Today our guest is Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, a long-time politician in the Bay Area who is running for the mayor position in San Jose. She’s a longtime resident of the city of San José. Chavez’s father was a carpenter, and her mother worked as a teacher’s aide, spending much of her free time volunteering in the community. Her background makes her unique as the local political representative of an area with a diverse local population. There have been 24 years since a woman was mayor of San Jose. Chavez attended San José State University, where her passion for politics and commitment to community led her down a path to public service. After graduating, she worked as a budget and policy aide on health, human services, and transportation issues at the Board of Supervisors. Chavez joined the South Bay Labor Council as Staff Director four years later. During her tenure there, she helped create and lead Working Partnerships USA, a collaboration of business and civic groups focusing on issues affecting working families. ​Chavez won her first election to San Jose’s City Council in 1998 and focused on the building blocks of urban centers: establishing standards for traffic calming, [...]