Santa Clara is blessed. This election year offers voters the opportunity to select a new mayor from a strong list of candidates. This is a terrific opportunity to select and vote for a new, positive, upbeat leader for our city.
Santa Clara needs a smart, collaborative, far-sighted leader to take the helm of Ship Santa Clara. A leader who can build relationships with our corporate residents — Intel, NVIDIA, AMD — that will be mutually beneficial.
We need a leader who will invest in the city’s money-making assets like the convention center and Levi’s Stadium. Good stewardship means ensuring the best return from the stadium. Even those who opposed the stadium agree with that.
Each of the candidates brings unique experience and talent to the table, and voters must decide which of those portfolios will serve the city best.
All but one, that is. The one exception is Kathy Watanabe, who, despite her eight years on the council, is running on the “Lisa Gillmor — 8 More Years” platform, a platform that has passed its “use by” date.
If you want more of the constant council dysfunction, Levi’s Stadium trash-talking, spending millions on lawyers in avoidable lawsuits, losing the stadium money-making opportunities to cities like San José, and continuing the deterioration of our infrastructure and recreational amenities, then Watanabe’s your candidate. She’s a “Yes” vote for data centers across the street from Levi’s Stadium, too.
Mayor Lisa Gilmor (the major supporter of Watanabe) has ignored and belittled the 49ers and our stadium for years. Not for any other reason than politics.
Now Gillmor has passed the football to Watanabe, and Watanabe has reused the Gillmor playbook. Since last month, she’s been out in front of Levi’s Stadium insisting that the 49ers have defrauded the city (she never gives details, though) and falsely accusing them of slipping money into her opponent’s personal pockets — also called lying. Judging by the minuscule attendance at her last press conference, people aren’t tuning in to those reruns.
She exceeds Gillmor in one respect, though: Gillmor knows how to be civil in public. Watanabe’s rudeness and nastiness is out in the open.
This isn’t the profile of someone who’s going to protect and advance Santa Clara’s interests and surely not the quality of a person who should be representing Santa Clara as mayor.
Speaking of the 49ers, they are taking care of business on the field, leading their conference and making Santa Clara look terrific. They are more than just our hometown football team. Santa Clara is the owner of Levi’s Stadium and every time there’s a game or a concert there, the city is on camera. Wouldn’t it be great to also have a mayor we’d be proud to have on camera as well?
Previous Milestones:
Milestones – When Losing … Just LIE! – Opinion
Milestones – Hip, Hip Hypocrisy – Opinion
Milestones – A Mayor for the Majority – Opinion
Milestones – Stalking Supplants Sign-Stealing – Opinion