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For 14 years, Nora Campos and her brother, Xavier Campos, had a stranglehold on East San Jose’s seat on the Metropolis Council, caring extra about staying in energy than caring for residents’ wants.
Now Nora Campos needs to win again that District 5 seat she held from 2001-10 and that her brother held from 2011-15. That may be a catastrophe for an space that has been devastated by the pandemic and wishes sturdy management to handle its public security, transportation and homelessness points.
Voters ought to as a substitute elect Peter Ortiz, the present president of the Santa Clara County Board of Training, to characterize District 5.
Ortiz, 32, isn’t your typical Metropolis Council candidate. He was a Norteño gang member in February 2012 when he was arrested in reference to a strong-arm theft. The fees had been dropped three months later after Ortiz promised to sever ties with the gang and undergo a rehabilitation course of.
Since then, Ortiz has devoted his life to neighborhood service. He served on the Mt. Nice Elementary College District Board of Trustees for 2 years earlier than successful his seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Training in 2018.
He served on San Jose’s COVID-19 Well being and Racial Fairness Job Pressure, working to make sure vaccinations had been extra broadly out there for a district through which greater than 40% of residents are of immigrant descent.
As a member of the Alum Rock City Village Advocates, he has gained an understanding of the event course of in East San Jose, which will probably be essential for District 5 to fulfill its substantial affordable-housing wants. Ortiz additionally has served on town’s Transportation Fairness Job Pressure and the East San Jose En Movimiento Neighborhood Advisory Group, specializing in bettering District 5’s transportation challenges.
Within the June main, we supported Andres Quintero, who completed behind Ortiz and Campos. We had been vital of Ortiz’ function in a shouting match initiated by a fourth candidate within the race, Roger Bonilla, and cautious of Ortiz’ ties to labor.
However Ortiz has stood as much as labor and supported constitution colleges whereas serving on the county Board of Training. And he reached out to Bonilla at a current neighborhood assembly and patched up their variations. No matter weaknesses Ortiz might need are dwarfed by Campos’ strategy to political workplace.
Campos, who went on after her Metropolis Council stint to serve three phrases within the state Meeting, has a historical past of doing the bidding of commerce unions and lobbyists. When she ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate towards Jim Beall in 2016, her marketing campaign was bankrolled partly by a $500,000 contribution from a Large Oil political motion committee due to her assist of petroleum pursuits over local weather change laws. As an Assemblywoman, she took a five-day journey to Cuba and a separate junket to Maui, put collectively by lobbyists so legislators might “study points.”
Ortiz won’t have Campos’ political expertise. However that’s a superb factor. Her monitor report isn’t one thing we might wish to see in a candidate working for public workplace. Ortiz’ sole focus will probably be on the wants of District 5. Voters ought to again him within the Nov. 8 election.
