Politics

Democrats Take Upper Hand In County Supervisors' District 3

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published November 4, 2016 at 7:51 AM PDT

This story was published more than 8 years ago.

The five San Diego County Board of Supervisors districts, seen with it's representative. District three, which is up for election this year, could become a swing seat.

The latest report from the San Diego Registrar of Voters shows that, for the first time, there are more registered Democrats than registered Republicans in the county supervisors district represented by Dave Roberts.

Roberts, a Democrat, is in a tough battle with Encinitas Mayor Kristin Gaspar over who should hold the District 3 supervisor’s seat for the next four years. Gaspar is a Republican.

The registrar’s latest November report shows the political tide has turned in the district: registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by more than 2,000.

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Four years ago, when Dave Roberts bucked the trend and was elected the only Democrat on the county board, registered Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the district by almost 20,000.

Even in January of this year, there were 13,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats.

The actual numbers this month are 113,768 registered Democrats, and 111,128 registered Republicans.

The number of people who register as "Decline to State" has risen from 88,775 in October 2012 to 89,728 this year.

The battle between Roberts and Gaspar is heated. The third supervisory district is expected to become the swing seat on the county board. Dianne Jacob and Bill Horn’s districts are overwhelmingly Republican. Ron Roberts and Greg Cox’s districts have already turned blue. Term Limits will take effect starting in 2018.

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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.