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ABOUT THE CANDIDATES

District 10 - Lenka Wright

Originally from Long Island, N.Y., Lenka Wright chose San José as her adopted home to live and raise her family. Lenka made many stops across the country because of her TV broadcasting career and marriage to a U.S. Air Force pilot before arriving in San José in December 2010.

For more than 15 years, Lenka has been a seasoned communications executive, having led citywide communications and outreach for five cities in California (Mountain View, Santa Clara, and San José) Washington (Bellevue), and Texas (Abilene). In addition, Lenka taught undergraduate and graduate classes, including crisis communications courses, as an adjunct professor for National University's Strategic Communications program. Lenka has been actively involved in community groups and served on city and school district advisory bodies.

Lenka's top priorities are increasing public safety, addressing homelessness by getting individuals, couples and families off the streets and into stable housing, and enhancing quality of life through well-maintained parks, litter-free streets and youth/family/senior programming including more library hours. She also backs efforts to bring more quality jobs with living wages to our area. Lenka is running for City Council to stand up for our future. By working together with city leaders on a common goal, she strives to restore the middle class and keep the American dream alive in San José.

District 10 - Arjun Batra

Arjun Batra is the councilmember of the San José City Council for District 10. He holds an MBA degree and has extensive international background knowledge gained from working and managing in the technology industry, which enables him to better understand the concerns and issues of his residents and neighbors. He worked at IBM and Intel before retiring and joining former Mayor Sam Liccardo’s Technology and Innovation office as an Encore Fellow. Batra has served the City of San José in various pro-bono roles, including the Smart City Advisory Board and the San José Information Technology Advisory Committee.

His goal is to make San José the greenest, safest, and most convenient city to live, work, and raise a family in by advocating to find necessary solutions to address homelessness and housing issues that are prominent in the city today. Batra is the first Indian-American on the council since Ash Kalra. Batra and his family have lived in District 10 for over 40 years. His wife, an environmental engineer, is an ESL Instructor at MetroEd Adult Education Center, while his two sons are alumni of Leland High School, University of California – Berkeley, Columbia, and Harvard Law Schools.

District 4 - David Cohen

David Cohen's parents were his advocates, ensuring that he would have a fair shot at success. They instilled in David a desire to make his community a better place. David spent 14 years serving the families and students of the Berryessa School District. There, he focused on creating relationships with local families and students, listening to the needs of neighborhoods, and taking action to create opportunities for every student. Together, they safeguarded small class sizes, preserved music and science programs, and secured additional funding for local schools.

In 2020, David saw the need to bring that community-centered approach to the City Council. District 4 residents needed an advocate in City Hall. As a member of Council, his primary focus has been to be accessible to all the residents of the district. He has focused on the unique needs of District 4, including addressing long-neglected needs of Alviso, partnering with neighborhoods and schools in North San Jose and River Oaks, investing in parks, improving pedestrian safety, and holding community events.

David Cohen has led the way on policies that matter to San Jose, such as building more affordable housing, addressing homelessness, keeping our community clean, and ensuring a clean and carbon-free future for our children.

District 4 - Kansen Chu

Kansen Chu currently serves on the California State Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education Advisory Committee. Kansen emigrated to the United Stated from Taiwan in 1976. After finishing his graduate school in Electronics Engineering in 1978, he moved to San Jose and worked at IBM Corporation as a micro-diagnostic programmer. In 1989, Kansen and his wife, Daisy, started Ocean Harbor Chinese restaurant in San Jose. They operated the small business until 2006.

Kansen started his public services in early 1990. He first served on the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Board and later served on the Santa Clara County Mental Health Board. Kansen was first elected to the Berryessa School Board in 2002. From 2007 to 2014, he served as the San Jose City councilmember representing Alviso, Berryessa and North San Jose. Kansen was elected in November 2014 to represent California’s 25th Assembly District, which serves the Alameda County communities of Fremont and Newark, and the Santa Clara County communities of Milpitas, San Jose and Santa Clara. Kansen was appointed to the Berryessa School Board in 2020.

In the State Assembly, Kansen served as the chairperson of the Human Services Committee and later appointed to chair the Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media Committee. During his 6 years in the Assembly, he has served on the Assembly Transportation Committee, Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee, Insurance Committee, Revenue and Taxation Committee, Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy Committee, and, Labor and Employment Committee. In addition to the Assembly Standing Committee mentioned above, Chu created and chaired the Select Committee on Hate Crimes for 4 years.

Since elected to the State Assembly, Chu has focused on mental health, public safety, education, environmental protection and justice, and good governance in the legislature. From 2018 to 2019, Kansen secured more than $60 million to support training and recruitment of mental health professionals, fight against auto break-ins and property theft, senior services, arts education and emergency preparedness. In addition to successful funding requests, Chu has passed bills to increase school bus safety, expand access to mental health services, secure more funding for public transportation, improve state’s recycling efforts, expand access to clean drinking water for disadvantaged communities, protect domestic abuse survivors, and move the State away from outdated practice of switching the clock twice a year.

Chu has worked to hold utility companies accountable for the power shut offs that affect millions of people each time. Chu also has worked tirelessly to break down mental health stigma through AB 8 and AB 1838, to put a mental health professional in every single school in California and ensure that our children are able to take time off from school to address mental health crisis.

During Chu’s time on the San José City Council, he served on San Jose City Public Safety Committee, Park and Recreation Committee, VTA Board, Santa Clara County Water Commission, Waste Reduction and Recycling Commission and represented San José on the League of California Cities and the Association of Bay Area Governments. He made public health, transportation, and environmental issues top priorities- passing initiatives to require citywide green building standards and championed a ban on single-use plastic bags. Kansen also spearheaded the installation of automatic heart defibrillators across San José as a way to save lives.

While serving on the City Council, Chu worked with community members to create the North San José Neighborhood Plan, bring BART to San Jose, established the Berryessa Business Association, helped start the Berryessa Farmers Market, renovated the Educational Park Library, and moved the long-awaited Commodore Park project forward.

As a school board member, Kansen advocated equitable education for all students and improved parent participation in schools.

During Covid-19 pandemic, Kansen has dedicated his time working with many community members and raised more than 130,000 pieces of PPE’s for the County Hospital, Regional Hospital, Community Health Clinics, farm workers, Santa Clara County Sheriff Department, Milpitas public safety staff, and general publics.

Kansen has a long history of community services. He has served on YMCA, VIVO, Self Help for the Elderly, Restorative of Justice Board, Berryessa Neighborhood Accountability Board, San Jose East/Evergreen Rotary Club, First VP of Milpitas Lions Clubs; just to name a few.

Kansen and Daisy have been married for 47 years. They have two adult children, Ann and Walt, a son-in-law Steve, and grandchildren, Kimberly and Connor.

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!