Voter Guide: 2023 District Four County Supervisor Special Election
Montgomery-Steppe vs Reichert
Coming soon is a Special Election you should pay attention to. Your life and the lives of other San Diegans could be impacted by how people vote in the coming weeks. Bookmark this. Put it in your calendar. Write a post-it for the fridge.
It’s time to get educated!
Voting Details:
Make sure you’re registered to vote
Ballots will be mailed out to active registered voters in Supervisor District Four the week of October 8.
Not sure if you reside in the Fourth Supervisorial District? Click here to find out.
Starting October 9 the Registrar’s Office 5600 Overland Ave Suite 100 (Kearny Mesa) Get Directions
Beginning October 10 drop boxes will be available daily throughout the county (locations)
October 23 is the last day to register to vote in this election.
Vote Centers will open on October 28 (locations)
Election Day is November 7 - The Registrar’s office and all vote centers will be open 7am to 8pm.
At about 8pm, the first results (some early voting) will be released, a second set of results will occur at approximately 11pm & daily thereafter. In this election, the second drop will be enough to inform people about the likely results.
Ignore This: [On November 8, Carl DeMaio and assorted other whiny politicians will start making claims about election fraud. Live coverage will be available on KUSI]
More information available at the Registrar of Voters website.www.sdvote.com.
How we ended up with a special election: Supervisor Nathan Fletcher officially resigned on May 15, in spite of KUSI/Carl DeMaio claiming he wouldn’t.
Former Supe. Fletcher was accused of improper conduct of a sexual nature by an employee of the Metropolitan Transit Service. (He was chair of the organization’s board of directors)
After initially denying the accusations, and then admitting to a consensual affair, it was announced that Fletcher was entering rehab to be treated for PTSD and alcohol abuse He promised to tender his resignation upon completion of his stay at a facility.
Why this election is important: The Board of Supervisors is currently split between two Democrats and two Republicans, and the winner will determine which party secures a majority.
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The candidates for the general election are:
San Diego City Council President pro Tem Monica Montgomery-Steppe (Democrat)
Small Business Owner Amy Reichert (Republican)
A primary election in August eliminated two other candidates.
Results:
Monica Montgomery Steppe 41.7%
Amy Reichert 27.78%
Janessa Goldbeck 23.92%
Paul McQuigg 4.452%
The most notable thing about the primary election was the SD Police Officers Association’s Independent Expenditure group‘s accusatory advertising campaign portraying Montgomery-Steppe as soft on crime. And if you looked at the images on the mailers she was also accused of being Black.
Goldbeck’s campaign had nothing to do with this abhorrent advertising, but deflected questions about their reaction to the content by saying the SDPOA was an organization independent of her campaign. I would guess that, as far as Black voters in this election were concerned, Goldbeck may as well have campaigned in Klan robes.
It’s worth noting that County Supervisors have no authority over the San Diego Police Department. Chances are that the SDPOA’s monies were spent as a favor for the County Sheriffs, and in revenge for advocacy by Montgomery-Steppe on the City Council for an independent police oversight commission.
An unusually high percentage (24%) of voters turned out for the special election primary. Montgomery-Steppe carried all of her city council districts, dominating in central and south San Diego.. Reichert carried areas east of La Mesa and North Clairemont.
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There are approximately 394,000 registered voters in District Four.
The partisan breakdown is
Democrats 48.8%
No Party Preference 23.7%
Republicans 20%
Other 7.5%
Given that Montgomery-Steppe won the primary by more than 13 points, and that registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one, I’ll say the only bets worth making are the over/under on percentages. If Reichert gets more than 40% of the vote, Republicans should consider this election as a success.
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Monica Montgomery-Steppe
Website * Facebook * Twitter
Voter Handbook Statement:
Accountability. Collaboration. Trust.
Monica delivers on the City Council for her home — San Diego. Monica works tirelessly with our County’s leaders to: Increase Economic Opportunity — through job training, homebuyer programs, funding for small businesses and local startups, green jobs, and increasing diversity in contracting and business development.
Invest in People — by expanding public art and education funding, paving roads, fixing sidewalks, building parks, opening a new senior & community center, increasing healthcare and transit access, and expanding homelessness outreach services.
Monica secured over $100 million in investment into District Four. Build out a Public Safety Ecosystem — through crime prevention alternatives, law enforcement reform, improved countywide transit security, and increased county mental health and addiction treatment resources. Monica’s humane policies helped reduce crime rates in her district.
Monica will continue this work by improving local economic opportunities, infrastructure, parks and green spaces, public safety, and youth, senior, veteran, and homelessness services in San Diego County. Monica invites us to help build the representative, responsive, People - centered leadership we deserve and move our County forward, together.
Monica is proudly endorsed by county & city workers, community members, environmental champions, elected officials, and trusted organizations.
My two cents.
I heartily endorse Monica Montgomery-Steppe. She is a solid progressive who also knows how to count votes in legislative matters and is smart enough to keep working on an issue sans whining when in the minority.
San Diego County governance was stuck in the past until a few years back. The Supervisors have made remarkable progress in enabling a more transparent, factually driven, and humane county government. Much more work remains to be done, and Montgomery-Steppe has a track record of getting stuff done.
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Amy Reichert
Website * Facebook * Twitter
Voter Handbook Statement:
As a lifelong San Diegan, a dedicated community leader, and a loving mother, I’ve observed the decline in San Diego’s quality of life over the past four years with great concern. Escalating costs, rising violent crime rates, and a heartbreaking surge in homelessness have disheartened many in our county. San Diegans deserve an affordable, safe, and prosperous community.
The need for affordable housing, where hardworking individuals can keep their earnings instead of watching them vanish into utility bills.
We shouldn’t be burdened with unnecessary mileage taxes for simply taking our children to school or commuting to work. Public safety remains paramount, and addressing the understaffing of our sheriff’s department is essential to prevent San Diego from experiencing the challenges faced by cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
As your County Supervisor, I am committed to fighting for a better San Diego. I’ll advocate for affordable housing initiatives, bolster our law enforcement resources, and implement compassionate solutions for the homeless, including shelters providing mental health and addiction treatment services.
I will tirelessly strive to restore the San Diego we all cherish. Visit AmyForSanDiego.com to connect with me and share your thoughts. Your voice matters. Together, we can shape a brighter future for San Diego.
My two cents.
It would be really nice to see a Republican candidate for office with a reality based campaign. Reichert’s approach is to take an issue out of context, suggest that it’s the opposition’s fault, and fail to suggest anything concrete beyond “tirelessly strive.”
You should notice that her campaign material is short on telling voters who has endorsed her. That’s because –beyond the County GOP, maybe– too many of her ‘friends’ are living on fringes. She got her start with a Facebook page complaining about COVID public health measures, and still calls what happened in San Diego ‘tyranny.’
I didn’t know that tyranny meant letting more people die, which is what you’ll see when comparing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ flat earth approach to what occurred in California.
Yes, COVID measures were inconvenient. And yes, maybe things should have been done better.
But tyranny? Spend a few months in Moscow or Tehran and get back to me.
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Thursday’s Enlightening Links to Click On
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Iconic Ocean Beach church plans to sell self to affordable-housing developer Via NBC. The OB Rag broke the story – read it (it’s ok) if you like ill-informed suggestions of NIMBYism in the comments.
First United Methodist Church in Mission Valley is the parent church for Water's Edge. They plan to absorb the congregation into their Mission Valley location, then sell the Ocean Beach property and duplex they own next door to an affordable housing developer.
"We're going to see if we can't leave a legacy in that spot of what Christ calls us to do, serve others and to put roofs over the heads of people who need it," explained First United Methodist Church Lead Pastor, Trudy Robinson
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Opinion New data on ultra-rich tax cheats wrecks the ‘working-class GOP’ ruse By Greg Sargent at The Washington Post.
But new data on tax avoidance by the ultrarich badly undermines GOP claims to being an anti-elite, pro-worker party. It shows that if Republicans get their way with regard to the IRS, a nontrivial number of very rich Americans would continue to underpay taxes they owe, effectively making out like bandits — some literally so.
Nearly 1,000 tax filers who earn more than $1 million per year have still not filed federal tax returns for at least one year from 2017 to 2020, according to IRS data provided to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
What’s more, the 2,000 people who represent the highest-income non-filers in one or more of those years owe a total of more than $900 million in federal taxes, the data shows.
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Caribbean Matters: Republicans attack National Museum of the American Latino By Denise Oliver Venez for Daily Kos
It’s officially Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. That heritage includes the history of Latino engagement in civil rights struggles here in the U.S.
I find it deeply troubling that two right-wing Hispanic American Republican politicians—Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart of Florida, and Tony Gonzales of Texas— decided to attack and censor segments of history being presented by historians who have developed programs for The National Museum of the American Latino, which has not yet been built. They have also called for Congress to defund the entire project.
We are already faced with the suppression and expulsion of Black American history from classrooms in red states like Florida, with Gov. Ron DeKlantis as a leading cheerleader. This latest right-wing move will simply piggyback onto those efforts, since Afro-Latinos in the U.S. Caribbean diaspora and Indigenous-ancestored Latinos have long been targets of both historical and contemporary racism and erasure.
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