Todd Gloria Leads in San Diego Mayor’s Race And More Local News

Speaker 1: 00:00 It's Wednesday, March 4th I'm Deb Welsh and you're listening to San Diego news matters from KPBS coming up, democratic assembly man, Todd. Gloria heading for a runoff in November in the race for San Diego mayor and in the 50th district, a November runoff election will be held to fill the post now left vacant by former Congressman Duncan Hunter's resignation. That and more coming up right after the break. Speaker 2: 00:36 [inaudible] [inaudible] Speaker 1: 00:36 Democrat Todd. Gloria is holding a commanding lead in the race for San Diego. Mayor Gloria, who served eight years on the city council and is in his second term in the state assembly, held a consistent lead in polls and fundraising. Buddy told supporters Tuesday night that he's still preparing for a tough fight in November. Speaker 3: 00:55 Some will argue that our bit, our agenda is too ambitious, that our goals are too lofty, that our city's resources are too limited to solve the problems that we face, but we're not going to be doing this because it's easy. Speaker 1: 01:08 As early this morning, city Councilman Scott Sherman, a Republican was in second place. It appears he'll face Gloria in November. It's a close one in the race for the 50th district congressional seat. The latest numbers right now show Mark [inaudible] and Darrel Eissa as the top two vote getters so far. KPBS reporter Prius Schreder has more. It's the first step toward someone not named Duncan Hunter representing the 50th congressional district in 40 years. Democrat, a Mar camp and a jar. A former Obama administration official had the most votes. Speaker 4: 01:42 I'm feeling great, feeling strong. We're doing really well at the night's young, but I think that the people of the 50th have chosen to make an East County son myself be the front runner in this race by a massive margin. Speaker 1: 01:52 The 50th is one of the last Republican strongholds in Southern California. The votes on the Republican side were split between former Congressman Darrel Eissa, former city councilmen and radio host, Carl DeMaio and state Senator Brian Jones. The seat is currently vacant after former Congressman Duncan Hunter jr resigned in January. Prius assure either KPBS news, Republican incumbent Kristin gas bar has a large lead in the race for the district. Three County board of supervisors seat KPBS reporter Shalina Celani says democratic challenger Terra Lawson reamer stands in second. Those supervisor's seats are technically nonpartisan. Republicans have long held a majority on the board, but district three Republican Kristin gas bar will be facing off against a Democrat within a rapidly shifting district. In the November election, Tuesday night bar reminded her voters what her top priorities, Speaker 2: 02:48 things that we weren't making a lot of progress when, who was this? Addiction, incarceration, mental health, all of the messy things that all your elected officials Speaker 5: 03:02 Gaspers democratic challengers are Terra Lawson reamer and economist who served in the Obama administration and Olga Diaz, the first Latina elected to the Escondido city council. Currently Republicans hold four out of five seats on the board. Shelina chant Lani K PBS news. Speaker 1: 03:18 The votes too close to call for the only statewide measure on California's primary ballot, a $15 billion bond to repair and modernize aging schools, many of which are more than a half century old and have issues ranging from leaky roofs and old wiring to toxic mold in early returns. The no votes we're leading. If past about $9 billion of the prop, 13 money would go to K-12 schools. Priority would be given to addressing health and safety concerns, including removing asbestosis. The measure that would expand the convention center, provide money for homelessness and road repairs, appears to be failing. KPBS reporter Matt Hoffman spoke with supporters and opponents of the measure as returns started coming in last night, Speaker 6: 04:03 early return showed the measure had strong support at 63% but wasn't quite at the two thirds Mark needed to pass. Measure C would raise the hotel tax to pay for a convention center. Expansion, road repairs and homelessness. Advocates use the slogan tourist pay. San Diego is when San Diego mayor Kevin Faulkner has pushed for a convention center expansion for years. He helps measure seat will be part of his legacy. Speaker 7: 04:27 It was very tough to get two thirds of folks that do agree on anything, but we pushed very, very hard because I think San Diegans understood how important these issues were. Something that I've certainly feel strongly about pushing very hard for. So I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll continue to trend in the right way, but we'll see. Speaker 6: 04:45 Homeless advocate. Michael McConnell used his own money to pay for ads against the measure. Measure C was a massive tax and bond measure mainly for a convention center expansion that was exploiting homelessness to get more votes. In addition to the mayor, measure C had strong support from tourism officials, politicians and union workers. Matt Hoffman KPBS. Speaker 1: 05:05 The big news of super Tuesday is the big win in multiple States by presidential candidate Joe Biden in San Diego. The mayor's race and the fight for Duncan Hunter's old congressional seat are taking shape. KPBS editor Tom fudge joins us now to talk about that. And Morgan morning. Tom, Speaker 8: 05:22 good morning to you Deb. Speaker 1: 05:23 Let's talk about a couple of high profile races in the County. First, obviously the race for San Diego mayor. Speaker 8: 05:29 Yeah, it's a race for San Diego. Mayor Kevin Faulkner who we just heard from has been doing it for two terms. He's termed out and uh, it looks like the next mayor of San Diego though it's way too early to say for sure is going to be a Democrat. Um, Todd Gloria who is now a member of the state legislature but is a former member of the San Diego city council, uh, looked really good yesterday. He came in with 40% and he was followed by a Republican, Scott Sherman, also a member of the San Diego city council who had 25% but very close behind Sherman was another Democrat. Barbara Bree, who also serves on the city council. She had 23% but a, a good night for Todd. Gloria, no question, Speaker 1: 06:17 no surprise that he is doing so well. Speaker 8: 06:21 No, really no surprise whatsoever. Todd, Gloria, I I have to say is the establishment candidate, he has been endorsed by labor unions. He has been endorsed by the County democratic party and the chamber of commerce for God's sake. I mean, he seems to have the support of just about every, everybody. Does that mean he can't lose in November? Of course not. But uh, he is definitely the guy to beat Speaker 1: 06:49 all right. Republican duck and Hunter driven from office over his corruption scandal in the East county's 50th congressional district who is left standing in that one. Speaker 8: 06:59 Well it is a little too early to say who is going, who are going to be the two candidates who will go on to the general election, but it does certainly look like one of them is going to be Democrat, Democrat Amar camp and the jar who ran against Dunkin Hunter last time, two years ago and actually only lost by two or three percentage points. He did very well as a Democrat in a very conservative Republican East County district. Now the person coming in second appears to be Daryl Eissa. Of course, dear Eliza was a Congressman from San Diego County who represented the 49th district for many years. And uh, one thing that is controversial about Darryl Leisa in this race is a, he has been accused of being a carpetbagger by some people because he does not live in the 50th district as camper jr does. Carl DeMaio who also does not live in the district was not far behind Daryl Eissa but it does look like the two that are going to last to the general are going to be camping in a jar, the Democrat and Daryl Leisa the Republican. Speaker 1: 08:08 All right, and in the 53rd district, that seat now held by Susan Davis who's resigning, what's that shaping up to look like? Speaker 8: 08:14 Well, it is looking like we're going to see two Democrats go to the general election in that one. One of them is Sarah Jacobs. You might recognize that last name because she is related to Irwin Jacobs. It's a family with lots of money and she had lots of money to buy advertising and as a result of that and I guess other things she did very well. She got 29% of the vote. Looks like the person coming in. Number two is going to be Georgette Gomez who is currently the president of the San Diego city council, also a Democrat. Speaker 1: 08:46 All right. Quickly we heard from Matt on measures C and that was the one to expand the downtown convention center. Any new news on that particular measure? Speaker 8: 08:56 Well, no, not, not really. Deb. Um, it looks like, uh, it is losing so far with 63% of the vote is Matt told us it needs two thirds. Uh, two other housing measures measure a which would require us to vote on any housing development that is beyond a, the County plan appears to be losing, but it's very close. 51% to 49% measure B, which is a vote on a very big housing development done by Newland Sierra. It looks like it is also losing. Speaker 1: 09:31 Alright. KPBS editor Tom fudge joining us this morning and he'll be back a little later on with another update. We appreciate it, Tom. Okay. That's it for San Diego news matters today. Consider supporting this podcast by becoming a KPBS member today. Just go to kpbs.org/membership.