Don’t Be Fooled: San Jose’s Matt Mahan is No Moderate

The self-proclaimed “pragmatic” Democrat is a left-wing progressive who knows how to speak moderate, says San Jose GOP chief David Johnson.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan looks ready to announce his candidacy for California governor. That will be followed immediately by media punditry claiming that he represents the “moderate” wing of the California Democratic Party.

It’s bunk.

As the head of the GOP in San Jose, I have watched with interest and dismay as Mahan has risen from a little-known city councilmember to mayor and now gubernatorial hopeful. Locals have a pretty good idea of where he stands on issues.  That stand can be summarized thusly: Talk like a centrist, govern as a leftist – and when that fails, move farther left.

Throughout his leftward shift, Mahan will declare that no one will be left behind – even as he leaves conservatives behind, especially on taxation. Consider:

• He supported Proposition 5, which would’ve weakened Proposition 13 taxpayer protections. Fortunately, county and state voters rejected Prop. 5. He’s also opposing this year’s Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Prop 13.

• He supported the RM4 Regional housing tax – right up to the moment it had to be withdrawn due to ballot language falsehoods.
• He supported Santa Clara County’s Measure A in November, a deeply misguided bailout of the county’s bankrupt hospital system.
• He supports SB 63, a bailout for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, the county’s failing, feckless transit agency, often cited as the worst-performing transit agency in the country. He sits on the VTA board.

The only tax idea he hasn’t liked was (surprise!) the tax on Silicon Valley billionaires who are undoubtedly bankrolling his higher-office ambitions.

He is dishonest about the ongoing crime crisis in San Jose.

Mahan likes to claim that San Jose is a safe big city. Tell that to the families of people stabbed to death at our malls. Or the thousands traumatized by Black Friday shootings at our biggest shopping center. Or the brazen smash ‘n’ grabs at our city’s small businesses. The truth is that San Jose’s safety profile ranks in the bottom half of California cities, according to Realpa, and some of our eastside neighborhoods are less safe than the majority of U.S. cities.

His homelessness strategy is timid and expensive.

To be fair, like many city leaders, Mahan successfully pivoted San Jose away from the failed Housing First strategies for homelessness. He has instituted, instead, a collection of small-scale temporary shelters to help some homeless move off the streets.

But that effort is slow and costly. Three years into his mayoral tenure, homelessness is still on the rise and the majority of the city’s homeless are still unsheltered. Mahan has studiously rejected the sort of high-capacity, large-scale shelters that could solve our homelessness crisis much faster and cheaper. A state audit ripped San Jose’s homelesnesss expenses, finding that tens of millions of dollars went have gone unaccounted for.

And through it all, Mahan has shown a disregard for Republicans and Independents. He endorses hard-left, Mamdani-like candidates for the City Council. He endorsed Prop. 50, disenfranchising Republicans statewide. And he displays allyship with far-left No Kings and anti-ICE protestors when given the chance.

We fully expect statewide liberal media to paint him as some sort of “pragmatic progressive,” a saner version of Gavin Newsom. But take it from those who know Mahan best: It’s all spin.

Beware of progressives claiming moderation.