With mere hours to go until voting begins, the candidates for San Diego mayor made their closing arguments and rallied supporters today.
City Councilman Carl DeMaio said he’d be a committed public servant.
“And if given the honor of being San Diego’s mayor, I will commit to you that I will work every day,” he said.
Congressman Bob Fillner encouraged Latino voters to head to the polls tomorrow.
“Si, se puede! Si, se puede! Si, se puede!” he chanted as a crowd echoed the cheer. “Gracias a todos!”
Both Filner and DeMaio have been campaigning for at least a year and recent polls show it’s going be a close election. The latest SurveyUSA poll released today shows Filner with a slight lead over DeMaio, 49 percent to 45 percent. Seven percent of likely voters remain undecided. DeMaio’s numbers have increased five points since the last SurveyUSA poll two weeks ago.
DeMaio made his final appeal during a news conference on Harbor Island. He was backed by fellow Republicans, including current mayor Jerry Sanders and the Republican members of the San Diego City Council. They echoed DeMaio’s assertion that only he can move the city forward through continued financial reforms.
“This election is about whether we will have the courage, the commitment and the collaborative approach to continue to implement reform,” he said, “to fix our financial problems, to put the savings back into our services like after school programs and work together to revitalize our economy.”
Across town at the Logan Heights Library, Filner told supporters his administration would focus on neighborhoods and change who has power in the city.
“We’ve been giving a lot of money to a few people,” Filner said. “The recent decision at City Hall show that we’re giving away public money to private people who give campaign contributions, who own newspapers, who control this city’s politics. They think they’re going to buy City Hall. They think they’re going to buy the City Council. We say that day is over.”
The polls are open tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The San Diego County Registrar of Voters told KPBS she expects about 75 percent to 80 percent of registered voters in the county to actually cast ballots tomorrow.
