At certain homes he visits as he campaigns for the District 3 seat on the San Jose City Council, Anthony Tordillos is confronted with a question most people seeking public office don't have to field. While mostly said in jest, multiple people have asked, "You aren't a pedophile, right?"
"You have to take it on a case-by-case basis and consider where is the person coming from? Is it an ill attempt at humor or a dig at something deeper?" said Tordillos, a gay man who chairs his city's planning commission. "I reassure folks there is nothing in my history to be concerned about."
Fellow candidate Gabriela "Gabby" Chavez-Lopez, as a Latina seeking the seat, has encountered a different sense of mistrust from voters as she seeks their support. In some of her conversations with the people she meets on the campaign trail, there is an undercurrent of misgiving about electing – and being let down by – another Latino community member to the seat that represents much of downtown San Jose.
"What I find is it is not about issues. It is not about ideology. They want to hear, to know you are a good person," said Chavez-Lopez, the executive director of South Bay nonprofit Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley. "They want to know you are not going to lie to them. They want to know you have concern and will care for the community."
The pall the two newcomers to seeking public office are encountering stem from the scandal caused by gay disgraced former San Jose city councilmember Omar Torres, who last year was accused of child sex crimes and resigned from the District 3 council seat at the time of his Election Day arrest on November 5. It followed revelations last fall that local police were investigating Torres on suspicion of seeking sexually explicit pictures of a minor online.
At the time Torres had said the allegations were "entirely false" and part of a blackmail scheme waged against him by a Chicago man he had met online. According to law enforcement, Torres admitted he'd sent $22,000 to the person in an attempt to prevent damaging texts and pictures from being leaked, such as one in which he claimed to have had sex with a 17-year-old boy. (The age of consent in California is 18.)
Subsequently, a cousin of Torres came forward to accuse him of sexual abuse when they were children and into their teenage years. It led to Torres being charged with three counts of sodomy and oral copulation of a child.
As the B.A.R. recently reported online, the case could be settled next month if Torres enters a plea to resolve it at his next court proceeding scheduled for March 3. Otherwise, it will be headed toward a preliminary hearing and likely jury trial.
Elected in 2022, Torres was the first gay Latino and out person of color to serve on the San Jose City Council, and only its second out councilmember. The council's District 3 seat includes the Qmunity LGBTQ district and much of downtown San Jose.
A special election to serve out the remainder of Torres' term through 2026 will be held April 8, and should none of the seven people who qualified for the ballot receive more than 50% of the vote, then the top two vote-getters will advance to a June 24 runoff election. Meanwhile, engineering firm owner Carl Salas was selected by the City Council to serve as the interim appointed District 3 councilmember for the time being.
Ballots will begin arriving in voters' mailboxes March 8, and despite the intense media attention on the election due to Torres' criminal case, turnout is still expected to be low. Tordillos and Chavez-Lopez are seen as leading contenders for the seat, as is Matthew Quevedo, deputy chief of staff to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan who has sole endorsed him in the council contest. Former mayor and freshman Congressmember Sam Liccardo (D-San Jose), who once served as the District 3 councilmember, also is supporting Quevedo for the seat.
"Matthew Quevedo is the change agent we need to help tackle San Jose's most pressing challenges," stated Liccardo, who defeated gay former Democratic state assemblymember Evan Low last fall in a bruising campaign for his House seat. "From his time as a neighborhood advocate to his leadership in Mayor Matt Mahan's office, Matthew has consistently put San José residents first – fighting for safer streets, smarter solutions on homelessness and more accountability in city government. I've seen firsthand his dedication to our community, and I know he'll be a strong voice for our neighborhoods on the City Council."
Also running is pro tem judge Irene Smith, who lost to Torres three years ago by roughly 31% of the vote. Rounding out the candidate list are retired family counselor Tyrone Wade; retired sheriff Lieutenant Adam Duran; and Philip Dolan, a knife sharpener salesman.
Crowded field
Due to the crowded field, it is expected the race won't be decided until the summer. Endorsements from several LGBTQ political groups are expected in the coming days, while the Santa Clara County Democratic Party split its support between Tordillos and Chavez-Lopez.
Running a grassroots campaign, Smith has touted her lack of ties to the local political establishment as a key reason for why voters should support her in the race.
"I cannot say this enough: after the Omar debacle, D3 needs a candidate that is 1000%, 24/7, wholly committed to D3. Our district is awash in very serious issues, and we desperately need someone leading us who only reports to us," argued Smith, 64, regarding her candidacy in a blog post on her campaign website found under the "Policies" menu tab. "Being marinated in – and beholden to – any of the power cabals floating around City Hall is not the sort of job experience we're looking for."
The candidates have been encountering a general unease with politics at the local, state, and federal level among their potential constituents. Concerns run the gamut from the upheaval being wrought nationally by the Trump administration to a seeming inability by elected officials in California to wrestle control over long-standing issues like housing unaffordability and homelessness.
"There is a deep-seated sense of broken trust from the scandal itself with councilmember Torres. I think a lot of folks feel disillusioned with local government," said Tordillos, 33, an engineering manager at YouTube who lives with his husband, Giovanni Forcina, a cancer biologist, near the San Jose State University campus. "They don't feel San Jose is headed in the direction they want to see in the city."
Chavez-Lopez, 37, a single mom to her 6-year-old son, Jaycius, would be the second Latina to represent District 3 and the first since 2006 when Cindy Chavez left the office. (Years later Chavez won election to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, on which she was termed off last year; she is now a county manager in New Mexico.)
"People are just so tired of being lied to, of being let down, of somebody saying one thing and doing another thing," said Chavez-Lopez of the sentiment she hears from people as she campaigns for the council seat. "I think people are undecided because they haven't been convinced and are looking at this race very critically."
Quevedo had thrown his support behind a recall attempt of Torres prior to his resignation last year. From a Mexican American family, Quevedo said he has been encountering a lot of dissatisfaction with, and distrust in, government as he canvasses for people's votes.
"As I go door-to-door talking to neighbors, I am focused on rebuilding that trust and delivering a message that District 3 residents and voters can connect with me on how we can get San Jose to be more responsive to their needs," said Quevedo, 36, who with his wife, A'Dreana, is raising their sons, James and Atticus, in the Northside neighborhood.
LGBTQ representation
Lingering over the race is also the factor of having LGBTQ representation on the governing body for the Bay Area's largest city, and among the top 10 statewide, at a time when Republican President Donald Trump and his GOP allies in Congress are attacking the rights of queer and transgender Americans. The San Jose City Council had gone 16 years without a member from the LGBTQ community until Torres took his oath of office two years ago.
Citing as one example for why such a voice is needed now, Tordillos pointed to the controversy over a female volleyball player at San Jose State widely reported as being a transgender woman. It resulted in other schools refusing to play against the local team, her own teammates filing a lawsuit, and Trump's Department of Education launching an investigation against the school due to the matter.
"I think it is more important than ever to have a representative from the LGBTQ community," said Tordillos, who grew up in Washington state and moved to San Jose with his husband in 2018. "I would love to be a model of the change the LGBTQ community can advocate for here in San Jose."
In addition to ensuring the needs of local LGBTQ youth and the transgender community are being addressed at City Hall, Tordillos said he would work to support queer-owned businesses and LGBTQ cultural institutions in San Jose. He would also strive to show that voters can put their trust in an out councilmember and that the LGBTQ community can have faith in him should he be elected.
"I am really interested in repairing some of the damage done to the community and being someone the community can trust to represent them," said Tordillos.
As for the comments he has had to endure while campaigning, Tordillos said he tries not to take it personally.
"I try to take it all in stride and not hold it, too much, against the people saying those things, especially the ones saying it not in an ill-intentioned manner," he said. "Also, I am trying to recognize folks in District 3 are feeling betrayed by what happened and that is bound to come out and manifest in different ways in different people."
Chavez-Lopez, who grew up in Fresno and moved to downtown San Jose when she was a junior in high school, said she has long been an ally of the LGBTQ community and has made sure her nonprofit is "gender expansive in nature" and not excluding anyone from its programs. She pledged to be a tough fighter for the needs of LGBTQ residents of the city if elected to the council seat.
"Obviously, as a city councilmember, you are representing a lot of different people. But we have to make sure when we think about who we are representing, it is not just the voters, it is the people on the edges, on the fringe that can't vote, won't vote, or who don't feel represented. They also matter," said Chavez-Lopez, who recently moved into a home she co-owns with her family in the city's Hensley historic district.
Throughout her life and career, Chavez-Lopez said she has never shied away from speaking up for those in need or who are being oppressed. She pointed to her track record of building coalitions and networks across the state to address various issues, connections she would bring with her to the role of councilmember.
"I am not going to shy away from tough conversations," she said. "I am an advocate for a living. I never wanted to run for office until this moment because I knew what the stakes were."
A lifelong San Jose resident, Quevedo said he has always been "a strong ally" to the LGBTQ community, recalling how he took part in a protest against the 2008 ballot measure Proposition 8. Passed that November by California voters, Prop 8 banned same-sex marriage in the state until being overturned in 2013 due to federal court rulings.
As a member of Mahan's mayoral administration, Quevedo said he has worked to see that the needs of the LGBTQ community are taken into consideration and would continue to do so as an elected member of the City Council in partnership with LGBTQ leaders and residents. He specifically pledged to invest in local LGBTQ service providers and to ensure LGBTQ people, particularly those unhoused, are connected with the programs and support they need.
"I would want people from the community helping us deliver those services in a way that is fair and equitable and just," he pledged.
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