Sixteen days after the polls opened for the June 8 primary
election, the District 1 board of supervisor race has been decided;
Forrest Williams will go up against Mike Wasserman on the November
ballot. After a trying, up and down three weeks awaiting the final
count of votes, nonprofit executive Teresa Alvarado, 45, was forced
to concede to Williams who won by a margin of just 62 votes.
Sixteen days after the polls opened for the June 8 primary election, the District 1 board of supervisor race has been decided; Forrest Williams will go up against Mike Wasserman on the November ballot. After a trying, up and down three weeks awaiting the final count of votes, nonprofit executive Teresa Alvarado, 45, was forced to concede to Williams who won by a margin of just 62 votes.
The gap between the two was as few as 32 votes last week and waned by about 10 votes after more provisional ballots were counted.
Alvarado will not seek a recount. She did release a statement Wednesday afternoon that congratulated the top two finalists and wished them good luck in November.
“However, I do not intend to make an early endorsement of either candidate. Instead, I look forward to hearing both of them during the course of the fall campaign. I believe strongly in the importance of county government in our community and I hope the candidates will speak about the county’s services, constituents, revenues, and expenditures in an informed and meaningful way,” Alvarado said.
Williams, 73, who is a former San Jose city councilman and worked as a computer engineer, said while he had hoped to win the race outright, he was pleased he will have the chance to runoff Nov. 2
“We were very aggressive in our strategy and worked hard,” Williams said. He also thanked his staff and those who supported and voted for him.
His experience is what will put him ahead of Wasserman, he said.
“When you lay the things out in terms of experience and complexity and magnitude of my record, that’s how we will be measured,” Williams said Wednesday.
Alvarado said she hopes Williams and Wasserman will “actively engage with the residents of District 1 over the coming months. The constituents of southern Santa Clara County deserve elected leaders who view them as their top priority,” she said.
Los Gatos councilman Wasserman finished the election with 42.5 percent of the vote or 26,206 votes; Williams had 19.3 percent or 11,886 votes; Alvarado had 19.2 percent or 11,824 votes; Gilroy winery owner Tom Kruse garnered 11 percent or 6,856 votes and Gilroy city councilman Peter Arellano got 8 percent or 4,966 votes.
