In California, city council elections are non-partisan. San Jose, located just south of San Francisco Bay, has a 10-member council with half the members up every two years.
Edesa Bitbadal has filed to fill one of those seats this year. She came to the United States as a child with her family in 1985.
She is an Assyrian Christian and has appealed for support to both the Iranian-American and Assyrian-American communities, though she does not cite her ethnic background in the biography on her campaign site.
Bitbadal was reared in San Jose, graduating from high school there and earning a BA in political science and an MA in public administration from San Jose State University.
She is married to Michael Williams and they have three children.
Bitbadal is considered a serious candidate with a real chance of winning the seat. She has endorsements from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, State Senator Elaine Alquist, San Jose Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen and San Jose Councilmember Nancy Pyle, who is retiring because she is termed-out and whose seat Bitbadal seeks to fill.
Bitbadal was previously chief of staff to one of the other council members and told the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian-Americans (PAAIA) that her business card was in English on one side and Farsi on the other. “I am very proud of my background and heritage and always do my best to ensure that the greater community recognizes the contributions of Iranian-Americans and their positive impact on the United States.”
She says the council district in which she is running has the largest number of Iranian-Americans in San Jose.
San Jose is the 10th largest city in the United States with just under 1 million residents. It is the third largest city in California after Los Angeles and San Diego and much larger than San Francisco. San Jose is roughly one-third Asian, one-third Hispanic and one-third everything else with only 45 percent of the residents speaking English at home.
As of mid-March, Bitbadal had raised substantially more campaign funds than any other candidate. Her main competition is believed to come from Brian O’Neill, who has been endorsed by the South Bay Labor Council. The others running are Johnny Khamis, Leslie Reynolds, Denelle Fedor and Robert Braunstein.
