Notes on the 2020 Sunnyvale Mayor’s Race
I will vote for Larry Klein and I encourage everyone else to do so as well. He’s been masterful as mayor for nearly the last two years. I’ve observed him on the dais and been impressed. He runs clean meetings. He’s on the right side of all the important issues and he has proven himself to be a regional leader. If you can’t vote for Larry, vote for Nancy Smith. She’s correct on all the issues. She just hasn’t been as good on the dais.
If you think Michael Goldman can stop new housing development, think again. If Sunnyvale falls behind on its state mandated quotas, developers will use state law to build anyway. It’s already happening in Cupertino and Los Altos. These developments would go up with no negotiated community benefits or developer concessions.
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Larry has proven to be an articulate and effective leader. He has used the limited agenda setting powers of the mayor to good effect. I was impressed when he agendized emergency tenant protections last year.
Furthermore, since his election to council in 2016, he has been the most inclusive local politician I’ve ever seen. He’s a white man in a disproportionately Asian, specifically South Asian city. Seeing him getting doused in color for Holi and participating in Diwali celebrations was very encouraging to me. He’s been instrumental in getting the city behind Pride and the city finally started commemorating Lunar New Year. He’s been at the forefront of all this.
He’s raised the profile of the city regionally. Santa Clara County mayors selected him to lead the county city association. It’s obvious that leaders from the region respect him. Then there’s the cheerleading for local businesses during the Covid pandemic. I’m sure the locally owned restaurants have loved all the publicity he’s brought to them. Even before his selection as mayor, Larry held weekly “office hours” and has been more accessible than any elected official I remember. For all these reasons, I support Larry Klein.
Nancy Smith, the sitting council member, is a strong second choice for me. She has spent years cultivating key relationships across the region and state. She is friendly, congenial, and competent. She has used her inter-governmental appointments to full effect. Her platform is solid gold and she is the only candidate who has stated a preference for a community fiber network. She would be a wise choice for mayor.
I’m really nitpicking when I say she has faltered on the dais at times. Her strengths, which are numerous, are not a perfect match for our governmental system. This is actually an argument for reforming the system. I would support Nancy wholeheartedly if she were to propose reforms that would lessen the effectiveness of testosterone in our system. But that’s not on the docket right now.
Finally, I cannot support Nancy because she hedged on Measure B. For those not following closely, Measure B was the ballot proposition in March of this year that moved the city to by-district elections for city council from city-wide elections. It passed 62–38. Measure B was a response to the threat of lawsuit for California Voting Rights Act violations. I was one of the named potential plaintiffs. There was no doubt that Sunnyvale was guilty of violating the voting rights of Asian and Latinx Americans. Consequently, Measure B was a moral issue. Voters could vote for equal rights for all its citizens or they could let it be decided in the legal system. While Larry Klein endorsed and campaigned for Measure B, Nancy Smith sat on the sidelines with no position. She was not willing to campaign to ensure that Sunnyvale be a city that voted affirmatively for equal voting rights. This was a serious lapse in judgement.
Michael Goldman is like Mike Pence. He says truly horrid things, but few take offense because he keeps his voice calm. From the dais as a council member, he has referred to his wife as his “trophy wife of Asian descent.” The California Voting Rights Act debate was obviously way over his head and he went on a long, rambling diatribe on East Asian eye shape. When confronted for his racist speech his response has been “My wife is Asian. I can’t be racist.” He led the campaign against Measure B basing his opposition on fairy tale legal theories. That campaign doctored videos of Measure B supporters, including myself, to make it appear as if we opposed Measure B. He has novel urban planning ideas that are based on idiosyncratic interpretations of cherry-picked data. He likes to say “there is no housing crisis.” Average home price in 2018 for Sunnyvale was $1.8 million. How high does it have to go before it’s a crisis?
Even if you think his racism and misogyny do not rise to the level of disqualifying, his effectiveness as a council member should. In nearly four years as a council member, he has no accomplishments. On items of consequence, he is usually outvoted 6 to 1. Sometimes he abstains so it is only 6–0. His style is disorganized and rambling. Him running council meetings would be disastrous affairs. Sunnyvale would likely find itself in constant violation of state law as the council could not pass enough legislation to stay in compliance.
If you think Michael Goldman would stop housing development, that’s a fairy tale. If Sunnyvale falls behind on its state mandated quotas, developers will use state law to build anyway. It’s already happening in Cupertino and Los Altos. These developments would go up with no negotiated community benefits or developer concessions.
In conclusion, I think Larry Klein is the best choice for Sunnyvale’s first elected mayor. If for some reason, you won’t vote for Larry, then vote for Nancy Smith. DO NOT VOTE FOR MICHAEL GOLDMAN.
