Chuck Reed

Last updated
Charles R. Reed
Chuck Reed (3612554701) (cropped).jpg
64th Mayor of San Jose
In office
January 9, 2007 December 31, 2014

Early political career

Starting in the 1980s and continuing to 2000, Reed served on numerous commissions, boards, and committees including the City Planning Commission and the San Jose Downtown Association.

San Jose City Council

Reed was elected to a seat on the San Jose City Council from the Berryessa District (District 4) in 2000. [2] He ran again in 2004 and was re-elected with 86% of all the votes cast. While on the San Jose City Council, Reed was known for often being the lone dissenter in many votes. He was thought to be the most outspoken critic of the status quo on the council and voted against many noteworthy agenda items.

Mayoral election 2006

In 2005, with the incumbent mayor, Ron Gonzales, term-limited out, Reed announced his plan to run for Mayor of San Jose. In the mayoral primary held on June 6, 2006, in a crowded field of ten candidates, Reed won 28.8% of the vote, putting him in the mayoral run-off election held on November 7, 2006 against San Jose Vice-Mayor Cindy Chavez who received 23.17% of the vote. Michael Mulcahy received 10.74%, Dave Cortese received 16.37%, David Pandori received 17.86%.

In the mayoral runoff election held on November 7, 2006, Reed won a solid victory over Chavez who conceded the race just before midnight. Final tallies show Reed garnered 117,394 votes to Chavez's 80,720 (in percentage terms 59.26% to 40.74%). [3]

During the Mayoral campaign, Reed was criticized in a series of attack ads by Chavez and Labor Unions for getting reimbursed for various expenses that he had as a council member from his office fund. He repaid the funds when the issue hit the media and apologized to the public for any sense of wrongdoing. The funds in question were all approved by the City Clerk's Office and in an October 2006 City Council meeting, City Clerk, Lee Price, stated that the reimbursements did not violate City law and was common practice among the City Council offices. Regardless, early in his administration, Reed had the City Clerk's Office produce a more detailed explanation for approved uses and restricted uses.

Reed put together a 67-member transition committee to aide his transition staff in policy issues. Assisted by Transition Team Co-Chairs former San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery and Victor Ajlouny, Reed hosted publicly held meetings where many policy issues were discussed. The subcommittees for the transition included Jobs & the Economy, Environment, Education, Public Safety, and Government Reform and Ethics.

Mayor of San Jose

Reed was inaugurated as the 64th Mayor of San Jose on Tuesday, January 9, 2007. [2] At his inauguration, he promised "no lying, no cheating, no stealing." This added mantra was derived from the Air Force Academy oath. [2] Reed immediately pushed many of his 34 Reed Reforms, including focusing on outreach efforts to get the community involved in the budget process.

Chuck Reed has gained many nicknames during his tenure in office including "Mr. Integrity", "the Anti-Ron Gonzales", and "Captain America" due to his habit of sporting the American Flag. On October 11, 2007 at a meeting with more than 100 Silicon Valley CEOs, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger referred to Reed as the "Green Mayor" because of Reed's environmental priorities. [4]

San Jose's Green Vision

Mayor Reed announced his Green Vision for San Jose in October 2007. The Green Vision is a comprehensive environmental guide for San Jose over the next 15 years, setting 10 goals. The Green Vision was adopted by the San Jose City Council on October 30, 2007 in an 11–0 vote. Mayor Reed aims to bring 25,000 clean tech jobs to San Jose and attracted Tesla Motors and several solar power companies to the city in 2008. He attributes his progress so far to "moving at the speed of business" and streamlining procedures. One city approval process (special tenant improvements) was reduced from 3–6 months to one hour." [5]

2010 re-election

Mayor Reed launched his bid for re-election on December 10, 2009. He pledged to keep positioning the city as a center of "clean tech" innovation. [6] Reed was re-elected to a second term in a landslide on June 8, 2010. [7] Reed won the election with 70,088 votes, or 76.7%, against three challengers. [7] [8] His nearest opponent, Thomas Nguyen, placed second with just 9,016. [7] Susan Barragan placed third with 7,573 votes, while Bill Chew came in fourth place with 4,752 votes. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoe Lofgren</span> American politician & lawyer (born 1947)

Susan Ellen "Zoe" Lofgren is an American lawyer and politician serving as a U.S. representative from California. A member of the Democratic Party, Lofgren is in her 14th term in Congress, having been first elected in 1994. Lofgren has long served on the House Judiciary Committee, and chaired the House Administration Committee in the 116th and 117th Congresses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Gonzalez</span> American politician(born 1965)

Matthew Edward Gonzalez is an American politician, lawyer, and activist. He served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2001 to 2005 and was president of the Board. In 2003, Gonzalez, running as a member of the Green Party, lost a race for mayor of San Francisco to Democrat Gavin Newsom. In the 2008 presidential election, Gonzalez ran for vice president as the running mate of candidate Ralph Nader. As of February 2024, he works as the Chief Attorney at the San Francisco Public Defender's Office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Dellums</span> American politician (1935–2018)

Ronald Vernie Dellums was an American politician who served as Mayor of Oakland from 2007 to 2011. He had previously served thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 9th congressional district, in office from 1971 to 1998, after which he worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Gonzales</span> American politician and mayor

Ronald R. Gonzales is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party, who served as the 63rd Mayor of San Jose, California. Gonzales was the first Hispanic to serve as Mayor of San Jose since 1845.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank G. Jackson</span> American politician

Frank George Jackson is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio from 2006 to 2022. He was first elected on November 8, 2005, unseating incumbent Jane Campbell, and re-elected in 2009, 2013, and 2017. Having served four full terms, he is the longest-serving mayor in Cleveland history. On May 6, 2021, he announced he would not seek re-election in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madison Nguyen</span> American politician

Madison Nguyen is an American politician from California. She served on the San Jose City Council from 2005 to 2014, representing District 7, and she additionally served as Vice-Mayor from 2011 to 2014. She was the first Vietnamese-American elected to the city council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cindy Chavez</span> American politician

Cindy Chavez is an American politician who serves as the Santa Clara County supervisor representing district two, which is home to nearly 400,000 residents in Downtown, East, and South San Jose. Her public service career began in the 1990s as a policy analyst for health care, public health, human services and transportation for the Board of Supervisors. She served two terms on the San Jose City Council, where she was also Vice Mayor, and also served on the board leadership of public agencies such as the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, and executive director of Working Partnerships USA and the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council. She has unsuccessfully run for Mayor of San Jose twice. She is a graduate of San Jose State University, is married and has a son in college.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2006 Richmond, California municipal elections</span>

The Richmond, California 2006 city election decided the mayor, four council members, and one measure submitted to the voters of Richmond, California on November 7, 2007. The election also elected the first Green Party mayor of this city, and made Richmond the largest city in the United States to have a Green mayor. Furthermore, it unseated an incumbent mayor from a major political party by one from a minor third party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Hammer</span> American politician (1938–2020)

Susan Walker Hammer was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party, who served as the mayor of San Jose, California, from 1991 to 1999. She was voted best local politician six times. Previous to serving as mayor, she represented San Jose City Council District Three, which encompassed the downtown area of the city, from 1983 to 1991.

Thomas Andrew McEnery is an American author, businessman, and teacher from San Jose, California, who served as the 61st mayor of that city from 1983 to 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jorge Santini</span> Puerto Rican politician

Jorge Santini Padilla is a Puerto Rican politician who previously served as the mayor of San Juan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stewart Alexander</span> American politician (born 1951)

Stewart Alexis Alexander is an American democratic socialist politician, presidential nominee for the Socialist Party USA in the 2012 election, and former SPUSA nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 2008 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Hill (politician)</span> American politician

Gerald A. "Jerry" Hill is an American politician who served in the California State Senate as a member for the Democratic Party. He represented the 13th Senate District during his time in the California State Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evan Low</span> American politician (born 1983)

Evan Low is an American politician currently serving in the California State Assembly. He is a Democrat representing the 26th Assembly District, which encompasses parts of Silicon Valley, including Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and portions of northern and western San Jose. He is a member of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, and currently serves as Chair of the California Asian American & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus.

The South Bay Labor Council, AFL–CIO (SBLC), is the labor council of Santa Clara and San Benito counties in California's Bay Area. The SBLC is affiliated with the AFL–CIO, one of the national labor confederations of the United States. The SBLC represents over 100,000 men and women of 101 unions in Silicon Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Liccardo</span> American politician (born 1970)

Samuel Theodore Liccardo is an American politician from California who served as the 65th mayor of San José from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Liccardo was elected mayor in November 2014. He was reelected in 2018 with 75.8% of the vote. As the leader of the California Big City Mayors Coalition, Liccardo advocated on statewide issues including homelessness and COVID-19 response.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 San Jose mayoral election</span>

The 2014 San Jose mayoral election was held on June 3, 2014 to elect the Mayor of San Jose, California. Councilmember Sam Liccardo defeated Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese in a runoff on November 4, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2006 San Jose mayoral election</span>

The 2006 San Jose mayoral election was held on June 6 and November 7, 2006 to elect the Mayor of San Jose, California. It saw the election of Chuck Reed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Mahan</span> American politician and tech entrepreneur (born 1982)

Matthew William Mahan is an American politician and tech entrepreneur, now serving his first term as the Mayor of San Jose. He previously served as the District 10 Councilmember representing the Almaden Valley, Blossom Valley, and Vista Park neighborhoods. Mahan also served as the co-founder and CEO of Brigade Media, a tech company focused on civic engagement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 San Jose mayoral election</span> American election in California

The 2022 San Jose mayoral election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the next mayor of San Jose for a two-year term. A top-two primary was held on June 7, 2022, and no candidate received more than 50% in this primary election. Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez and San Jose City Councilmember Matt Mahan advanced to a November 8 runoff election. On November 16, Cindy Chavez conceded the race to Matt Mahan.

References

  1. Gottlieb, Allie (February 2003). "Captain America's Rebellion". Metroactive News. Retrieved 2009-03-08.
  2. 1 2 3 Walsh, Diana (2007-01-10). "Reed sworn in as mayor, vows to restore trust". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 2012-01-22.
  3. "Registration & Turnout". Sccgov.org. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  4. "Chuck Reed, California's Green Mayor welcomes Obama's green tech focus". Fresh Dialogues. 2008-11-11. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  5. "Green Mayor shares tactics for attracting clean tech". Fresh Dialogues. 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  6. Tracy Seipel. "San Jose mayor launches bid for re-election – The Mercury News". Mercurynews.com. Retrieved 2016-12-01.
  7. 1 2 3 Walsh, Diana (2010-06-10). "County-by-County Election Results Santa Clara County". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 2012-01-22.
  8. 1 2 "Bay Area Election Round-Up". KNTV . 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2012-01-22.
Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of San Jose, California
2007–2015
Succeeded by