San Jose was considered to be the fastest growing city in California at the time the election took place. The runoff campaign was regarded as very contentious and negative. Collins initially accused Hayes of being sacred to debate him face-to-face. However, when the
League of Women Voters attempted to organize televised
debates between the two candidates during the runoff campaign, Collins refused to participate in any debate which featured a
black or
Mexican-American panelist. When he was accused of
racism for this, Collins denied it, giving the excuse that he only did not one to do so because he believed questions that would be "prejudiced " against him might be asked by such a panelist, since claimed that he had once arrested a community leader of one of those two ethnic groups. During the campaign, Collins alleged that Hayes had voted in favor of a developer's project after receiving a $500 campaign contribution the developer, accusing her of having had a
conflict of interest. Despite him trying to tie her to developers, local developers were reported to actually have unfavorable opinions of both Hayes and Collins. Developers reportedly felt that Collins did not have a grasp on the concerns developers had about strict city controls over development. Developers also were unhappy with the position that Hayes had staked out in favor of controlled growth in the city. Collins had served 38 years on the city's police force, and his only previous experience in politics was an unsuccessful effort he had made, in partnership with downtown businessmen and real estate interests, to pressure the San Jose City Council to appoint him the city's police chief after Ray Blackmore retired. == Results ==