UPDATE: 6:36 a.m., March 4, 2020:
The top two vote-getters who appear headed to face each other in the November runoff for San Diego City Council District 5 are Democrat Marni von Wilpert, a deputy city attorney, and Republican Joe Leventhal, a lawyer.
With 350,000 ballots still to be counted countywide, both had a sizable lead over Isaac Wang and Simon Moghadam. But von Wilpert and Leventhal were separated by just 20 votes, indicating that the November race between them will be tight.
Original story:
Two Democrats and a Republican are vying to replace termed-out Councilman Mark Kersey in San Diego City Council District 5.
The district includes Black Mountain Ranch, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Rancho Bernardo and Rancho Peñasquitos. The top two vote-getters in tonight's primary will advance to the November election.
The candidates are Marni von Wilpert, a deputy city attorney for the city of San Diego; Isaac Wang, a software startup founder; and Joe Leventhal, a lawyer.
Von Wilpert said wildfire prevention would be her top issue if elected. To prevent wildfires, she would "make sure our firefighters have the resources they need to adequately cover our communities," she said.
Wang said designing safer streets would be his priority. To tackle safer streets, he would add speed tables, roundabouts, cross-walks and angled parking.
Leventhal said he would focus on repairing roads using innovations including "Kevlar type material in the roads material which helps them last longer."
Each candidate also cited housing and homelessness as top issues. But none had any new ideas for solutions.
Von Wilpert's solution was "making sure that we're doing what we can to have the housing that everyone can afford to live in," she said.
Wang talked about reducing regulatory hurdles in the city’s housing market.
And Leventhal is focused on homelessness, not housing affordability. He said for people dealing with a short term problem like a lost job, they need permanent housing first. But others need treatment, not just housing.
For decades, District 5 was solidly Republican, but that has changed in recent years.
As of the first of the year, 33 percent of voters were Democrats, 31.5 percent were Republicans and 30.4 percent were not registered in any party. Kersey was a Republican when elected, but recently left the party to become a no party preference voter.
