City leaders are pulling their endorsements of San Jose City Council candidate Jim Zito in the wake of publicity surrounding his 2007 divorce case, during which his ex-wife accused him of being overly controlling and emotionally abusive toward her and their daughters.
The exodus of supporters — including the mayor and local business groups — could imperil a candidate who was mounting a formidable bid to unseat councilwoman Sylvia Arenas.
But Zito is contesting the allegations, saying they emerged from a very contentious proceeding.
“I don’t want to relive my divorce in the newspaper,” Zito said in an interview Wednesday. “But at the same time, I don’t want people to think what isn’t true.”
An attack website against Zito sponsored by the San Jose Police Officers’ Association PAC, which has endorsed Arenas, went live Monday with claims that Zito had anger issues when dealing with his ex-wife, Zoe Bizzell. Similar mailings were sent out to District 8 voters over the past couple of days.
San Jose Spotlight on Tuesday morning released a more detailed report on Zito’s public divorce documents, including claims made by his wife that he controlled all aspects of her life — from how she should make lunches to how often she should clean the bathrooms to how dim she should set the lights in the house.
“(He) has never physically hurt me, but I am very afraid of him and especially afraid that once he learns I have filed for divorce and exposed the facade of our ‘perfect’ family, he will go completely out of control,” Bizzel wrote about Zito in her divorce declaration. “…I feel like I have been trapped in a nightmare and have not known how to escape. I walk on eggshells hoping not to provoke him.
“I can see that our daughters are affected by their father’s extremely controlling behaviors and that has prompted me to take action.”
The court documents also detailed a 2010 confrontation involving his 19-year-old daughter in which he refused to provide her with her passport and was handcuffed and put in a patrol car while she, along with San Jose police officers, searched his house to obtain it.
Zito said he withheld the passport because his daughter wanted to use it for an identification card and he felt it was “not a document that you carry around with you.” He called the interaction with police officers an example of an “illegal search and seizure” because they took his house keys out of his pocket without a search warrant.
Zito, a longtime member of the Evergreen School District board and former San Jose planning commissioner who worked in tech, was endorsed by Mayor Sam Liccardo, Councilmember Pam Foley, the Silicon Valley Organization PAC, the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors and the Mercury News editorial board.
By Wednesday morning, Liccardo, Foley, SVO PAC and the county’s Association of Realtors had all rescinded their endorsements of Zito. The Mercury News editorial board is still reviewing the allegations in the court file.
“While I understand that these allegations were made in the contentious environment of a political campaign by Mr. Zito’s opponents, they are sufficiently troubling to cause me to withdraw my endorsement,” Liccardo wrote in a tweet.
In a statement relinquishing her endorsement, Councilmember Foley said she was a “champion of women’s rights” and an “advocate for domestic violence survivors.”
“Due to my personal beliefs, moral compass, and due to yesterday’s reports, I have called District 8 Council Candidate Jim Zito to withdraw my endorsement,” Foley said in the statement.
San Jose Police Officers Association President Paul Kelly, whose organization first obtained copies of the divorce papers and used them as part of attack ads, commended the endorsement withdrawals.
“Unfortunately, many marriages end in divorce but it is extremely rare that, as in Mr. Zito’s case, the husband is ordered to attend a Probation Department approved 16-week course to address domestic violence issues and management of emotions. Any form of abuse is wrong and we condemn it,” Kelly said in a statement.
The anti-Zito website launched by the association features a GIF of a red-headed Zito with smoke blowing out of his ears and head exploding. Above the GIF, a question reads “Can Jim Zito control his temper with women?”
The site also includes records from his 2007 divorce filings with his ex-wife, which shows that the judge ordered him to complete a 16-week “accountability in relationships” course.
Zito told this news organization that the selected court documents that were released only told part of the story and that the judge later tossed the demand for an anger management course.
The couple’s final divorce papers stated that both Zito and his ex-wife should continue parent counseling and therapy sessions and that they should ensure that their two children continue therapy sessions. The parents both received joint legal and physical custody of the children.
As for the “list of demands” outlined by Zoe Bizzell in the court documents, Zito said some allegations — like that she wasn’t allowed to have a debit card — were “nonsense” and some — like that he asked her to clean the microwave — were true but “blown out of proportion.”
“There is no question in my mind that the POA — whose job it is to protect and serve — went after my family and brought my kids into this and are trying to make sure that I don’t get that seat, because they want to make sure labor gets it,” Zito said. “And none of it is true.”