SAN DIEGO - Gov. Jerry Brown endorsed ex-Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher for San Diego mayor Monday, while David Alvarez gained support of top school officials and Kevin Faulconer touted the backing of ex-Mayor Jerry Sanders.
"Nathan Fletcher will make an excellent mayor,'' Brown said. "I came to know Nathan when he was in the state Assembly. He and I worked together on tax reform, stimulating jobs and balancing the state budget.''
The governor called Fletcher "a solid leader who brings people together to get things done.''
Fletcher has won support from numerous statewide and legislative leaders, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Superintendent of Instruction Tom Torlakson and Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles.
Fletcher, Alvarez and Faulconer are leading in the polls for the Nov. 19 special election in which San Diegans will choose someone to finish the term of Bob Filner, who resigned in disgrace Aug. 30. If no one wins more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff between the top two vote-getters would be held early next year.
Alvarez, a city councilman, was endorsed by San Diego Unified School District Board of Education President John Lee Evans and trustees Richard Barrera, Kevin Beiser and Marne Foster, along with Greg Robinson, a member of the San Diego County Board of Education.
Alvarez had previously received the backing of the San Diego County Democratic Party and the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council.
Faulconer, also a City Council member, rolled out his first television advertisement of the campaign, which features Sanders, who is now the CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The ex-mayor says in the commercial that he worked closely with Faulconer to reform the city's debt-ridden pension systems and that the councilman will use the savings to repave streets, heighten police patrols and increase hours of after-school programs, if elected.
"I worked with Kevin Faulconer for seven years,'' Sanders says. "Kevin Faulconer knows there's no Democrat or Republican way to fill a pothole, he's about getting things done."
Faulconer has also been endorsed by the San Diego County Hotel-Motel Association, the San Diego chapter of the California Restaurant Association, and his Republican colleagues on the City Council, among others.
