By Khalida Sarwari
Though Pierluigi Oliverio currently trails Don Rocha by more than 600 votes for Santa Clara County supervisor, the former San Jose councilman is not yet ready to throw in the towel.
Oliverio said Wednesday he plans to wait for the ballot count to be completed — which could take another week — before he concedes.
With 642 votes separating the candidates as of late Friday afternoon, Oliverio would have to make an incredible comeback to get back in the hard-fought race for District 4 supervisor, but he appeared nonplussed by that endeavor, saying his only plan for now is to wait “for the process to follow through like everybody else.”
Nevertheless, he did offer congratulations to “both of the likely finalists.”
After the June 5 primary, which saw challenger Susan Ellenberg taking 33 percent of the votes — and securing the top spot in the November runoff — Oliverio had the early lead. Then Saturday morning the numbers flipped in Rocha’s favor and stayed that way. So far this week, Rocha has seen his lead expand with just 3 percent of the mailed-in ballots remaining uncounted.
Registrar of Voters spokesman Eric Kurhi said Wednesday his office still needs to wade through 12,000 provisional ballots, which include a few thousand ballots cast in the District 4 race. With the process for counting these ballots more complicated, completing the count could take another five days, he said, adding, “none of the ballots from here on out are these easy ones that are going through” electronically.
As for Rocha, he didn’t seem to be in any rush to declare himself the second-place winner, and considered doing so premature.
“What I see is a very close race with two qualified candidates who worked very hard,” he said. “I don’t see a huge lead, I see a small lead — a slim lead. Until every vote is counted I’m never going to take anything for granted.”
Oliverio already is blaming his potential loss on local unions, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which put out well-timed campaign mailers equating the allegations against him with those leveled against scandalized Hollywood figure Harvey Weinstein and failed Senate candidate Roy Moore. It was their concerted attack and apparently deep pockets, he said, that ultimately influenced the outcome of the race.
“I hope that voters will hold the next supervisor accountable for standing up to special interests, and will do so in a transparent way,” he said.
When reached for comment on Wednesday, Ellenberg declined to speculate on the race and stated that she’s focused on her campaign for the November election.
[related_articles location=”left” show_article_date=”false” article_type=”automatic-primary-tag”]“Voters will have a clear choice in this election and I will continue to bring forward my ideas, engagement and insights to county government,” she said.
Oliverio congratulates ‘likely finalists,’ but not ready to concede
