Paloma Aguirre Is the Kind of Change San Diego Needs
“The fight against what is happening nationally starts here locally.”
What if they held an election and nobody noticed?
That’s what it seems like with the paltry amount of attention being paid by the local media and the voting public at large to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors primary race on April 8th. Indeed, the San Diego Union-Tribune only ran an overview piece yesterday, and, if not for Michael Smolens, there would not have been much other ink spilled there covering what is a centrally important election for the region.
The Voice of San Diego, not surprisingly, has done a better job, but the rest of the local media hasn’t elevated this story much at all. This is not out of the ordinary for a special election in an off year, particularly one coming just months after a high profile, morally and emotionally exhausting presidential contest, but it vastly underplays the significance of this race.
It’s also worth noting that this contest is in District 1, an overwhelmingly Democratic area where many average voters may be dismayed by the election of Trump and the subsequent chaos that has ensued, leading them to simply tune politics out as if it were unpleasant background noise they just want to go away. Rachel Maddow may be fired up about our democratic rights on MSNBC, but many Democrats in South County don’t seem inclined to even show up to vote in high numbers.
Thus, all indications are that this primary election, where no one will get the over 50% of the vote required to win outright on Tuesday, will be a low turnout affair. As of this writing, Republican voter returns are overperforming even though they are outnumbered by Democrats in D1 by around 2-1. So, despite the wave of protests and growing Democratic activism against the onslaught of attacks on everything from Social Security to workers’ rights and environmental protections, a good number of voters in South County are neither fired up nor ready to go. And when they open their mailboxes, those same voters are getting barraged by dishonest attack pieces against Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre funded by allies of San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno, who are hitting Aguirre because they fear they can’t control her. It’s depressing and predictable San Diego politics.
This is a shame because this election is a bellwether for the future of our region. While the Republican mayor of Chula Vista, John McCann, is likely to come out on top in this primary, the race for second place between Moreno and Aguirre will likely determine the winner. The runoff in July will either upend the historically recent Democratic majority or maintain a 3-2 Democratic advantage. But as the current widespread dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party illustrates, many rank-and-file blue voters have come to question whether their vote means anything if the Democrats they elect turn out to be too timid or compromised to push an agenda that serves the interests of ordinary people.
And in this contest, with Moreno aligning with the right by courting business support and benefiting from proxy attacks on Aguirre that mouth typical GOP talking points on taxes and public services, the choice could not be clearer. Will San Diego promote yet another corporate Democrat or will it go in a more progressive direction?
Paloma Aguirre is the enthusiastic choice of grassroots labor and community activists because she has made it clear that she stands with them and has the inclination to challenge the powers that be, Democrat or Republican, who refuse to address the environmental crises in the region. She is endorsed by the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council and the Working Families Party because she is an unabashedly pro-worker union champion who will walk the picket line with members while also fighting for things like tenant rights and a better environment.
San Diego Democratic voters will decide whether they want to make their county one where we endorse the kind of Democrat who won’t move the needle beyond the bankrupt status quo or if we are a place where more progressives will try to push the envelope and move our region to truly break from the legacy of decades of Republican rule that refused to use the county government to serve the people effectively. By electing Paloma Aguirre to the County Board of Supervisors, San Diegans can make their region part of the change we’d like to see nationwide by thinking globally and voting locally.
As Aguirre said to a gathering of union activists getting ready to go walk precincts last weekend, “The fight against what is happening nationally starts here locally.” If the energy on the ground surrounding the Aguirre campaign is any indication, she should get a chance to prove that.
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