San Diego has a new mayor. It has a new City Council with an added district. The county has a new supervisor—the first Democrat in almost 20 years. The 52nd Congressional District race is still close, but if the numbers hold, the San Diego region may have a new congressman, too.
This week’s election brought a lot of newness to San Diego, and KPBS was there to cover it all. I was helping pound out our stories when the first round of votes was released at 8 p.m. Tuesday and I’m proud to say I think we were the first local news organization to post election results.
Here’s a recap of what we covered:
- San Diego Mayor: Bob Filner. Filner gave one of his first interviews the day after the election to KPBS, and we have a video of DeMaio’s concession speech.
- 52nd Congressional District: Likely Scott Peters. About 1,300 votes separate Peters from sitting congressman Brian Bilbray. Peters spoke with KPBS about his plans if he is in fact elected.
- Proposition 30: Passed. Governor Jerry Brown’s tax increase ballot measure to fund city schools passed, and our education reporter breaks down what that means for San Diego schools and students. Hint: it includes $249 for some local college students.
- San Diego City Council District 1: Sherri Lightner. The incumbent Lightner beat her challenger Ray Ellis, giving Democrats the majority on the City Council.
- San Diego County Board of Supervisors District 3: Dave Roberts. For the first time in almost 20 years, there’s a Democrat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Dave Roberts appears to have edged out Steve Danon for the seat.
- Proposition Z: Passed. The San Diego Unified school bond passed, raising property taxes to pay for $2.8 billion in borrowing and repayment costs. There were 10 other local school bonds on the ballot, some of which passed, some of which didn’t. Here’s a roundup.
- There were also four local medical marijuana measures on the ballot. All of them failed.
Here’s the full recap of our election coverage, including results for the other state ballot measures.
Other Stories This Week
This KPBS/I-Newsource story has the best headline I’ve ever seen: Darth Vader meets the Worst Person in the World. Reporter Brad Racino gives an incredibly in-depth look at what happened behind the scenes of the mayor’s race, including interesting tidbits like Filner refusing to give his cell phone number to DeMaio so DeMaio could concede, and DeMaio’s consultant admitting they sent out campaign mailers that helped Filner during the primary.
We also have this really cool map that shows how each precinct voted in the mayor’s race. Check out the split along Interstate 8. The breakdown of votes in the 52nd Congressional District isn't so stark. And finally, here's a map showing the overlap between the two races.
Immediately after the election, local labor unions decided to drop their lawsuits against the Convention Center expansion. There are still other lawsuits over the project’s financing, but labor’s had the most financial backing.
And current Mayor Jerry Sanders found a new job.
Oh wait, I knew there was news I was forgetting: there was also a presidential election this week. President Barack Obama ended up winning the electoral college and the popular vote. But Jason Roe, the so-called “worst person in the world” in the I-Newsource story, is working to make the popular vote all that matters. His group has convinced nine states, including California, to sign a pledge saying they will award all of their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.
The compact would go into effect when enough states sign on so that it truly would give the popular vote winner the majority of electoral votes as well.
Opinions likely differ on this idea, but I will say one thing is for sure: I will miss the red and blue election night maps.
