Politics

San Diego County Officials Facing Challengers In Election

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published March 3, 2010 at 1:14 PM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

So far, four of the six San Diego County officials running for reelection on the June ballot face challengers. Two Supervisors, the District Attorney, the Sheriff, the Assessor and the Treasurer are all running for reelection.

San Diego County, with a budget of $5 billion, has seen little turnover in its elected officials over the years: most supervisors have served four terms and the administrative posts are sometimes held for decades. Salaries for elected officials at the County top $150,000.

Supervisor Bill Horn and Sheriff Bill Gore face challengers, so do Assessor Dave Butler and Treasurer Dan McAllister.

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Carl Luna, professor of political science at Mesa College, says this era of budget cuts may be resulting in more dissatisfaction among voters.

“Now you’ve got basic bureaucratic positions like Treasurer challenged,” Luna said, “Usually the county and the county government is something that voters barely have any consciousness of, but it seems to be part of what’s in the air these days, of general voter discontent with the status quo.”

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Supervisor Ron Roberts remain unchallenged. The filing deadline for prospective candidates is March 12th.

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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.