Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...Voters on Tuesday will cast ballots to replace Eric Swalwell for the second time in two weeks — this time in a special election for a temporary term.
In what could be the second of four elections to replace Swalwell this year, voters must choose between a list of 11 candidates, including those who ran to represent Congressional District 14 in the June 2 primary. The district covers parts of the East Bay and Tri-Valley, including cities such as Fremont, Hayward, Dublin, and Livermore.
Swalwell unceremoniously bowed out of public office and a gubernatorial campaign earlier this year following allegations of sexual misconduct with multiple women, leaving both the rest of his current term and the next full term up for grabs.
Repeat candidates running in both primaries include State Sen. Aisha Wahab, with latest returns showing her with over 38% of the votes from the earlier primary, likely sending her to the November general election. BART Board President Melissa Hernandez is also running in the special election, after returns showed her in second place with about 17% of the June 2 vote.
“The voters have clearly spoken,” Wahab told this news organization Friday. But, she said, “I’m one of those people that always waits to see what the final results are.”
If the June 2 election results hold, Wahab and Hernandez could face off in November to decide who permanently takes the job. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the special election Tuesday, the top two candidates will face off in another special general election on Aug. 18 to fill the rest of the temporary term. Wahab’s campaign finance records show substantial support from local labor and small, working class interests. But records also show that wealthy corporate political organizations are heavily backing Hernandez, whose campaign reported receiving over $1.6 million in independent expenditure support from multiple political action committees.
Wahab called Hernandez’s backers problematic.
“Let’s just be very honest what it is — I think that there are special election groups that are deeply interested in buying an election,” Wahab said. “When you have a candidate that’s for sale, this is what you typically see.”
The Bold America PAC, a financial interest arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, recently reported spending $125,000 in support of Hernandez. Before that, Bold America spent another total $439,921 on ads favoring Hernandez. Bold America is a super PAC, which spends millions to support Democrat candidates in different elections, and can independently spend unlimited amounts of money.
Another super PAC behind Hernandez is Project 218, based out of Washington, D.C., which reported spending $474,525 in political contributions on May 27.
Comparably, other groups spent over $517,300 to support Wahab’s campaign, including the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee and other small labor-aligned organizations.
“These organizations are damaging our democracy. Melissa is the candidate that is the prime example of that,” Wahab said. “The problem is the voters are smart. Voters can see through all of the money and see who’s really trying to help regular people out versus who is just interested in being a yes man to big corporations.”
Hernandez disagreed. She said she has no control over what groups spend their money on.
“No one’s buying me. I’ve never been bought out,” Hernandez told this news organization Friday. “I have nothing to do with independent expenditures.”
Hernandez said she did not review much of her campaign’s latest reports on independent expenditures, claiming that she’s instead focused her efforts on campaigning and meeting voters. She also spoke critically of Wahab’s campaign.
“Aisha Wahab is an extreme far-left legislator,” Hernandez said. “The people who live in this district are not. Whatever you get in the primary is not what you’re going to get in the general election. The general election is going to be, in my opinion, a different outcome. But we have a lot of work to do.”
Other repeat candidates appearing on Tuesday’s special election ballot include Democrat Rakhi Israni, a first-time political candidate who loaned her campaign over $1 million of her own money; and Republicans Wendy Huang and Dena Maldonado. Latest returns show Huang received about 13% of the June 2 primary vote, followed by Israni’s 12.95%, and Maldonado’s 12.14%.
Hernandez and Israni were two of several candidates enlisted as part of a failed Democrat plan to clear the field for the special election and allow a “caretaker” candidate to temporarily fill Swalwell’s seat for the rest of the year. The plan, pieced together primarily by San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren, collapsed after candidates filed to run anyway moments before the filing deadline.
The other new candidates on Tuesday’s ballot include Democrats Alisha Cordes, Sheriene Ridenour and Jot Thiara, Republicans Tom Wong and Jack Wu, and independent Victor Zevallos.