San Jose Mayor Faces 2 Obscure Candidates, But Still No Serious Contenders in Re-Election Bid

Silicon Valley progressives have been talking about recruiting someone to run against San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo in his bid for re-election, but so far no labor-backed contenders have pulled nomination papers for the June 5 primary. That doesn’t mean this is a one-man show, however. Two obscure candidates have put their names in the running: a retired septuagenarian doctor named QuangMinh Pham and Mexican seafood restaurateur Ed Rael. The former pulled his papers in early January after growing frustrated with the city’s escalating fees, which he says delayed his plans to develop a parking garage off of Hedding Street. “I’ve watched different mayors come and go without a significant life lift for people living here decade after decade,” says 73-year-old Pham, a Vietnamese refugee who has lived in San Jose since 1975. The reluctant contender put together an imaginative 32-point plan he calls “San Jose Reconstructive Operation” to reduce city fees, prevent displacement and generate revenue for taxpayers, in part, by selling ads and launching a city-run shopping mall. “From a penniless refugee to now a mayoral candidate for my home city, I am an outsider, outside of the established circle of the city politics,” Pham acknowledges. But, he says, he can no longer stand by “while the rich come to the city to enjoy the benefits and proceeds from the growth built by those people with their sweat.” Rael, 70, who owns Maverick’s restaurant on Meridian Avenue, says he’s entering the fray to solve the city’s intractable homeless problem. “I voted for Liccardo, so this is nothing against him,” says Rael, who wants to build sanctioned encampments on a 200-acre property he owns in San Jose’s eastern foothills. “But since he’s become mayor, crime is up, homelessness is up and we need someone to step in and fix this.”

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16 Comments

    • I think those local politicians eager to jump into bed with Mr. Google (Eric Schmidt) are going to wake up with a serious infestation of fleas.

      https://pjmedia.com/video/sharyl-attkisson-explains-tedx-talk-origins-2016-fake-news-narrative/

      “Digging deeper, she discovered that Google was one of the big donors behind First Draft’s “fake news” messaging. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was run by Eric Schmidt, who happened to be a huge Hillary Clinton supporter.

      Schmidt “offered himself up as a campaign adviser and became a top multi-million donor to it. His company funded First Draft around the start of the election cycle,” Attkisson said. “Not surprisingly, Hillary was soon to jump aboard the anti-fake news train and her surrogate David Brock of Media Matters privately told donors he was the one who convinced Facebook to join the effort.”

      Oh, and there’s this . . .

      https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/09/576682765/james-damore-sues-google-alleging-discrimination-against-conservative-white-men

      “James Damore, the former Google engineer who was fired after he wrote a memo sharply criticizing diversity efforts at the company, has filed a class-action lawsuit against his former employer alleging that the tech giant discriminates against conservative white men.”

  1. Anyone but Liccardo, I’m not sure I want 200 acres of homeless people peeing on the east side hills
    unless it’s on the far side of Mt Hamilton and they stake Sam to ant hill at the bottom of the lateran.
    Could Dr Pham be any worse than Dr Mengele?

  2. If voters can’t pronounce his name, they won’t remember it, and won’t vote for him. So if Pham is a medical doctor, he should promote Q.M. Pham, M.D, otherwise Dr. Q.M. Pham.

  3. THE WHITES ARE COMING! THE WHITES ARE COMING!

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5443599/White-South-African-farmers-removed-land.html

    Visualize how San Jose politics are going to change when the city is overrun by white refugees from South Africa.

    Oh, and the wave of white refugees will be followed within a year by a wave of starving black refugees as the only people left in South Africa, after they get rid of the food producers, will be consumers,

    Someone call Bernie Sanders and ask him how tribal socialism can produce enough food to feed South Africa without farmers.

  4. Dr. QM Pham knows what he’s talking about, and believe me he’s a man of his word! Great plan Mr. Pham…, Your neighbor Roseanne

  5. > Dr. QM Pham knows what he’s talking about, and believe me he’s a man of his word! Great plan Mr. Pham…,

    I wish he’d run a campaign and share his plan with us.

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