Originally published on Feb. 12, 2024.
OPINION
BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
Stanford never comes out and openly endorses a candidate. Maybe they’re worried about losing their tax exempt status by becoming overtly political, or maybe they want to make it seem like they’re above the fray.
But in the race to replace retiring House member Anna Eshoo, Stanford did something that was clever. The front-runner is longtime Palo Alto public servant Joe Simitian. But Simitian, while serving as a Santa Clara County supervisor, held Stanford’s feet to the fire when it came to controlling their growth, impact on roads and the schools. I don’t think Stanford has forgotten that.
The race is coming down to a north-vs-south battle. Simitian is on the side of people in the north side of the congressional district, cities such as Palo Alto and Los Altos. His chief opponent is former San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo, who represents the south end of the district.
When Liccardo’s term as mayor ended in 2022, he was unemployed. There was talk that he would run for a seat in Congress – what’s the next step up after running a big city? Stanford Law School gave him a job. He now is a lecturer on homeless issues.
I guess you could call him an expert on the homeless.
In 2019, San Jose reported that it had more than 6,000 homeless – a figure that rose 42% from 2017 to 2019, according to the San Jose Spotlight news website.
And in his final state-of-the-city address Liccardo admitted that homelessness was his biggest failure as mayor.
So what could Liccardo tell students at Stanford? How to do things wrong?
But I don’t think Stanford cares what he says during his lectures. Stanford wants to help Liccardo in order to hurt Simitian.
You’ve got to wonder if the Stanford Board of Trustees is aware of this cynical move and is OK with it?
And what’s Stanford’s vision of Congress?
San Jose already has three representatives in the House (Zoe Lofgren, Ro Khanna and Jimmy Pinetta). Now they want a fourth? At the north county’s expense?
Palo Altans are used to San Jose ripping off our tax dollars. Like taking local transportation dollars and using them on the BART tunnel in San Jose. But now San Jose wants to take our representation, too?
Editor Dave Price’s column appears on Mondays. His email address is [email protected].
The mayor before Liccardo, Chuck Reed, was a conscientious mayor who tried to control the budget, specifically pension obligations for past, present, and future city retirees with incremental increases via Prop B. Candidate Liccardo on the other hand is a buffoon, not a serious person at all.
That said, it is quite common for elite universities to hire former big city mayors. The former Chicago mayor, Lori Lightfoot, is a lecturer at Harvard. The former mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, is currently on the Columbia University faculty. Whether those are good hires or not is a separate issue. There is nothing deceitful, on the surface, for Stanford to have hired Liccardo in 2023.
The point isn’t deceit, but Stanford using its outsized influence (and wealth?) to try to throw this election to Licarrdo – a San Jose oriented pol who doesn’t even live in the Congressional District. Stanfords self-interest reeks.
Simitian worked long and hard to succeed in protecting his District constituents from the massive impacts of Stanfords development. His goal – “full mitigation” for impacts. Meaning, take responsibility for your actions, Stanford. A reasonable stance.
But Stanford has decided to have a tantrum and support who they see as a more pliable candidate. .
San Jose has robbed N. County of shared tax money for years (BART extension, etc.). The last thing we need in N. County is to elect a forth San Jose centric Congress member who would continue this practice. And while doing Stanford’s bidding to the detriment of nearby cities and residents.
We will elect the incorruptible Joe Simitian if we have any sense.
Simitian has used the GUP process to stop Stanford from sending the impact of its growth to neighboring cities. We have more housing and less traffic than if Stanford had gotten away with its plans. Stanford’s support of Liccardo is retaliation against Simitian doing his job as a county supervisor.