Oakland Police Commissioner Jesse Hsieh comments during meeting at City Hall on Oct. 26, 2023.
Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle
Election challenges to judges seeking new terms in California are typically bare-knuckles brawls between an incumbent backed by the legal community and outside forces accusing the judge of being soft on crime or corrupt. Which makes the only challenge to a sitting Bay Area judge in the June 2 primary election pretty much of a head-scratcher.
Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Jesse Hsieh hasn’t been involved in any noted controversies since Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed him in 2024. His opponent, Valery Polyakov, a prosecutor in Stanislaus County, says he wants to give the voters a choice but has nothing critical to say about Hsieh.
“As a judge… I will try to be just and try to be fair. I’m almost certain he’s doing the same thing,” Polyakov said in an interview.
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Hsieh said Polyakov “seems like a really nice guy” but has never appeared in his court, and the judge doesn’t know what issues, if any, might arise in the six weeks before the election.
“It’s an opportunity to speak with the voters … about why I’m a judge,” said Hsieh, who has been endorsed by all of the county’s other 36 judges. He hears misdemeanor criminal cases in his court in Martinez, and said anyone who wants to learn about him can “come into my court — the doors open about 8:30 — and see the work that’s being done.”
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The two are scheduled to take part in a judicial candidates’ forum at 6:30 p.m. April 30 at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill. The Contra Costa County Bar Association, sponsor of the event, says it’s not planned as a debate, just a question-and-answer session with each candidate.
Superior Court judges usually face no opposition when they seek new six-year terms. Challenges, when they occur, are typically backed by law-and-order groups like Stop Crime SF, which unsuccessfully opposed two San Francisco judges in 2024.
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Also ideological, from the opposite side, was an unsuccessful election campaign in 2018 by four San Francisco public defenders against Superior Court judges who had been appointed by Republican governors. And in 1986, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Bird and Justices Cruz Reyoso and Joseph Grodin were denied new terms by the voters in a campaign that focused on their rulings that overturned death sentences, the only justices to be voted out of office since California established yes-or-no retention elections for its top courts in 1934.
Those elections involved substantial fundraising and campaign advertising. For the Contra Costa County election, Hsieh said he’s raised about $20,000, mostly to pay for his public campaign statements. Polyakov said he’s relied on his salary and other personal funds, and hasn’t gotten any outside endorsements yet but expects to find some before the June 2 vote.
Hsieh, 40, whose parents were immigrants from Taiwan, attended UCLA Law School, then worked at the East Bay Community Law Center from 2009 to 2012 and at public defenders’ offices in Contra Costa County and San Francisco before his judicial appointment. He is also a former member of the Oakland Police Commission, which reviews complaints against officers.
“I never thought about being a judge,” he told the Chronicle, until one day “someone on the bench pulled me into (the judge’s) chambers, and, out of the blue, said, ‘You should think about being a judge. You have the quality and the temperament.’ ‘
He waited another two years before applying to Newsom, who appointed him in April 2024. Regarding the election challenge, Hsieh said he’s “taking it seriously” but hasn’t hired a campaign manager or consultant or sought any endorsements except from his fellow judges and the Asian American Bar Association, which hasn’t made an announcement yet.
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Polyakov, 63, was born in Ukraine, where he earned a doctoral degree in chemistry before immigrating to the United States at age 31. After working as a researcher and a pharmaceutical industry chemist, he earned a law degree in 2015 and represented private clients, including some criminal defendants, before joining the Stanislaus County prosecutors’ office a year and a half ago. He lives in the Alameda County community of Oakley.
“I have significant life experience,” which “allows me to approach cases with balance, fairness, and an appreciation for the practical realities faced by all parties,” he said.
Polyakov said he doesn’t recall why he decided to run against Hsieh rather than another incumbent.
“I’m running for judge, not running for mayor of some city. … I don’t want to disparage my opponent,” he told the Chronicle. “I don’t know who’s going to be a better judge,” but “I believe voters deserve the choice.”
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Said Hsieh, “I look forward to another six years serving the people of Contra Costa County,” but “if that’s not the case, it’s not.”