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San Diego City Council District Races: What's at Stake?

By Alison St John / Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published May 28, 2008 at 9:18 AM PDT
This story was published more than 15 years ago.

San Diego City Council will look very different next year with half the incumbents termed-out and fresh faces vying to represent Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7. KPBS reporter Alison St John spoke with two po

San Diego City Council District Races: What's at Stake?

San Diego City Council will look very different next year with half the incumbents termed-out and fresh faces vying to represent Districts One, Three, Five, and Seven. KPBS reporter Alison St John spoke with two political consultants -- a Democrat and a Republican -- about what is at stake in the coming elections.

Since 1988 San Diego city council members have been elected not by all city voters but by the voters in their district. The mayor on the other hand is voted for city wide. The goal was to balances the interests of neighborhoods with the interests of the city as a whole. 

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The strong mayor form of government has given the mayor's powers a boosts. Long time political consultant Larry Remer, a Democratic, says now there's a battle going on for the soul of the council.

Remer:  So now we have four city council seats that are up and it's really a power struggle between the business community, the hotels and developers who are funding candidates in all the districts, and the community people, the environmentalists and those who are not in it for big profits.

Another prominent political consultant, Jennifer Jacobs, a Republican, sees the battle running along different fault lines.

Jacobs: It all comes down to whether or not you are going to put people who have the taxpayers at the forefront of their priorities, or if you are going to be electing people who are beholden to labor unions and they don't want to be say "no" to anybody.

Jacobs and Remer are pitted against each other in the race for District 7, including the College Area and Tierra Santa, epitomizes the struggle.

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Jacob: There is no greater difference between two people than you will find between Marti Emerald and April Boling -- that will make a huge difference in the direction the city of San Diego goes.

Remer: This election is very important and this particular seat, the one between April Boling who is backed by the downtown people, the hotel people, the developers versus Marti, backed by the environmentalists and by the working people – that's what’s at stake here.

Most of the front runners in all four districts have spent over $100,000 on their campaigns so far, in this high stakes race for control of the city council

Alison St John, KPBS News.     

Alison St John
Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.
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