Santa Clara CountyCandidate for Supervisor, District 4

Jason Baker served as Mayor in Campbell twice, in 2011 and 2016. He was first elected to the Campbell City Council in November 2008. Jason served as Campbell’s Mayor in 2011 before returning to the role of Council Member to complete his four year term. In August 2012, Jason ran for re-election and was unopposed; he was appointed to serve an additional four-year Council term expiring November 2016. Jason also worked for the California State Assembly as District Director for Assemblymember Evan Low.

Jason earned his B.A. in Political Science at the University of California at Davis in 1995.

After graduation, he served as a Research Associate for the Violence Prevention Research Program at the UC Davis School of Medicine where he helped study gun violence from a public health perspective. Jason received his J.D., Cum Laude from Santa Clara University School of Law in 2000. In July 2014, he completed the Senior Executives in State and Local Government executive education program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Jason was elected to the Campbell City Council in November 2008 and served two terms as councilmember including two terms as Mayor of Campbell. During his tenure on the Campbell City Council, Jason was active on a number of boards and commissions, particularly in the areas of transportation and traffic relief, public safety and emergency preparedness. He was selected by peers from throughout the county to serve as Chair of the Santa Clara County Emergency Operational Area Council, Board Member and Chair of the Santa Clara County Library District Board of Directors, as Chair of the Santa Clara County Emergency Preparedness Council, as Chair of Silicon Valley Regional Interoperability Authority and on the Santa Clara County Water District Advisory Board.

Finding common solutions to regional challenges has been a focus of Jason’s public service. Toward that end, he was unanimously selected by Mayors and Councilmembers throughout the County to serve as President of the Santa Clara County Cities Association, a group dedicated to regional solutions to Silicon Valley’s common issues. He also served as the West Valley Cities’ representative to the Valley Transportation Authority Board, and as the Santa Clara County Cities’ representative to the nine-county Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Bay Area Toll Authority.

From 2010-2013, Jason was selected each year as a Peninsula Division representative to the California League of Cities Public Safety Committee where he also served on that committee’s Technology subcommittee. Jason is very happily married to his lovely wife Mairead; together they have a son, Eamonn, and a daughter, Rowan who attend public school in San Jose.

As a wildlands firefighter for the U.S. Forest service, I learned what hard work is. I will never forget how important our first responders are to our community.

As a lawyer, I dedicated close to a decade of hard work on litigation against polluters and companies who put profits over people. I worked to hold Exxon, Shell and half a dozen more oil companies accountable for their part in exposing workers to deadly chemicals.

As a public official, I have been fiscally responsible. When I was Mayor, Campbell put money back in its reserves for the first time in years. Even during the recession, we managed to erase a structural budget deficit without laying off any employees. In Campbell, we were the first in the County to come to a negotiated agreement with our police officers for a sensible two-tier solution to pension reform. While I was Mayor, we hired more police officers in Campbell and still kept the budget balanced. We have invested in parks and public art to help make Campbell the place people love to work live and play. I have worked to make the environment better, libraries more accessible, our first responders more respected and better prepared.

As County Supervisor, I want to continue that work. I will make sure that government and the private sector never forget our fellow residents who are poor, homeless, hungry or marginalized in any way.

And especially in these times, I will fight hard every day to protect our democratic ideals, including the rights of women, immigrants, all religious and ethnic groups, and members of the LGBTQ community.

Sincerely,

Jason