Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 10/30/07 Section: News

Media Credit: ERIC AUSTIN, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY Former San Jose Councilwoman Cindy Chavez addresses her audience at yesterday's lecture at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library.

Former Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez announced Monday she will possibly run for a seat with the Santa Clara County board of supervisors.

The current SJSU Leader-in-Residence, who lost a bid for the San Jose mayor's office in 2006, said within the next month she will organize an exploratory committee.

Omar Torres, a senior political science major, said he lives in District 3 of San Jose, Chavez's former district. Torres said he has known Chavez since he was 11 years old.

"I thought she did an incredible job as a District 3 councilmember/vice mayor," Torres said, "and I've been telling her since she lost her race for mayor to run for the board of supervisors because we need more people like her to be elected and representing us."

Torres said Chavez's announcement was the first time the public heard from her about her possible candidacy.

"That's awesome that she might be running," he said.

Chavez said the amount of encouragement from people influenced her decision.

After her semester as Leader-in-Residence at SJSU, Chavez is scheduled to be a fellow at UC Santa Cruz's Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, specializing in land use and sustainability in California.

Chavez's announcement came during a panel discussion in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library.

The overall theme of the evening was women in politics, with Chavez joined by former Santa Clara County Supervisors Susanne B. Wilson and Dianne McKenna.

"Because these women paved the way, I thought it was only respectful to invite them to participate," Chavez said.

Wilson, McKenna and Chavez each talked about the challenges they faced while running for office and as politicians.

"My belief in having this kind of discussion that is open is that you start to change hearts and minds," Chavez said. "That you help people reflect on how we do what we do better and for the common good."

Among the people in attendance included former mayor of San Jose Susan Gray Hayes, who was the first woman mayor of a major U.S. city, and Ken Yeager, a county supervisor who was part of the San Jose City Council with Chavez.

Media Credit: ERIC AUSTIN, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY A crowd piled into the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. library on Monday to hear former City Council member Cindy Chavez, as well as other officials, speak about women in politics.

There were also students from Mount Pleasant High School at the event.

Marisa Melo, a junior political science major, volunteered to help out at the event and collected donations from audience members afterward. Chavez said the donations will go toward helping students pay for things such as a trip to Sacramento to visit the state capitol.

Melo said she thought the guest speakers inspired women in the audience, including herself, to possibly run for office.

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