San Jose Inside is calling it: Anthony Tordillos is the new District 3 San Jose City Councilmember.
After barely making it to the runoff ballot, Anthony Tordillos soared to an insurmountable lead in the June 24 vote. Reports today of remaining ballots to be counted in the San Jose City Council District 3 runoff election showed that Gabby Chavez-Lopez faced very long odds to overcome a 2-to-1 lead by Anthony Tordillos.
The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters office today reported that 1,200 vote-by-mail ballots in the runoff election for San Jose City Council District 3 remain to be counted. All in-person ballots have been counted. Election officials said any additional ballots postmarked by June 24 will be counted until Tuesday.
If total voter turnout in Tuesday’s election matches the 20% turnout of the initial April 8 special election, that would leave approximately 3,000 votes to be counted.
The election office Tuesday reported Tordillos with a 2,036-vote lead.
For Chavez-Lopez to have made up that ballot deficit, she would have needed to get nearly 85% of the estimated 3,000 uncounted District 3 ballots.
As of 1pm today, neither candidate had released a victory or concession statement.
Chavez-Lopez, founder and executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, tallied just shy of 30% of the vote on April 8. In that vote, Tordillos, a YouTube executive and chair of the city’s planning commission, was virtually tied with Matthew Quevedos, deputy chief of staff for Mayor Matt Mahan. Tordillos led by just six votes after a recount, to secure a spot on the June 24 runoff ballot.
In this week’s vote, support for Chavez-Lopez grew to just 35%, while support for Tordillos – in donations and voters – soared, giving him 65% of the vote in early returns.
The tally reported at 8:45pm Tuesday showed Anthony Tordillos with 4,449 votes, and Gabby Chavez-Lopez with 2,413 votes, representing 14.6% of the downtown district's registered voters. The next report from the Registrar of Voters is expected at 5pm today.
Campaign spending reports filed late last week by the campaigns with the San Jose City Clerk’s office showed that the Tordillos campaign outspent his opponent by more than 2-to-1 since the April 8 election, and got valuable PAC support.
The Tordillos campaign spent $351,364 in the two-month runoff campaign, which included $73,710 of his own money. Five PACs kicked in $126,011 in spending for the Tordillos campaign.
Total spending by and for Tordillos totaled $477,375.
The Chavez-Lopez campaign spent $117,404 in the post-April 8 campaign, and benefited from $164,349 in labor PAC spending in the same period.
Total spending by and for Chavez-Lopez totaled $281,753.
Total spending by and for all candidates in both District 3 elections this spring made it the most expensive council campaign in the city’s history, with nearly $1.9 million spent.
Chavez-Lopez – too much tik-tok.
Perhaps this will signal the end of sectarian politicians building their political career on racist foundations. Yes, you maybe a latina, but being a Latina Grrl Boss is not a thing. You are a boss for everyone or no one. Enjoy your grant writing, I am sure you will make more grifting the NGO racket.