SAN JOSE — As the calendar swings into 2022, a three-term incumbent and his primary challenger are both reporting encouraging signs of support in their early campaigns for the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office.

The June primary election will mark the first time sitting district attorney Jeff Rosen will be challenged in a re-election bid, after going without a challenger in 2014 and 2018.

One of his opponents, Deputy Public Defender Sajid Khan, is running on an aggressive criminal justice reform platform in hopes of repeating the political fortunes of Rosen, who in 2010 became the county’s first person to overthrow an outgoing prosecutor in almost a year. century. On the fundraising front, Khan’s campaign reports raising around $236,000 — split among more than 1,1000 contributors, half of whom gave less than $100 — since he publicly declared his candidacy in July. . Rosen’s campaign, meanwhile, reports raising more than double Khan’s total, putting him near the $500,000 fundraising limit for the June 7 primary election.

A second challenger, Daniel Chung, who was most recently a prosecutor working under Rosen but has become a harsh critic of his former boss since a public falling out, declined to provide information on the status of his campaign.

A multi-term holder, Rosen enjoys broad support within the county’s political leadership — including backing from South Bay Rep. Zoe Lofgren, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and County Supervisor Cindy Chavez — while Khan cultivated a base of support from grassroots social justice groups, as well as endorsements from former Representative Mike Honda, Assemblyman Alex Lee and Mountain View Mayor Ellen Kamei.

Garrick Percival, chair of the political science department at San Jose State University, said that for Rosen, the position remains a formidable strength.

“DA races inevitably favor the incumbent. They go into the campaign and the election with that story,” Percival said. “It will be an uphill battle for Chung and Khan.”

But he also pointed to recent district attorney races in San Francisco and Los Angeles that saw reform-minded candidates Chesa Boudin and George Gascón upset incumbents in those cities.

Khan is looking to capitalize on the same kind of voter sentiment in his election bid. His campaign commissioned a poll of 350 county voters conducted by Florida-based SEA Polling and Strategic Design that found Khan was in competition with Rosen after poll subjects received “brief descriptions of candidates.” as well as strong support for alternatives to incarceration and law enforcement transparency and accountability . However, that same poll also found that Khan trailed in initial name recognition, with 8% compared to 20% for Rosen and 10% for Chung, who made a minimal campaign.

Citing voter support for criminal justice reform measures — which Rosen unsuccessfully challenged in court — Khan says Santa Clara County residents “are not happy with the status quo” and that his lack of political mandate past is an asset. “I was not a county official. I was not part of this prison system and the system that led to a need for an alternative and a way forward.

“We live in a community and a state where we have invested heavily over the past years and decades in policing, arresting, punishing and incarcerating our people, and the sense of insecurity has increased despite this overwhelming investment,” Khan said. “It proved and demonstrated to us that our path to community safety is not the continuation of a failed system.”

Corn Rosen’s political adviser, Leo Briones, suggested that Khan had no exclusive claim to reform causes and expressed skepticism about the poll results of that campaign.

“DA Rosen’s office is not interested in internal polls or grassroots politics,” Briones said. “They are too busy working for the safety of the two million people who live and work in Santa Clara County.”

In a statement, Rosen added that he is “honored to have the endorsement of more than eighty elected and retired Santa Clara County officials. I think their support reflects the fact that while Santa Clara County remains one of the safest in the Bay Area, we also cut incarceration rates in half during my tenure as district attorney.

Percival said people would ‘do well to exercise a lot of caution’ in Khan’s campaign poll, noting the results could reflect the fact that the county’s general voting population hasn’t had much of a habit. talking about the district attorney considering how long it’s been since the charge was contested.

“It’s mostly instructive in that it shows there are a lot of undecided voters and a lot that don’t know what a DA does. We hope people become more engaged in the race and more informed in the office,” Percival said. “There is room for campaigning and persuasion, which could make this a potentially competitive race.”