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Jonsen right candidatefor the sheriff’s office

Electing Bob Jonsen will give Santa Clara County a new sheriff with innovative ideas and solutions with a broad range of law enforcement experience as a commander and chief. Not another insider. For over 50 years every new sheriff has come from within the department. It’s time to end the status quo and the reign of the old guard of favoritism and corruption.

For 50-plus years people with diverse ideas, opinions, experience and backgrounds have been shoved aside. We have a sheriff’s office that is a constant source of poor leadership that produces countless lawsuits and big settlements, excessive spending and waste. It’s time for change at the top and a new day for Santa Clara County.

This November let’s put a new sheriff in town – Bob Jonsen. Bob can clean up the mess and lead the people of the Sheriff’s office in a new, more effective direction.

Dennis HawkinsSan Jose

Mayor, not 49ers, isSanta Clara’s problem

Re. “Police chief seeks probe of City Council,” Page B1, Oct. 12:

There is something rotten in Santa Clara politics, and it is not the 49ers.

Mayor Lisa Gillmor has arranged for all that oppose her to be investigated right before the election. This is one more political ploy by the mayor to control the city. She has wasted millions of dollars of city money challenging the voting rights act to keep her voting bloc. She has spent millions of public dollars on allegations against the 49ers and made the team the issue of every election. The mayor has spent more in public funds for her political agenda than the 49ers have spent in private funds.

I hope Santa Clara voters see through this charade. The 49ers are not the biggest issue in Santa Clara. The growing homeless problem, crime and the budget are big issues. Let’s make the election about the real issues.

Don SmithSanta Clara

House can use Eshoo’sCOVID leadership

It hasn’t been a year since California lifted the mask mandate. It is clear that we’ve made strides in the pandemic. As a public health undergraduate at UC Berkeley, I worked on Pfizer’s vaccine trials for children 6 months to 12 years of age at Stanford Medical Center, contributing to a game-changing vaccine that was produced in months rather than the standard 10-15 years.

This vaccine wouldn’t be possible without Rep. Anna Eshoo’s bipartisan leadership. As Chair of the House Subcommittee on Health, she authored the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which established the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to help private sector innovators rapidly develop and deploy lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines. Without this major piece of legislation, I wouldn’t have been able to see children excited to get the vaccine because it meant seeing their friends again.

We need to re-elect Eshoo for our communities and children.

Peter PhamSan Jose

Greed is real driverof ‘eviction tsunami’

Re. “Bay Area seeing an ‘eviction tsunami,’” Page A1, Oct. 20:

This “eviction tsunami” is truly depressing. We hear daily about the homeless problem around us. It’s getting worse by the day with no end in sight. Then, today on the news I hear that the vacancy rate in San Francisco has skyrocketed.

The front-page news apologizes to the mom-and-pop landlords that have apparently been the victims of eviction moratoriums but fails to address the greed that has taken over our real estate market. The people with all the bucks can buy out all those mom-and-pop landlords and charge whatever the market will bear, all the while leaving apartments empty because they can afford to write it off on their taxes. That’s the real crime.

The market should not be in charge of saying who does and doesn’t have the right to live in decent affordable housing.

Larry EdsonCampbell

Higher stakes thaninflation in election

Yes, we have high inflation. And we’re probably headed toward a normal business cycle recession. This is a global issue and not something you can really blame on the Democrats. After all, how much difference can a change in party-balance in Washington actually make?

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On the other hand, consider this: If you like what the current Supreme Court has been doing, and what they plan to do, you’ll love what they’ll probably do if the Republicans, under the masterful Sen. Mitch McConnell, push more ultra-conservative regressive legislation and install even more like-minded Supreme Court judges at the first chance they get.

While it may be painful at the gas pump or the grocery store now, think ahead about the pain we’re headed for when so many of our hard-earned freedoms and rights are lost at the stroke of a pen.

Barry BronsonSaratoga