Three names have emerged at the front of a crowded Los Gatos Town Council race, with early returns showing Mayor Rob Moore, planning commissioner Jeff Suzuki and retired tech executive Rob Stump leading a six-candidate field competing for three open seats. The race has been dominated by two persistent town headaches: a state-mandated housing target the town has struggled to meet, and seasonal traffic that chokes residential streets as drivers cut through town toward the beach.
According to The Mercury News, early results put Moore at 23.8% of the vote, Suzuki at 18.7% and Stump at 17.9% in what the outlet described as the six-candidate race for three open seats on the Los Gatos Town Council. A separate early count from Los Gatan showed slightly different figures, with Moore at 24.1%, Suzuki at 18.97% and Stump at 17.71% — a discrepancy the available reporting does not explain, and neither tally has been confirmed as final.
Both counts agree on the order at the top, and both place Moore, Suzuki and Stump ahead of the field heading into the contest for Los Gatos' three open at-large seats. Moore has served a one-year term as mayor set to end in December, according to The Mercury News. Housing and traffic have shaped nearly every candidate's pitch in a town of roughly 33,000 residents where the average home price sits around $2.6 million.
A Housing Mandate the Town Missed
California requires Los Gatos to plan for 1,993 new homes by 2031, a figure the Mercury News report ties to the state's housing mandate and which also appears in the town's own 2023–2031 housing element, which states that the Regional Housing Needs Assessment target to be planned for this cycle is 1,993 units, according to the Town of Los Gatos. Los Gatos missed the state's certification deadline of January 31, 2023, and builder's remedy projects became effectively exempt from local control after that missed deadline, per the Mercury News report. The town is now processing 12 applications for builder's remedy projects, which allow developers to bypass certain zoning laws governing density, spacing and height, the outlet reported — and an earlier Mercury News report from October described those dozen projects as ranging between two and 13 stories.
A town presentation on builder's remedy law and the California Environmental Quality Act states that approval from the state Department of Housing and Community Development or a court is required for a housing element to be deemed compliant and that the town cannot self-certify, adding that the state agency found the town's January 30, 2023 element not in compliance. Moore has said Los Gatos approved about 800 new homes over the past year, including three-story townhomes, and argued the election results point to a need for pragmatic, nuanced housing leadership. He has said the town could move forward on affordable housing development with him and Suzuki leading.
Candidates Pitch Fixes for Beach Traffic
Traffic running through Los Gatos toward the beach has become its own flashpoint. Stump has proposed working with navigation app companies to stop cars from being redirected through Los Gatos en route to the coast, and the Mercury News report describes his broader plan as an urgency ordinance that would restrict neighborhood cut-through traffic, rely on traffic enforcement and legally compel navigation apps not to route shortcuts through residential streets. Stump has said the town should not wait four or five years for a new freeway interchange and plans to fix beach traffic jams if he maintains his lead.
Suzuki has suggested a dedicated Highway 17 bus lane alongside congestion pricing aimed at non-resident cut-through drivers, per the same Mercury News account. Moore, Suzuki and Stump all support finding ways to alleviate congestion where Highway 17 meets Highway 9, and Moore helped secure $11 million in new funding for environmental review and design work on a Highway 17 decongestion project, the outlet reported. At an earlier candidate panel at the Terraces of Los Gatos, Moore said, “Traffic is probably the number one issue that I hear about when knocking doors throughout the Town,” according to Los Gatan, which reported that all six candidates fielded questions there on the budget, housing, public safety, privacy, homelessness and food insecurity.
Who's Running for the Three Seats
Moore, 28, has said he wants to decrease homelessness and build housing to meet state guidelines, and supports rental assistance for older adults. His stated priorities include youth mentorship, wildfire preparedness, beach traffic mitigation and state housing-law compliance.
Suzuki, also 28, works as an economic analyst for a legal research firm, previously served as a planning commissioner, and currently sits on the town's complete streets and transportation commission. He founded and runs the Los Gatos Anti-Racism Coalition and centered his campaign on building affordable housing. Suzuki has said his campaign team knocked on more than 9,000 doors and that he does not overpromise and tries to be generally honest with voters.
Stump, 69, is a retired tech executive and third-generation Los Gatos resident whose grandfather moved to town in 1924. He wants to preserve the town's quaint feel even as it absorbs new housing and traffic pressure. Early returns showed Stump ahead of fourth-place finisher Mary Badame by 209 votes with ballots still to be counted, trailed by Badame at 16.8%, Steve Raspe at 13.1% and Heidi Owens at 9.5%, according to the Mercury News tally.
The Los Gatos Town Council itself has five seats total, and the town held no election in 2024 because two incumbents ran unopposed. Santa Clara County voter turnout stood at 28.4%, with roughly 337,600 ballots still unprocessed countywide, per the registrar of voters.
