San José Mayor Matt Mahan introduced he’s working for California governor Thursday, pitching himself as a practical Democrat who would prioritize state residents’ high quality of life over the principled progressivism that has change into entrenched in California politics — together with on crime, homelessness, housing and affordability.
“I’m leaping on this race as a result of we want a governor who’s each a fighter for our values and a fixer of our issues,” stated Mahan, one of many state’s most outspoken Democratic critics of departing Gov. Gavin Newsom. “We are able to repair the most important issues going through California, and I imagine that as a result of we’re making actual progress on homelessness, public security [and] housing provide in San José.”
Mahan claimed insurance policies below his watch have decreased crime and the variety of unsheltered residents, helped police resolve each metropolis murder for almost the final 4 years, and ought to be emulated statewide.
“I need to observe by means of on that work by holding state authorities accountable for partnering with cities and counties to ship higher outcomes,” he stated.
Mahan, who has two younger youngsters and a spouse, Silvia, who works in schooling, stated final yr that it wasn’t the correct time for him to run for governor, regardless of requires him to take action from average forces in state politics and enterprise. However he stated he modified his thoughts after failing to discover a candidate among the many already-crowded Democratic discipline whom he felt he might help — regardless of assembly with a number of of them to debate their plans if elected.
“I’ve not heard the sphere embrace the sorts of options that I don’t assume we want, I do know we want, because the mayor of the biggest metropolis in Northern California,” Mahan stated. In “the present discipline, it looks like many individuals are extra serious about working both towards [President] Trump or in his picture. I’m working for the way forward for California, and I imagine that we are able to combat for our values on the nationwide stage whereas being accountable for fixing our issues right here at residence.”
Mahan, a 43-year-old Harvard graduate and tech entrepreneur from Watsonville, was elected to the San José Metropolis Council in 2020 after which as mayor of the Bay Space metropolis in a slender upset in 2022. In 2024, he was reelected in a landslide.
Extra not too long ago, he has been pushing a concise marketing campaign message — “Again to Fundamentals” — and launched a nonprofit coverage group by the identical title to advertise his concepts statewide. His former chief of workers, Jim Reed, not too long ago left his workplace to guide the initiative.
Though he isn’t well-known throughout the state, influential Californians in politics stated he’s nonetheless a candidate who ought to be taken significantly — together with different moderates, resembling billionaire developer and unsuccessful L.A. mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, and progressives who haven’t all the time seen eye to eye with him, resembling Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont).
“Matt Mahan is an individual of integrity who has made nice progress on housing in San José, value of dwelling, and public security,” Khanna stated in a press release to The Occasions. “He’s a terrific Mayor and could be a formidable candidate for Governor.”
Whereas in workplace, Mahan has reduce a decidedly average path whereas eschewing some progressive insurance policies that different celebration leaders have championed in a state the place Democratic voters far outnumber Republicans.
He has backed Newsom, a two-term governor and potential Democratic presidential candidate, on a number of the governor’s signature initiatives — together with Proposition 1, a plan to ramp up and in some cases require individuals on the road to bear psychological well being therapy. He additionally joined Newsom in opposing a proposed wealth tax on California billionaires, saying it could “backfire” by driving enterprise out of the state — together with in Silicon Valley’s tech sector, the place lots of his constituents work.
Nevertheless, Mahan has not been shy about criticizing Newsom, both — together with for taking a brash, Trump-like on-line demeanor in pushing again towards Trump and different critics of California, together with within the enterprise world, and for not doing extra to unravel entrenched points resembling crime, drug dependancy and homelessness.
He broke with Newsom and different Democratic leaders to again Proposition 36, the 2024 poll measure that elevated penalties for theft and crimes involving fentanyl. After the measure was handed overwhelmingly by voters, he accused Newsom of failing to correctly fund its statewide implementation.
Mahan additionally pushed by means of a plan in San José to arrest individuals on the road who repeatedly decline affords of shelter, which some progressives lambasted as inhumane.
San José, California’s third-most populous metropolis after Los Angeles and San Diego, has a rising fame for being a protected massive metropolis — with a current report by SmartAsset rating it the most secure massive metropolis in america primarily based on elements resembling crime charges, site visitors fatalities, overdose deaths and median revenue.
Mahan stated revenue inequality is “a really actual situation” and “a risk to our democracy.” However he stated the answer just isn’t the proposal being floated to tax 5% of the belongings of the state’s billionaires to lift funds for healthcare. He stated the proposal would have the other impact and diminish state tax income by driving rich individuals out of the state, as related insurance policies have finished in European nations which have applied them, however he didn’t specify how he would backfill the upcoming federal healthcare funding cuts that may have an effect on the state’s extra weak residents.
He stated he has heard instantly from enterprise leaders and others in Silicon Valley who’re anxious concerning the affect of such a tax, which they imagine “strikes proper on the coronary heart of Silicon Valley’s financial system, which has been an engine of prosperity and financial alternative for actually thousands and thousands of individuals in our state.”
He stated California ought to as a substitute deal with “closing loopholes within the tax code that permit the wealthiest amongst us to by no means pay taxes on their capital positive factors,” and on discovering methods to make authorities extra environment friendly fairly than “all the time going again to the voters and asking them to pay extra.”
Mahan stated San José has made “measurable progress” on the problems that voters elevate with him on the grocery retailer: “crime, the excessive value of dwelling, unsheltered homelessness, untreated dependancy.” However the metropolis is restricted in what it will possibly do with out “state management and actual accountability in Sacramento and on the county degree,” he stated.
Mahan has already elicited early help amongst rich enterprise capitalists and tech business leaders, who would be capable to bankroll a formidable marketing campaign.
In response to a put up in early January wherein Mahan stated the wealth tax would “sink California’s innovation financial system,” the angel investor Matt Brezina responded, “Is Matt working for governor but? Silicon Valley and California, let’s embrace Matt Mahan and his wise insurance policies. Matt understands how wealth is created, alternative is created and society is superior.”
Brezina didn’t reply to a request for remark, nor did Newsom.
Others would like Mahan not run.
Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee Chair Invoice James stated Mahan “hasn’t engaged” along with his group a lot, appears to contemplate “the extra centrist and even the extra conservative inhabitants within the space to be his base,” and frames his coverage agenda as that of a “average Democrat” when “it’s a bit Republican too.”
“Matt could run as a Democrat and really feel like he’s a Democrat, however his coverage positions are extra conservative than many Democrats we work together with right here in Santa Clara County,” he stated.
Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San José), chair of the Legislative Progressive Caucus, stated he additionally would like Mahan deal with San José, particularly given the “very massive yr” forward because the area hosts a number of main sporting occasions.
“Our mayor is correct that there must be extra deal with town getting ‘again to fundamentals,’ and I don’t know the way working for governor and doing a giant statewide race actually brings the core governance wanted for a metropolis,” Lee stated. “Everybody and their mother is working for governor proper now, and I simply assume it’s better-suited for us to have his focus right here.”
Lee stated the Democratic Get together is a “very massive tent,” however voters ought to be conscious that Mahan has aligned himself with the “most MAGA conservative” voices on sure points, resembling Proposition 36.
“He bucks the Democratic Get together,” Lee stated.
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