Elections Have Consequences, San Diego County Supervisors Edition
Joel Anderson (D2), Terra Lawson-Remer (D3) and Nora Vargas (D1) were sworn in Monday as new members of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Anderson is a Republican. Lawson-Remer and Vargas are Democrats.
They took their oaths of office virtually, rather than in person, due to ongoing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.
Anderson replaces Dianne Jacob, who joined the Board of Supervisors in 1993 and had held elected office longer than anyone in county history. Anderson, who served in the California Assembly from 2007-11 and the state Senate from 2011-18, defeated Poway Mayor Steve Vaus in a tight race for the District 2 seat.
Vargas, a former Southwestern Community College board member and the first Latina to serve on the Board of Supervisors, replaces Greg Cox, who held the seat for 25 years. She defeated state Sen. Ben Hueso in the November election.
Cox and Jacob were barred from running for re-election because of term limits. From a historical perspective, it’s important to remember that those term limits came via a ballot measure supported by organized labor.
Lawson-Remer, who served as an adviser in the Obama administration’s Treasury Department, defeated Kristin Gaspar, who was seeking a second term.
Gaspar's support for the Trump administration's schemes was a central campaign issue in a re-election effort that was only able to garner the support of 42% of voters for an incumbent.
It wasn't long ago that Republicans on the County Board could occupy their seats for as long as they saw fit.
Today, the Democratic majority will be choosing a new chair.
For more than fifty years, the board has been a Republican stronghold. Vice Chairman Jim Desmond, who by tradition would be the next up to lead the Supervisors, will likely be passed over.
You could say this move is about the new Democratic majority flexing their political muscle, but I’d be willing to bet that Desmond’s flirtations with tin foil hat viewpoints and contrarian nature provided all the rationale needed to upend convention.
In the middle of the biggest health crisis in recent history, it is at best unseemly to have an elected official cheerleading “freedom” based on conspiracy theories and disregard for the needs of the larger community.
Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, the Democrat who led the way for the changes in attitude and policy we’re seeing at the county level, is the consensus choice among observers to lead the County Board.
The supervisors will also consider appointments to boards, including representing the county on the San Diego Association of Governments. AB 805, the legislation that reformed the governance of SANDAG preserved a seat for a supervisor representing rural San Diego, and newly elected Republican Joel Anderson will be chosen over his colleague Jim Desmond.
Once again, wingnuttiness (as opposed to ideology) in San Diego has consequences.
The other SANDAG seat will likely go to Democrat Terra Lawson Remer, whose intellectual heft and history of progressive activism will ensure support for the environmentally aware vision being promoted by executive director Hasan Ikhrata.
It will be interesting to watch that vision evolve in the face of the economic re-ordering created by the pandemic, as office environments shrink and retail occupancy craters.
Nora Vargas is expected to take a prominent role in overseeing the County’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Here's newly elected County Chair Fletcher's first address. Worth watching:
https://youtu.be/0wKW8Ro0vRA
Also...
https://twitter.com/objkshn/status/1346174970632626176?s=20
And for all of you who thought Proposition 22 was about Uber and “freedom:”
https://twitter.com/dougporter506/status/1346491305451405312?s=20
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Lead image via County News Center