The year ahead promises renewed political activity, with several key races to be fought in the coming San Diego elections.
2010 will see half of San Diego’s eight city council seats up for election. Donna Frye will be termed out, Council President Ben Hueso will vie for a seat in the State Assembly, and Kevin Falconer and Tony Young hope to get reelected.
On the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, Bill Horn and Ron Roberts’ seats are on the ballot this year. Two prominent local Democrats, State Assemblywoman Lori Saldana and Shelia Jackson of the San Diego’s Unified School Board, have already thrown their hats into the ring to try to unseat Roberts and break up an all-Republican County Board that has seen no fresh blood in two decades. There is no word yet on whether Frye might join that fray.
Jess Durfee, chair of the San Diego Democratic Party, says the members will decide this month whether to take a position on the initiative to impose term limits on county supervisors.
"The supervisors have been almost scandalous in their efforts to institutionalize themselves," Durfee said. "The amount of money that they basically give to one another to basically help them be reelected; those sorts of behaviors may actually lead the Democrats to support a term limit initiative."
Republicans are the ones who traditionally favor term limits. However, Michael Rosen, secretary of the San Diego Republican Party, says that, because labor groups put this initiative on the ballot, his membership may be at odds with the premise in this case.
"Obviously the party has full faith in and fully supports the Supervisors," Rosen said. "I think we’re reserving judgment on this one. It’s one of those issues that is very contextual."
Rosen says a San Diego ballot measure that Republicans will support is a “Fair Competition” initiative. It’s an attempt to jump start managed competition and would open the door for non-unionized private sector contractors to win city jobs.
