Wong, Sinks Win In Council Election

is back for another four-year term on Cupertino's City Council, joined by newcomer who will serve his first term on the council.

Wong, the city's current mayor, brought in 22 percent of the vote. Sinks followed with 20 percent, edging Cupertino Planning Commissioner Marty Miller by 331 votes.

"I'm really humbled and honored that the voters of Cupertino re-elected me to a second term," he said.

Wong said he is looking forward to continuing the work he started in his first term, which includes Apple's new headquarters, as well as issues such as reducing traffic around public schools and keeping public safety strong through the city's continued contract with the Sherrif's office.

Sinks said he was grateful for the amount of support he got from the community.

"As a first-timer, I'm delighted to have such a broad base of support, and so many volunteers who are willing to stand up for me tonight," he said.

Measure C, the Transient Occupancy Tax Increase, also known as the "hotel tax" increase" easily passed with nearly 83 percent of the vote.

Wong was very pleased to see the measure win as the city projects it will bring in revenues of about $450,000 a year.

As the election results came in, about 40 supporters gathered at Rod Sinks' house. Sinks played "Campaign Jeapordy" with his guests, a trivia game about the election.

At Barry Chang's office, Better Home and Loan, it was a smaller gathering of supporters for Homer Tong, who finished in a distant fourth place from the lead pack. 

"I got my issues out," Tong said of his campaign. He said those issues were the impact of development on schools, making sure City Hall pays attention to the needs of residents, and pollution.

"This is a highly intelligent community, we cannot allow pollutants all over," he said

"My congratulations to Rod Sinks for being high up there," Tong said. He said voter support for Sinks, a founder of Bay Area for Clean Environment (BACE,) shows that the community is concerned about the environment.

Wong dropped in on Tong's party before heading over to his own campaign party at Cupertino Inn. Wong said he was proud of his record on the Planning Commission and City Council, and that voters responded to that.

"It's all about your record and what you do for the community," he said. If a candidate represents his community well, "it will pay off during the election."

At Cupertino Inn, more than 50 supporters of Wong and Miller packed one of the hotel's banquet rooms to watch the results come in.

Some of the guests included State Assemblymember Paul Fong, County Supervisor Liz Kniss, and Cupertino Vice Mayor Mark Santoro, who all endorsed Wong and Miller during the campaign.

"I look around at the diversty of this room, and it reflects how much I reached out to the whole community," Wong told supporters.

Early in the night, trailing by 122 votes after absentee-ballots were released, an optimistic Miller said he was looking to pull ahead of Sinks.

"Everyone who was enthusiastic about their candidate had already voted," said Miller. "Now the voters who are looking at who are the better candidates are starting to weigh in; it was a hard race."

Wong and Sinks will be sworn in at city hall on Dec. 6 with a large reception.

Cupertino City Council