Endorsements fuel political campaigns. Last week the Gilroy
Chamber of Commerce selected City Council candidate Bob Dillon and
mayoral candidate Al Pinheiro as its top picks for the Nov. 6
election.
Gilroy – Endorsements fuel political campaigns.
Last week the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce selected City Council candidate Bob Dillon and mayoral candidate Al Pinheiro as its top picks for the Nov. 6 election.
The two men are well known to the chamber’s 12-seat board, and board member Kai Lai said the chamber chose Dillon and Pinheiro because of their respective understandings of local businesses and their favorable responses to the chambers list of questions.
Lai, a board member for three years and a retired consultant for the aeronautical industry, said he and a five-member election committee asked all the candidates the same nine questions and then reported their findings to the 11-member board (council candidate and chamber board member Tim Day had to recuse himself), which then endorsed the two men by a two-thirds majority.
“We talked to all the candidates to see their view toward the business community in general here in Gilroy,” Lai said. “We wanted to know what’s the plan for the future of Gilroy?”
The importance of rewarding city contracts to companies who pay living wages, controlling the city budget, using eminent domain, improving public safety, dealing with the potential purchase of Gilroy Gardens, and pegging growth to the school district’s ability to accommodate more students were some of the bigger issues the chamber’s election committee asked.
“Everybody should know what criteria we use to endorse candidates,” Lai said, because “practically every one of them is friendly toward business.”
Pinheiro said he hoped the chamber’s endorsement will show voters that his track record as mayor speaks for itself.
“The chamber did what I’m hoping the community will do, which is weigh things overall and not just use sound bites as a basis to endorse you or not endorse you,” Pinheiro said.
This is Dillon’s third endorsement by the chamber, and he said it’s because he likes business and business likes him. He added that one question that stuck out to him in particular concerned the proposed Westfield Mall project that could fill 120 acres in the 660-acre swath of land east of Gilroy.
Dillon said he’s “inclined to vote for Westfield” since “we all had Cisco fever” when the city designated that land for lucrative Silicon-Valley-type jobs.
“I think we need to re-think that [land designation],” Dillon said. “I’ve always had a strong sense in the business community.”
Lai said he also remembered Dillon telling the election committee that he would only use eminent domain in a very special or unusual circumstance and that he’s not opposed to dipping into the city’s $26.7 million reserve fund to offset the current $4.7 million deficit.
It remains unclear who the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees will endorse. Representatives did not return calls for comment Wednesday.
The other two unions – police and fire – are close to a decision, though.
Mark Ordaz, the vice president of the Gilroy Firefighter union, said his group and the Gilroy Police Officers union are discussing their endorsements together since they try to come to a consensus.
Three members from each union make up the joint endorsement team, but Ordaz cautioned they could end up endorsing different candidates.
All six met last Friday to discuss “questions relating to public safety and the direction the city’s moving in,” Ordaz said, adding that the group expects to make an announcement Tuesday, Oct. 2.
