Give Now
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
  • Full Schedule
Watch Live

San Diego City Council Races Still Contested

By Alison St John / Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published June 5, 2008 at 5:56 AM PDT
This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Now that the San Diego mayor's race is settled, the battle lines are being redrawn to fight for the make-up of the new city council in November. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

San Diego City Council Races Still Contested

Now that the San Diego mayor's race is settled, the battle lines are being redrawn to fight for the make-up of the new city council in November. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Mayor Sanders knows the success of his reforms will depend on the support of the city council. After winning a second term on Tuesday, he says not only is he relieved to avoid a run off campaign, he's glad that will free up contributions for the city council candidates who back his agenda.

Advertisement
Become a KPBS sponsor

Sanders: For the other candidates in other races, it's kind of nice to have this one out of the way so they can go out and fundraise and do what they need to do to get their races done also.

Republicans have been in the minority on the Council, but they see an opportunity to change that.

Two of the four council seats on the ballot in November could affect the balance of power at City Hall. District 7, the college area, is ground zero. The Republican Party poured well over $200,000 into April Boling's campaign. Boling, a chartered accountant, is elated that she made it into a run off with former TV journalist Marti Emerald , a Democrat

Boling: I think this has come as quite a surprise to quite a few people,

Boling knows she can now count on even more support from the Republican Party in November.

Advertisement
Become a KPBS sponsor

Bowling: I think with more time, we'll have a whole new group of people coming for the November election that didn't show up for June so there's lots of opportunity out there.

The Party is likely to marshal the same kind of resources it did to get Councilman Kevin Faulconer elected to the city's downtown District Two in 2006. Young republicans travelled from the east coast to help knock on doors and get out the vote.

Lorena Gonzales lost to Faulconer in that election. She is now the head of the San Diego and Imperial County Labor council. Gonzales says the labor council helped Marti Emerald in this Primary, and will continue to support her in the Fall, but their resources will be spread much more thin.

However Gonzales says Emerald should have an edge because the district has more registered Democrats and they're likely to turn out in droves for the Presidential election.

Gonzales: We were hopeful that she would win it in June just so we wouldn't have a race hanging out there, but we are much more comfortable with the electorate in November than we are with a June electorate.

The balance of power on the city council will also depend on who wins the run off for District One, where Democrat Sherri Lightner will be up against Republican Phil Thalheimer.

The San Diego Republican Party has already pledged to back both Thalheimer and Boling in the fall.

San Diego's Democratic Party historically raises a fraction of the money raised by the Republican Party, even though the city of San Diego has more registered Democratic voters than Republicans.

While the GOP hopes to strengthen their win in the mayor's race with city council races in the Fall, Councilwoman Donna Frye says she doesn't want to see a council that rubber stamps Sanders reforms. 

Frye: I don't know why so many people are so afraid of having any kind of real dialogue, a legislative executive branch give and take -- the steam roller approach -- that style of governance doesn't appeal to me.

Frye says the battles for city council seats in November will be as important as this week's mayor's race in shaping the future quality of life for San Diegans.

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.
More News