As some of those in attendance at the Los Gatos High School auditorium began to speak, one could hear the trembling and defiance in their voices.
Each related a somewhat different concern, during the town hall hosted Thursday by area congressmen Jimmy Panetta and Sam Liccardo, and the frustration in the room—directed at the Trump Administration—was palpable.
“There’s one thing that never comes up in town halls, which I’d like to talk about,” said Santa Cruz Mountains resident Beverly Politzer, when she finally got her chance at the mic toward the end. “There is a tremendous conflict of interest with Elon Musk and Trump. And every day it gets worse and worse.”
There was clearly plenty of pent-up demand for face-time with Liccardo, who grew up in Saratoga and formerly served as San Jose’s mayor, and Panetta, the son of Leon Panetta (America’s former defense secretary and CIA head) who’s recently been in the news for accepting significant funds from the Israel lobby.
The pair presented a united front, leaning more heavily than in the past into the Democratic resistance narrative that’s been picking up steam, if slowly, while still trying to steer supporters toward practical solutions (namely, success in the upcoming midterms).
“You’re right, this is just one dimension of the kleptocracy,” Liccardo said in reply to Politzer, adding if preferential treatment is shown to Musk’s company Starlink, it could harm nearby businesses. “We’ve got some local companies here in the West Valley that are very much fighting for this.”
Afterwards, Politzer told the Los Gatan she could feel a sense of collectivism building during the gathering, particularly when she asked about corruption.
“Everyone is worried about this issue,” she said.
“Great question,” said Vice Mayor Rob Moore as he filed into the hallway. “Good closer.”
This week, Moore expressed his frustration with another one of Musk’s companies—Tesla, in relation to the new dealership being built in Los Gatos.
“When I first heard about Tesla coming to Los Gatos, I reached out to their developers to ask them to provide some sort of community benefit,” he commented on a local Facebook community page called Los Gatos Town (that’s not associated with the municipality). “Because of the massive size of the lot, I specifically asked for a small part of it to be a dog park or other ‘pocket park.’ They repeatedly declined and seemingly have no interest in contributing at all to Los Gatos. Disappointing and unsurprising.”
Meanwhile, the moderator of that page said he’d been accused of copyright infringement for posting a photo of the dealership he’d taken himself.
At the town hall, the congressmen both took pains to not badmouth progressive party firebrands like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Bernie Sanders, but touted centrist approaches like bipartisanship and border enforcement, and lauded establishment figures like Nancy Pelosi and Zoe Lofgren.
Panetta said they’re all singing out of the same hymnal.
“It’s all about winning in 2026—that’s what it really comes down to,” he said.
Liccardo said you have to “pick your pitches,” because you can’t “swing” at everything.
“What I’m doing is focusing on that message that I think is going to be most effective,” he said. “We’re all going to have different approaches.”
A man with a speech impediment said he was afraid that the political environment was starting to mirror that of Nazi Germany—where close to an estimated 250,000 disabled people were murdered, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
Another person was worried about rights being eliminated for people who identify as transgender.
Suze Morrison, 37, a Canadian studying ceramic arts at Foothill College, said her status in this country feels tenuous.
She represented the Toronto Center riding in Ontario, Canada, as a Member of Provincial Parliament, for the left-wing New Democratic Party from 2018-2022.
Among her leadership roles, Morrison was the Official Opposition critic for Urban Indigenous Issues.
“As an F-1 student, I no longer have the right to free speech in this country—and that’s been made abundantly clear,” she said. “We have seen over 1,000 student visas cancelled in the last week, with no reasons given and no recourse—and no opportunity for appeal.”
She mentioned the case of Ph.D. student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was abducted by ICE agents after writing an editorial piece in a student newspaper.
“We are seeing students who have been kidnapped off the street,” she said. “International students subsidize your postsecondary education. And if we do not have the right to free speech, what are we here to learn? So, my question to both of you today is, what are you doing to protect legal students studying in this country—and our First Amendment right to free speech and protest?”
The place erupted with applause for 12 seconds.
“Thank you for what you’ve contributed to our country by coming here,” Liccardo said. “The First Amendment—as I understand it—applies to all persons. It does not depend on whether you’re a citizen or not. We all have these freedoms…If anyone is feeling threatened, or has had an issue with their visa, please call my office so we can advocate for you. That is our job.”
Liccardo said he’s been communicating with an ICE regional director, who covers western states, in an effort to avoid deportation sweeps.
“What I am hearing from them, still—and obviously this can change in a given week—is they are not engaging in raids; it will be very targeted (that is, they are only targeting individuals who have active orders of deportation),” he said. “We are holding ICE accountable.”
In an interview, Mayor Matthew Hudes said it was positive to see people so engaged at the town hall.
“I am just extremely encouraged by the way people want to participate in democracy,” he said. “Because, there’s a responsibility to show up to these kinds of things.”
