Candidate Tam Truong, right and Domingo Candelas are running for San Jose City Council District 8 in the November 2024 election. (Josie Lepe for Bay Area News Group)
Two familiar foes who sought the vacant San Jose District 8 City Council seat in 2023 will face off again in November as they vie for a full four-year term.
But just as with the first go-round, drama has clouded the race as Tam Truong, a San Jose police sergeant and the challenger to incumbent Domingo Candelas, faces a felony criminal charge tied to mortgage fraud allegations and grapples with losing his most significant endorsement. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan withdrew drew his support for Truong in the aftermath.
While Truong has denied the allegations and indicated he would not drop out of the race, his campaign did not respond to multiple interview requests from The Mercury News to discuss his policy platform.
“There is no evidence that I intended to mislead anyone,” Truong said in a statement provided by his attorney last month. “What we have here is a rush to judgment and an effort to criminalize innocent conduct without a full understanding of the facts. The District Attorney’s Office filed this charge against me on the eve of the election, depriving me of sufficient time to clear my name through the judicial process before voting begins.”
Candelas has avoided talking about the allegations, noting that his opponent was entitled to due process.
Candelas has served as District 8’s representative since 2023, when the City Council appointed him to the position over Evergreen School District Board Trustee President Patricia Andrade, city analyst Salvador Alvarez, software manager Sukhdev Singh Bainiwal, and Truong.
Prior to his appointment, however, multiple candidates, including Truong, accused Candelas of unfairly preparing for his City Council interview by accessing a phone and laptop while waiting outside the council’s chambers — an allegation he denied and referred to as “political theater.”
In this year’s primary, Candelas and Truong earned 39.4% and 32.5% of the vote, respectively, to advance to the general election, beating out Bainiwal and Surinder Kaur Dhaliwal. Bainiwal, who finished third with 25.7% of the vote, has since endorsed Truong.
Both candidates have identified public safety, homelessness, and economic development among their top priorities. Candelas has also said it was important for elected officials to engage all of their constituents, noting that the district includes both Silver Creek Valley Country Club — one of the wealthiest zip codes in the county — and Meadowfair, one of the hardest-hit communities during the pandemic.
“When I first took office, that’s why I prioritized making sure that I’m engaging my residents, doing town halls, doing forums and I’m doing beautification events so I can meet my neighbors where they’re at in the community here in District 8 — not at city hall in the tower,” Candelas said. “That’s helped me figure out and prioritize different things that I’ve heard over and over. Folks want to feel safer, want cleaner streets and parks and ultimately to be able to create stronger neighborhoods.”
Candelas said that in addition to increasing the police department’s staffing levels and leveraging technology to solve crimes, he has committed to taking a more community-driven approach, which includes providing activities for younger people, such as investing in public libraries and youth centers, to prevent them from becoming a statistic.
He pointed to his track record supporting increased budgets for police officers, automated license plate readers and a pilot program to install cameras around small businesses to protect them from break-ins.
“This place has always been home to me and making sure that my neighbors and community have a voice at City Hall is what drives me,” Candelas said. “Going forward, that’s making sure that we are bolstering our police department, adding more police officers, doing cleanups and making sure that we’re removing all the illegal dumping.”
Truong has said in the past that the department’s ability to respond to calls has been impacted by the lack of available officers. He has highlighted the need for competitive pay, including signing bonuses, to attract new talent. He has also called on the city to create housing solutions for police officers to ensure they can afford to live in San Jose.
Both candidates also agree that the solutions to the homelessness crisis extend beyond building more housing.
While Truong has committed to breaking down barriers to employment and investing in more job training programs, Candelas said the city needed to create more interim housing solutions while offering mental health and substance abuse treatment options. Candelas said San Jose could rectify the housing affordability crisis by increasing supply, including along transit corridors, and cutting red tape for developers like the city did when it streamlined the permitting process.
Before his appointment, Candelas served in multiple director positions for former State Sen. Jim Beall and in government relations roles at Stanford University and Santa Clara Valley Water.
The difference between those positions and a councilmember, Candelas said, was the leadership role of delivering on residents’ needs and creating a more connected community.
Among the other successes he highlighted in his short tenure were securing millions of dollars in state and federal funding for the restoration of Lake Cunningham — which has languished for decades — and getting money for a fireworks show at the park, which drew around 30,000 spectators.
As he walked around a bustling Evergreen Village Square during an interview with The Mercury News, he reflected on the importance of community engagement while noting the changes at the gathering space, which had faced some struggles since the pandemic.
“I had hundreds of people out here every Friday night dancing, breaking bread with their neighbors and just hanging out and creating a sense of community in District 8,” Candelas said. “That’s what this position is about.”
Originally published at Devan Patel