks, organized dumpster day, helping bring businesses into the district, supporting youth groups, etc. Where was Lan Dip? No where to be seen for half a year. He disappears and only returns when he still can’t find a job. Still unemployed and still talking sh*t.

    How much money did the developers and special interests spend to prop Lan Dip up? Hundreds of thousand dollar. Yet Lan Dip didn’t even make the run off. Lan Dip is the most well funded third place candidate in the history of the City of San Jose. And now he want us taxpayers to fund the election just because he can’t get a job? Thanks but no thanks. We want do-et not talker.

    Mr. Dip: Get a job and grow up.

  4. “With the divisive battles of Measure B now behind us, we need thoughtful representatives to lead the healing process,” Diep said in an email announcing his candidacy. “Given the chance, I know I can be a such a leader.”

    Wait a second. In the last election, he was VERY pro Measure B. He was never going to waver from that. But I guess now is the time to jump on the bandwagon as it drive by……………. .

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