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Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian appear set to face off in November for a chance to succeed U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo in Congress, according to early results from the California Secretary of State.
With the initial votes counted, Liccardo and Simitian were leading the 11-candidate pack in both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, according to the registrars of voters from the two counties.
With both counties taken into account, Liccardo had 22% of the votes as of 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, while Simitian had 17.9% of the votes, according to the Secretary of State.
In addition to leading the district as a whole, Liccardo is leading in both Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, according to county results. Simitian is in second in both counties, too.
The early results, which are based on ballots that had been mailed in before the election, showed Assembly member Evan Low in third place in both counties. He received 15.8% of the total votes cast in the two counties that the district encompasses as of 10:30 p.m.
The top two vote getters will square off in the Nov. 5 election, where they will vie to represent the 16th Congressional District, which stretches from Pacifica to Los Gatos and includes the Midpeninsula cities of Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Atherton, Woodside and Portola Valley. Eshoo has been representing the area for the past three decades.
Ohtaki is one of two Republicans in the race, along with Karl Ryan, who did not raise any money or participate in any campaign events. Early results showed that neither Republican is likely to make the top two. Ohtaki was fourth place in both counties, with 13.3% of the vote, while Ryan had 7.3%.
Trailing Ohtaki was the rest of the candidate field, which include Portola Valley resident and tech entrepreneur Peter Dixon, Ryan and Saratoga council member Rishi Kumar, who had twice challenged Eshoo for the Congressional seat.
Trailing them were Palo Alto council members Julie Lythcott-Haims and Ahmed Mostafa, an attorney and former Google employee, who have thus far received 5.2% and 2.3% of the vote as of 10:30 p.m., respectively. Palo Alto council member Greg Tanaka and Joby Bernstein, a Stanford University graduate student and investor in climate change, were in the back of the pack with 1.4% and 0.9% of the votes, respectively.
Dixon, who had spent more than $1.5 million for the race, received 7.6% of the votes in the two counties. This included 12.2% of the votes in San Mateo County but only 6.4% in Santa Clara County, numbers that suggest a tough climb for him as more results are being released.
If the results hold, the November showdown will feature two experienced lawmakers who are well known around Silicon Valley’s political establishment. Liccardo, a two-term San Jose mayor, touted his experience as a big-city mayor and has amassed a large campaign chest and a long list of endorsements from other mayors.
Simitian, who have spent decades in public service as a Palo Alto council member, a state Assembly member, a state Senator and a Santa Clara County supervisor. He has represented 15 of the 16 cities in the Congressional district and his list of endorsements includes dozens of local elected officials from both counties.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Simitian addressed a crowd of supporters at the Peninsula Creamery in downtown Palo Alto. He acknowledged that the final results won’t be certified for days but expressed confidence based on the early showings that he would be moving on to the general election.
“We have enough to say this: We’re in the top two and we’re going to November,” Simitian said.
He said in an interview that he looks forward to the coming months, when he will have a chance to meet more constituents from the 16 communities that make up the district. With Eshoo announcing her decision to retire from Congress just before Thanksgiving, candidates had very little time to campaign.
“This is one of the relatively infrequent opportunities we have to actually get people together,” Simitian said. “With eight months, now we can have those conversations and I think this will benefit the campaign.
“I know i will both enjoy and benefit from hearing from people in those communities that I’m aspiring to represent.”
This story will be updated as more results are released.
