Seven years after she was beaten in a bruising race for San Jose mayor, Cindy Chavez looks poised to return to elected office as a Santa Clara County supervisor.

In the June 4 primary, Chavez finished nine points ahead of her challenger, Teresa Alvarado. And she has settled on the right theme for her campaign, public safety.

A recent political flier showed a picture of the 49-year-old labor leader and described her as "a proven crime fighter." In a working-class district, that message trumps Alvarado's call for reform.

But there are reasons to examine Chavez's claim carefully.

The first is her vote, along with the rest of the council in late 2005, to award the cops a 90 percent retirement after 30 years. (The firefighters got a comparable and slightly sweeter deal in arbitration.)

Cindy Chavez at her election night party, June 4, 2013.
Cindy Chavez at her election night party, June 4, 2013. (Nhat V. Meyer, Bay Area News Group)

In a time of plenty in city government, almost everyone voted to increase the final retirement from 85 percent to 90 percent, including now-Mayor Chuck Reed, who has acknowledged it was a mistake.

Here's the problem: A sweeter -- OK, lavish -- retirement leaves scarcer resources to hire new cops and firefighters. In the budget crunch, the number of sworn officers declined from about 1,400 to 1,050, with fewer available for street duty. The city is now paying roughly $250 million a year for pensions and retiree health care.

Now lots of other things happened, like the recession. And Chavez deserves credit for working on neighborhood safety as a council member. But the council's 2005 vote, a bad one, helped cops in retirement, not on the street.

Cozy ties

The second reason for questioning Chavez's credentials as a crime-fighter deals with a cozy relationship between the labor movement and San Jose's card clubs.

Last year, when Chavez was head of the South Bay Labor Council, the campaign for expanding the number of card club tables in San Jose contributed $90,000 to the SBLC's "issues account."

In turn, the laborites provided a lot of work, including polling and phone banking, on behalf of the pro-card club Measure E. In essence, the card clubs hired the labor council for its political expertise and election workers.

And the Measure E transaction was made easier because the consultant for the Bay 101 card club, Ed McGovern, is close to labor and is now Chavez's consultant for her supervisorial race.

What's the problem? Anyone who has followed card clubs in San Jose knows gambling is a double-edged sword.

It has provided millions of dollars to the city, but it has come at a big social cost -- in impoverished families, divorce and crime around the fringes, including loansharking and at least one unsolved murder.

Did Chavez benefit herself from the financial contribution? No, although the SBLC's account of Measure E expenses shows $1,600 going into salaries for labor.

But the relationship shows a curious choice of friends for a politician who claims to be a proven crime-fighter. The people eventually voted Measure E down. Maybe they smelled something.

Contact Scott Herhold at 408-275-0917 or