The Silicon Valley Leadership Group looks ahead to California’s March 2020 primary election with excitement. In preparation for this election, the Leadership Group provided questionnaires to candidates running for local, county, and state offices on the 2020 ballot. The races are among Silicon Valley’s most prominent. 29 candidates running in 10 different races responded to our March 2020 Primary Candidate Questionnaire, answering questions that were not only relevant to the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s policy priorities but also important to those who work and live in Silicon Valley.
Among candidates for San Jose City Council, Santa Clara County Supervisor, State Senate and State Assembly, 100% of all candidates support requiring all new buses purchased with federal funding to be zero-emission beginning in October 2029. All of the candidates for State Senate and State Assembly also provided unanimous support for developing a “Baylands Caucus” to address the threat of sea-level rise, addressing higher education opportunity gaps for underrepresented students, and increasing the number of graduates prepared for innovation economy careers.
Our state candidates also showed near-unanimous support for several other transit-related issues, such as:
- a fast, reliable rail connection between the Central Valley and Silicon Valley,
- a ballot measure dedicated to building and operating an integrated transit system to better serve Bay Area residents,
- and state legislation to facilitate and encourage transit-oriented-development.
Locally, our candidates were somewhat more divided on these issues, with 80% of the county-level candidates expressing support for a valley-to-valley rail connection and 61% of City Council candidates supporting it. Additionally, all of the candidates for county supervisor support a ballot measure dedicated to building and operating an integrated transit system, while only 61% of City Council candidates agreed.
Our local candidates are united, however, when it comes to identifying and addressing the issues they find to be most important for Bay Area residents. When asked about priorities in their district, local candidates for San Jose City Council and Santa Clara County Supervisor prioritized housing and homelessness, public safety, and infrastructure improvements as the most important. Additionally, they agreed to work with the Leadership Group to secure additional funding to protect the region from flooding due to impacts of sea level rise and advance a common vision for a healthy and resilient San Francisco Bay.
We appreciate that the candidates we will be voting on in March 2020 provided their thoughtful answers to questions about critical issues in our region. We hope that this information will help to inform your voting decisions and with that in mind, we invite you to view the full 2020 Primary Candidate Questionnaire. Here you will find candidate responses to questions about other important issues such as affordable housing, CEQA reform, split roll property taxes, and healthcare costs.
We hope you enjoy hearing what the candidates have to say!
Click on this link for the full 2020 Candidate Questionnaire Report. The report includes linked Table of Contents page, which will take you to the cities of your choice.
Not yet registered to vote? Do so here: https://registertovote.ca.gov/
-Kristen Petersen, Senior Associate, Government Relations, Silicon Valley Leadership Group | September 29, 2019
Editors Note: We have since received more responses to our questionnaire. You can find updated information here.