Mercury News: Mayor Reed to endorse Liccardo to replace him
By David E. Early and Sharon Noguchi
SAN JOSE — Mayor Chuck Reed, the outgoing city executive, will formally endorse Sam Liccardo to replace him as mayor of San Jose.
Last week, City Councilmember Liccardo won a November spot in a runoff election for mayor against Dave Cortese, who carried a strong union-led reform package into the primary. The Santa Clara County supervisor promised changes to the fiscal reform policies of Reed, who is termed out.
The mayor will make his endorsement at 11:30 a.m. Monday at La Petit Trianon Theatre, 75 N. Fifth St. in San Jose. Reed is choosing the candidate who most closely promises to continue Reed’s get-tough fiscal reforms and economic policies.
Reed, reached by phone Sunday, said he would not comment until Monday. But after the election, he had issued a statement saying “I don’t think voters want to go back to the days of cutting services to pay for employee pay and benefit increases and that’s what they’ll get with Dave Cortese.
“Sam Liccardo knows what it takes to restore services to our residents and taxpayers and has the courage to do it.”
On Sunday, Liccardo said, “Most residents agree with Mayor Reed and myself that we don’t want to return to the days when special interests and their enablers at the City Hall buried our children under billions of dollars of debt.”
Liccardo campaigned on “spending smarter,” a theme reflected in a book he wrote that highlights plans to use technology to improve public safety. Not only will Liccardo have Reed’s backing, but he came through the primary having raised — by far — the most money in the race, especially from high tech, other business groups and wealthy CEOs and others from outside San Jose. Behind Liccardo were candidates Madison Nguyen, the vice mayor and Councilmembers Pierluigi Oliverio and Rose Herrera.
Cortese, the only non-councilmember in the race, wants to overturn much of Reed’s work by abandoning parts of a voter-approved pension reform measure the city’s unions are fighting in court. Labor groups support Cortese and have pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into his campaign, provided plum endorsements and launched full-out voter outreach efforts on his behalf.
He could not be reached Sunday for comment. Reed openly worried that in exchange for such support, Cortese would give too much taxpayer money to city workers.
“We’re going to be unstoppable,” Cortese said Tuesday night at a labor-sponsored party. “What happened today is the residents of San Jose called 911, and they asked for change. We need a city that works for everybody, and we just took a big step in doing that.”
The primary was largely between which of Reed’s four allies would make the runoff. Liccardo won and will now have Reed’s public backing.
“So far, so good,” Liccardo said following Tuesday’s vote. “The plan was to finish second in June and consolidate support in the runoff, and so far we’re right on plan.”
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