San Diego General Election Results: An Overview & First Take
Local Democrats won big in the Tuesday election.
Note: About 35% of the ballots have not been processed, any changes in results will be updated as information becomes available.
The County Board of Supervisors, after years of GOP dominance, is split 3-2 in favor of Democrats, thanks to a decisive victory by Terra Lawson-Remer and two Dems vying to replace termed out Greg Cox. At this point it seems as though Nora Vargas will be representing the South Bay.
There will be one, count’em, one Republican on the San Diego City Council, along with a Democratic mayor (Todd Gloria) likely to serve a full term.
Five new faces --Joe Lacava (D1), Stephen Whitburn (D3), Marni Von Wilpert (D5), Raul Campillo (D7) and Sean Elo-Rivera (D9)-- will be seated in December. We’ll know more about what the intra-party alignments are likely to be as the vote for next council president takes place; announced councilmember Monica Montgomery (D4) is considered more progressive than Jen Campbell (D2).
In local Congressional races, there were no surprises for Democratic incumbents, with Rep. Mike Levin (CD49) handily beating Brian Maryott, Rep. Juan Vargas (CD51) crushing Juan Hildalgo, and Rep. Scott Peters (CD52) over Jim DeBello by more than 80,000 votes.
Democrat Sara Jacobs won the race to replace Susan Davis in the 53rd Congressional District, besting retiring Democratic city council member Georgette Gomez by roughly 50,000 votes.
Duncan Hunter’s old seat (CD50) will likely remain in Republican hands, apparently going to Darrell Issa over Ammar Campa-Najjar. Early results showed the Democrat with a slim lead which disappeared as more totals were posted.
Incumbent City Attorney Mara Elliott easily withstood a challenge from lawyer Cory Briggs; though she faces a number of challenges to her endeavors in coming months.
Local ballot measures A thru E all garnered majority approval.
Unfortunately, 57% was not a big enough margin for Measure A, which required two thirds voter approval. So now San Diego’s homeless population won’t be getting places to live on anywhere near the scale needed to diminish the problem.
Supporters of criminal justice reform were jubilant with the success of Measure B, which passed with nearly 75% voter approval. Now the city council will be empowered to create an independent entity with the power to compel compliance in investigations into police misconduct.
San Diego Unified will see changes in the manner in which its trustees are elected via Measure C, which will allow candidates to face voters in the district they represent in the general election. Currently, trustees are voted on citywide.
The biggest majority seen for any local question came with Measure D, which won approval by more than 86% of voters. Now school board trustees will be held to the same standards for removal as other city officials when misconduct or malfeasance issues arise.
San Diego’s third rail --namely the 30 foot height limitation in areas west of Interstate 5-- was successfully challenged by community planning and business groups in the Midway area via Measure E. which is winning with over 57% approval. A massive re-do of one of the city’s ugliest areas can now proceed. The 30 foot limitation remains in effect for other coastal areas.
Results for statewide propositions will be covered in another post, once the results are more clear.
For now, it looks like it was YES for Props 14 (Stem Cell Research), 17 (Felon Voting restored), 19 (Property Tax on Transfers), 22 (Uber, Lyft, etc. Labor law), and 24 (Privacy).
And…
NO for Props 15 (Property Tax Reform), 16 (Allowed Diversity Rules), 18 (Amended Voting Age), 20 (Rolling Back Criminal Justice Reforms), 21 (Local Government Rent Control), 23 (Regulating Dialysis Clinics), and 25 (Affirming Change in Bail System).
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