"It's a rare alignment of San Jose's political stars: Two influential organizations on opposite sides of San Jose's labor-business political divide have endorsed the same candidate in the District 7 City Council race. Incumbent Councilmember Bien Doan has won support from both the Silicon Valley Biz PAC and South Bay Labor Council. Doan - a longtime union member and former fire captain who has been a consistent vote for business friendly policies - is battling to hold onto his seat for a second term."
"What I feel deeply right now, and it's personal to me, is that the community here needs to have someone on City Council who really gets it and that gets the challenges that we're all facing right now,"
While cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles - even the suburban expanse of Orange County - have launched public servants into the Horseshoe in Sacramento, Northern California's largest city has long struggled to see one of its own take the office. That's an eyebrow-raising record considering the economic and political clout San Jose amassed as Silicon Valley's capital. Moreover, Grasty's announcement comes after Mayor Matt Mahan built considerable governor hype - crafting statewide name recognition through policy pushes and Newsom naysaying -
Politically influential San Jose bail bondsman Hai Huynh has seen favorable turns in two dramatic courtroom battles in the last few weeks - one with District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan and another with once ally-turned-enemy David Duong, the Oakland recycling mogul and power broker with San Jose connections. Huynh appears close to advancing a defamation lawsuit against Doan, who painted Huynh as a dangerous criminal last year after Huynh criticized Doan's political closeness with Duong.
A former Bay Area city councilmember was sentenced to 18 years in prison Friday for molesting an underage family member more than two decades ago, prosecutors said. Omar Torres, who served on the San Jose City Council councilmember from 2023 until he was charged in 2024, pleaded no contest in April to charges of forcible sodomy, forcible oral copulation and molestation of a child under 14, the Santa Clara district attorney's office said in a statement.
