The suspense is over in the San Jose mayoral race.
Nearly a week after the election, Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese has conceded to Councilman Sam Liccardo.
Cortese told NBC Bay Area on Monday afternoon he was conceding because "it's time to move on."
“Most of the ballots have been counted now,” Cortese said, “and mathematically we decided it’s time to start sharing the news with our supporters: this one wasn’t gonna work out for us the way we wanted.”
Cortese told reporter Robert Handa he called Liccardo to congratulate the new mayor-elect. "You ran a terrific campaign," Liccardo told Cortese.
"I'll be rolling up my sleeves right away," Liccardo told NBC Bay Area in a telephone interview shortly after Cortese announced he was conceding.
"Sam looks forward to becoming the 65th mayor of San Jose and implementing the plan he wrote in his book," Liccardo's campaign manager Ragan Henninger said. Henninger was referring to Liccardo's paperback, "Safer City, Smarter Government, A Plan For San Jose's Future," that he released this fall during the campaign.
Liccardo, outgoing member of the San Jose City Council representing District 3, on Wednesday declared himself the winner, after leading by two points, 51 to 49 percent, as of that morning.
In a statement to supporters, Cortese said he plans to continue "serving the residents of Santa Clara County on the Board of Supervisors, where I will persist in striving to give voice to the voiceless, to move people out of poverty, to ensure taxpayer dollars are invested wisely, and to see to it that local government works for everybody."
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Henninger said Liccardo would be sworn in during the first City Council meeting after the first of the year.
She said that Liccardo's transition to replacing outgoing Mayor Chuck Reed "will start immediately."
According to the Santa Clara County registrar's office, with 11,000 provisional ballots still to be counted Liccardo had 88,759 votes or 51 percent to Cortese's 85,280 votes or 49 percent.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
