Rep. Zoe Lofgren tells San Jose Spotlight’s Jana Kadah that her fellow California Democrat, former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, called her last week and said that he was considering running for her 18th District or colleague Anna Eshoo’s neighboring 16th. Lofgren recounts, “(Liccardo) said he was assessing his options. He wants to be in Congress… And I told him it’s a free country. He can run if he wants.” She added, “But I plan to run and I don’t usually run to lose.” Joe Biden won over 70% of the vote in both Lofgren and Eshoo’s constituencies.
Liccardo himself told Spotlight in December just before leaving office that when it comes to a House bid, “I’ve considered different options, but right now that’s not an option because San Jose’s got four districts and we’ve got four members of Congress there.” (The other two constituencies are the 17th and 19th Districts, which are respectively held by Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna and Jimmy Panetta.) Liccardo said back then, “If one of those folks suddenly decides they’re not there, well then that’s a conversation.”
That calculus appears to have now changed, though Liccardo hasn’t said anything publicly yet. The 75-year-old Lofgren, who adds that Liccardo told her he’d paid for an unreleased poll testing a possible matchup between the two, said she’d retire in what Kadah calls “the near future,” but that she doesn’t plan to go anywhere yet. Eshoo, is five years older than Lofgren, has yet to confirm that she’ll run again, though.