As the City of San José gets closer to electing a councilmember for its District 3 seat, candidates Matthew Quevedo and Gabby Chavez-Lopez continue to involve themselves in events throughout the district to pull voters in their direction including the District 3 Forum with the other special election candidates.
Saturday, Feb. 8
As there are only so many spots in District 3, on Feb. 8 both candidates coincidentally hosted an event at Backesto Park at the same time.
Neither candidate thought much of it as Chavez-Lopez and said that it was something that was bound to happen because of the size of the district.
“This district is very compact and there are only so many big meeting places, so that’s going to happen,” Chavez-Lopez said. “I do run into him sometimes at coffee shops (and) in the district and I think that’s natural and normal as we’re continuing to want to be everywhere, meet with people and be visible.”
While Quevedo has been having his campaign events at Backesto Park for the past few weeks, he made it clear that he has no issue with sharing the space.
“It’s a public park; (I’m) always happy to share it with others,” Quevedo said. “It just shows how downtown is a special place and there are a lot of special areas in it.”
Although both candidates had a turnout of supporters and voters, Quevedo was joined by District 10 Councilmember George Casey and Pam Foley, District 9 Councilmember and Vice mayor.
Both city officials are endorsing the candidate, according to Quevedo’s campaign webpage.
“Matthew’s a great person, but he’s supremely qualified and that’s important and he’s determined to see D3 (District 3) with a vision,” Casey said. “I don’t know anyone else more qualified than Matthew or who’s going to work as hard as Matthew.”
Vice Mayor Foley also had words to share about why she made the decision to endorse Quevedo over the other candidates running for the District 3 seat.
“He’s going to continue to make efforts to fight homelessness and bring people indoors, he’s going to work to create economic opportunities for all of us in the city and lift everybody up,” Foley said. “I look forward to working with someone who has a knowledge and connection so deep in this community.”
San José has the highest number of homeless youth from ages 18 to 24 per capita, according to an article from EdSource.
Chavez-Lopez was joined by Ash Kalra, the California state assemblymember for District 25, who endorsed her, according to an Instagram post on her campaign page.
“It always makes me super excited when I’m able to see people that are joining us that are change makers and change agents at different levels and different places,” Chavez-Lopez said.
The two events at Backesto Park were followed by the District 3 forum, which occurred on Feb. 12.
Wednesday, Feb. 12
The forum took place at the Rotary Summit Center and gave an opportunity for all of the candidates to answer questions that the community had in terms of the policies and agendas that each candidate plans to enact if they were to win the seat.
All of the candidates were in attendance except for Phil Dolan who was absent for reasons unknown to the public.
The panel of candidates consisted of: Quevedo, Chavez-Lopez, Adam Duran, retired Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant, Irene Smith, Santa Clara County judge pro tempore and Anthony Tordillos, the City of San José Planning Commission chair.
As a former member of the police force, Duran talked about plans to address public safety by means of heightened police staffing in the community and challenged the rhetoric of defunding the police.
“Defund the police” is the idea that the government needs to divest funds from the police because of the amount of brutality and excessive force that some members of the police have used on marginalized groups of people, according to a Movement for Black Lives webpage.
“Enough of the rhetoric that we’ve been hearing for the past few years in this ‘defund the police’,” Duran said. “It’s high time that we start to defend the police because they are the ones who defend us when we need emergency assistance, so with that you need officers that feel supported, valued and respected, then we can get the staffing levels to where we want them to be.”
Quevedo, whose main priorities are the unhoused community and police reform as reported on Feb. 4 by the Spartan Daily, said he is also in favor of increasing the amount of policing in the city.
“We need more officers,” Quevedo said. “When you call 911 for a priority one call, they arrive in eight minutes (which is) two more minutes than the goal we have (as) a city.”
Although Tordillos voiced his support for police reform during the forum, he also proposed an increase in non-police response teams.
“We need to first start by filing the 100 sworn officer vacancies that exist in SJPD so we can bring down response times and restore trust with our communities that the police will be there for them when they need them most,” Tordillos said. “At the same time, I’m fully supportive of working with county government to continue investing in non-police response programs.”
Like Quevedo, Smith is also an advocate for the unhoused and said during the forum that the local government needs to face the issue head-on rather than picking at the bits and pieces of the issue.
Within the houseless population in San José, 70% of them were unsheltered, according to a 2023 infographic from a local government webpage.
“We are playing ‘Whac-a-Mole’ with misery and homelessness and we need to stop going through the edges of the problem and face it head-on,” Smith said.
Chavez-Lopez, who is also passionate about the unhoused according to the aforementioned Spartan Daily article, brought up some unique means of addressing the issue during the forum.
“I like to remind people that our housing population is as diverse as our general population,” Chavez-Lopez said. “We know that permanent supportive is the long-term solution for folks to be able to stay off our streets and get the services they need, but again I think we need to look at other agencies like the water district who are offering up land to the City of San José to build housing sites.”
The Santa Clara Valley Water District receives properties that are required for future district projects and programs, according to a webpage from the district. The district then leases these properties at fair market rates, according to the same source.
Following this event, Chavez-Lopez hosted another campaign event at El Cabron Kitchen & Cantina, last Saturday.
Saturday, Feb. 15
Among the people in attendance at Chavez-Lopez’s event was District 2 Councilmember Pamela Campos who has endorsed the District 3 candidate, according to Chavez-Lopez’s campaign Instagram page.
“Family is at the core of everything I do and the work that drives me every single day and that’s why Gabby has my endorsement because she leads with those values every single day and every single role that she takes in our community,” Campos said.
Quevedo was once again at Backesto Park, but this time he was with San José Mayor Matt Mahan, who has endorsed him for councilmember, according to Quevedo’s campaign webpage.
“This guy takes seriously your problems, your concerns and your quality of life and safety in your neighborhood,” Mahan said. “He will wake up every day, go out and try to make your life better because he cares and he wants our city to be a great place for everyone.”
Also in attendance was Sam Liccardo, California’s District 16 congressman who also endorsed Quevedo, as seen on his campaign webpage.
“He doesn’t sleep,” Liccardo said. “He just works too hard and he’s going to work that hard for you (the people of San José).”
Liccardo’s endorsement for Quevedo was further mentioned in a Feb. 15 news release from Quevedo’s campaign manager Faye Garcia.
“Matthew Quevedo is the change agent we need to help tackle San José’s most pressing challenges,” Liccardo said in the release.
Both candidates plan to host events this Saturday as Quevedo plans to be at Backesto Park again at 10 a.m., according to his Instagram campaign page while Chavez-Lopez is scheduled to host a women’s walk at the Raymond Bernal Jr. Memorial Park at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., according to her Instagram campaign page.
