Dave Cortese

David D. "Dave" Cortese (born 1956) is an elected official who is a lifelong resident of San Jose, California USA. He is currently serving on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, representing District 3, which includes San Jose, Milpitas and Sunnyvale. Before being elected to the Board of Supervisors, he served as a Councilman and Vice Mayor for the City of San Jose. Cortese served for eight years as a trustee for the East Side Union High School District in San Jose. Cortese ran for mayor of San Jose and won the primary, losing the general election to District 3 councilmember Sam Liccardo.

Dave Cortese won a seat on the Santa Clara County Supervisors in 2008 with 56,845 votes, or 54.87%. He was reelected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in 2012 with 40,360 votes, or 100%.

In his current term on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, his accomplishments include securing funding for more school crossing guards and an evaluation of "hot spots" of pedestrian and bicycle accidents and fatalities in order to improve conditions. He helped form an anti-Human Trafficking task force by sponsoring an $850,000 budget item. The money is evenly divided between the Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's office, which make up the task force with multiple other local agencies. As of October 1, 2014 the task force showed measurable results according to Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith.