2022 SD City Council Races: District Six

It Depends on Your Definition of Neighborhood

This year San Diego’s even-numbered district city council races are on the ballot.

The race for D6 is interesting because the candidates who made it to the general election won with close vote totals, and because incumbent Chris Cate is termed out.

The redistricting of D6 effectively made it the city’s Asian (45% of total population) political enclave. It’s heavily Democratic (+20.41, up from +14.25 with the old map) but, it should be noted, has sent a Republican to the city council for the last eight years.

Although there are differences between the two Democratic candidates in the general election, I’m not so sure that those differences will sway voters as much as the representation factor, with one candidate being Asian and versus one who is not.

Internet sources listed below are largely derived from candidates' websites; if I click on a link and it does not work, I won’t list it.  I wish I could do more on campaign finance, but the reality is that many of the important expenditures and donations come late in the cycle. 

Kent Lee - Endorsed Democratic Candidate
Website / Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram
Media: 2022 election: Q&A with Kent Lee, candidate for San Diego City Council District 6

Kent Lee is a first generation immigrant whose involvement in community non-profits serves as the basis for recognition in the community. His resume includes work with the Asian Business Association of San Diego, the San Diego Asian Pacific Islander Coalition, and serving as executive director of Pacific Arts Movement (Pac Arts).

When you wade through his thoughts on issues, two commonalities emerge, namely a belief in collaboration and data-based solutions. He’s promising to help row the boat of governance rather than rock it.

Let’s face it, Kent Lee is the establishment’s consensus candidate for the seat. When the CA Restaurant Association and the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council both endorse the same candidate, you should sit up and notice.

Whether or not this is a good or bad thing depends on your opinions about how city affairs are currently being conducted. The “Todd Gloria is the anti-Christ” set should probably look elsewhere for a candidate to support.

If things in San Diego really are as bad as they get portrayed on social media, by rights Lee should be collecting soda bottles to raise funds, and praying for a not-embarrassing turnout on election day. That’s obviously not the case.

Lee’s campaign makes extensive use of photography placing the candidate amid (mostly) Asian business and civic groups. He’s not wading into controversies, just engaged in lots of back slapping and smiles, punctuated with some wonkiness.

My prognosis for election day is that he’ll win. That bit of projection on my part and five bucks will get you a cuppa coffee somewhere.

The topics of housing/homelessness along with the perceived threat to generational wealth posed by zoning changes are a defining issue for many local campaigns. And the political tensions surrounding these issues are bound to increase, as the publicity given to former basketball star Bill Walton’s rants against city hall indicates. 

From Voice of San Diego:

• As San Diego continues to rank among the least affordable cities in the country, housing is weighing heavily on the minds of voters in the redrawn district that includes Kearny Mesa, Mira Mesa, Sorrento Valley and University City. 

• Likely voters in District 6 overwhelmingly cite housing-related issues as the city’s biggest issue — 35 percent say homelessness is their top concern, and another 25 percent cite housing costs specifically, according to polling conducted by Ryan Clumpner, a political consultant working for a independent expenditure committee called New San Diego that supports Lee.  The third most-cited issue — roads and other infrastructure — is not even close, at just 4 percent.  

• Housing is, in other words, the defining policy issue in this election, and it’s Hough, who has regularly argued against the city’s current response of rezoning, who has set down the clearest lines distinguishing the two candidates.  

Tommy Hough - Democrat
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
Media:  2022 election: Q&A with Tommy Hough, candidate for San Diego City Council District 6

I feel like I’ve known Tommy Hough (pronounced “how’) for a long time, but that’s likely because of his years as a rockin’ radio record spinner who actually cared about what he was playing.  Sadly, the days of quality control in the radio business are mostly over, as station owning conglomerates (mostly) race to the bottom when it comes to content.

Later on, I knew of him as an environmental activist who successfully infiltrated the local Democratic party and was instrumental in helping them understand (mostly) why stewardship of the planet was both the right thing to do and good politics.

Now Hough, a county planning commissioner, is running a grassroots style campaign focused on infrastructure and neighborhood challenges. We’re a city with differing and strong opinions on these topics, and I fear he’s been unduly influenced by the voices shouting the loudest.

After examining his campaign I feel that he’s trodding alongside the ideological path of NIMBYism, a drift toward selfishness I’ve seen with other activists I once thought of as progressives. Many of them still think of themselves as environmentalists, but their cure for what ails us is all-too-often the individualist approach sold to us by Dirty Energy, Inc.

In Hough’s case, calling a fee for single family homes’ trash pick up a “tax” puts him in a league with Carl DeMaio. I’d be tempted to agree that a separate fee for trash collection shouldn’t exist, except that the financial underpinnings of cities in California have been Balkanized (special districts for everything) and gutted by the likes of Prop 13.

It’s one thing to oppose ill-advised development projects and another to insist that you’ll “defend single-family zoning where it currently exists” in a pitch for a community reception. The legal bias toward single units on lots is a big part of what got us to the state’s housing shortage.

Hough’s “Neighborhood’s First” may seem like an innocuous campaign slogan, but it fits with the rhetorical framework of the reactionary forces opposing densification in communities throughout California.**

Of course, Hough isn’t opposed to building new housing. And I’m sure he’ll dispute my characterization of his stances. I see an otherwise progressive candidate catering to some of the worst impulses in conflict over development and repeating too many of the usual excuses…

…It’s just that new residential construction in D6 doesn’t fit. Or that there isn’t enough infrastructure. Or that it’s only upscale housing. Or that it will cause congestion. Or [insert excuse here]...

The Hough campaign is built around opposing “downtown special interests.” It’s a good way of differentiating a candidate from the establishment’s pick. It’s also a good workaround for proposed policies with slim to no chances of enactment, in part because the “special interests” are part of a winning coalition.

I’ve always been skeptical about claims made about the influence of campaign contributions. With Hough, his NIMBY tendencies aren’t not so much about the money (Lee has raised vastly more money from corporate overlord types), it’s the open advocacy of activists supporting his campaign from around the city who’ve made a career out of opposing everything from bike lanes to granny suites.  

I get it. Housing policy discussions need to be nuanced. They need some buy-in from the community. But, make no mistake about it, California has or will be enabling new residential construction in every neighborhood. It’s such a big deal that ballot measures for 2024 are already circulating to undo many of the laws Gov. Newsom has signed.

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**Just to be clear here I share the sentiment that we can’t just build our way out of the housing crisis and wait for the market to do its thing. The market doing its thing is exactly how we got here. Fixing this is going to take money, and that money should be coming from the pockets of those who’ve benefited the most from the state’s status quo.  

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Next Up: I’ll get to District 8 on Friday, but tomorrow’s rant is reserved for those whose thinking pencils out to setting up concentration camps for unhoused humans. Yes, I’m talking about Bill Walton. 

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Click on the underlined title to see previous voter guides
(More coming soon)

California State Officials
California’s DC Delegation
State Senate Races
State Assembly Races
SD County Supervisors
County Sheriff, Assessor, and Treasurer Races
SD Measure B: Cash Meets Trash 
SD Measure C: Reach for the Sky! Or Else?
SD Measure D: Righting a Wrong to Build a Future
SD Measure H: It’s for the Children (And Their Parents)
CA Proposition 1: It’s About More Than Abortion
CA Propositions 26 & 27: Betcha Can’t Pick Just One
CA Proposition 28: Arts & Music for a Sane Future
CA Proposition 29: Regulating Dialysis Clinics and the Definition of Insanity
CA Proposition 30: A Poison Pill Concealed by Sweet Promises
CA Proposition 31: Tobacco Company Lawyers Are Scum
SD Democrats’ Scandal Inside a Scandal: Board of Equalization
SD City Council Races: District Two - Is Voting Republican a Mortal Sin?
SD City Council Races: District Four - No News Is Good News for Incumbent Montgomery-Steppe

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Boards of Education Contests:
Analysis by Thomas Ultican

2022 School Board Contests, Part 1
The County Board, San Diego Unified, Sweetwater Union, Poway Unified
2022 School Board Contests, Part 2
Chula Vista, San Marcos, Vista, Grossmont
2022 School Board Contests, Part 3
Oceanside, Escondido, San Dieguito
2022 School Board Contests, Part 4
Coronado, Carlsbad, Escondido Union

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Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com