Editorial: Vote Ortiz for San Jose City Council District 5 seat

Don't allow Nora Campos to regain her stranglehold on East Side politics

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For 14 years, Nora Campos and her brother, Xavier Campos, had a stranglehold on East San Jose’s seat on the City Council, caring more about staying in power than taking care of residents’ needs.

Now Nora Campos wants to win back that District 5 seat she held from 2001-10 and that her brother held from 2011-15. That would be a disaster for an area that has been devastated by the pandemic and needs strong leadership to address its public safety, transportation and homelessness issues.

Voters should instead elect Peter Ortiz, the current president of the Santa Clara County Board of Education, to represent District 5.

Ortiz, 32, isn’t your typical City Council candidate. He was a Norteño gang member in February 2012 when he was arrested in connection with a strong-arm robbery. The charges were dropped three months later after Ortiz promised to sever ties with the gang and go through a rehabilitation process.

Since then, Ortiz has dedicated his life to community service. He served on the Mt. Pleasant Elementary School District Board of Trustees for two years before winning his seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Education in 2018.

He served on San Jose’s COVID-19 Health and Racial Equity Task Force, working to ensure vaccinations were more widely available for a district in which more than 40% of residents are of immigrant descent.

As a member of the Alum Rock Urban Village Advocates, he has gained an understanding of the development process in East San Jose, which will be crucial for District 5 to meet its substantial affordable-housing needs. Ortiz also has served on the city’s Transportation Equity Task Force and the East San Jose En Movimiento Community Advisory Group, focusing on improving District 5’s transportation challenges.

In the June primary, we supported Andres Quintero, who finished behind Ortiz and Campos. We were critical of Ortiz’ role in a shouting match initiated by a fourth candidate in the race, Roger Bonilla, and wary of Ortiz’ ties to labor.

But Ortiz has stood up to labor and supported charter schools while serving on the county Board of Education. And he reached out to Bonilla at a recent community meeting and patched up their differences. Whatever weaknesses Ortiz might have are dwarfed by Campos’ approach to political office.

Campos, who went on after her City Council stint to serve three terms in the state Assembly, has a history of doing the bidding of trade unions and lobbyists. When she ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate against Jim Beall in 2016, her campaign was bankrolled in part by a $500,000 contribution from a Big Oil political action committee because of her support of petroleum interests over climate change legislation. As an Assemblywoman, she took a five-day trip to Cuba and a separate junket to Maui, put together by lobbyists so legislators could “learn about issues.”

Ortiz might not have Campos’ political experience. But that’s a good thing. Her track record isn’t something we would want to see in a candidate running for public office. Ortiz’ sole focus will be on the needs of District 5. Voters should back him in the Nov. 8 election.