Does Todd Gloria Really Have the Mayor’s Race All Wrapped Up?

The 2020 Primaries: Is it Time for Todd Gloria to Do a Victory Lap?

By Doug Porter / Words&Deeds / Sept. 9, 2019

Short answer: Nah, he’s not gonna pull a Howard Dean.

The first round of polling made news this weekend. A Union-Tribune/10 News poll has Assemblyman Todd Gloria leading Councilwoman Barbara Bry by more than a 2-1 ratio among likely voters in the race to become San Diego’s next mayor.

Here’s the fine print: 46% of likely voters are undecided, mostly because they don’t give a hoot just yet. 39% say they have no opinion of Bry, and 23% don’t have an opinion of Gloria. The poll surveyed 550 likely voters over three days over land lines, smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices and has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.

Councilwoman Barbara Bry giving her “State of the District Address” in Jan 2019. Should she fold her tent and leave the race for mayor? No, not according to the polls.

Longer Answer: It’s time to start paying attention folks. Welcome to the first in a weekly series of local election updates. Today it’s City of San Diego Mayoral race, March 2020 Primary.

This is the first in a series of articles that will eventually be folded into a Voter Guide, to be published at the end of January.  Other City of San Diego offices on the ballot this year are: City Attorney, Odd numbered City Council Districts (1,3,5,7,9). I’ll cover those next week (usually Mondays).

Note: College and school district elections are administered by the County of San Diego, mostly because school districts don’t follow city boundaries. San Diego’s Mayor and City Council have no direct say in the operation of schools; any candidate for those offices who makes claims about reforms or oversight is factually challenged.

In addition to City of San Diego races, contests for State Legislature, U.S. Congress, and County Board of Supervisors are my top priorities for the March election as far as coverage goes.

San Diego has a strong mayor form of government, which effectively means the bureaucracy answers to whoever holds the post. Elected posts are technically non-partisan, but it’s no secret  the Republican-Chamber of Commerce alliance that once ruled the roost is in decline.

Incumbent Republican Kevin Faulconer is termed out. I won’t miss his deliberate do-nothingness, the press releases claiming something was being done, and the flashy smile as he waffled on all-too-many issues.

At the State GOP Convention in Indian Wells this weekend, Faulconer took a victory lap for his actions on homelessness, saying housing solutions are the path to making the organization the “party of yes.”

Nice try, Mayor. 

The bridge shelter program currently in place in San Diego took funding from permanent housing; it’s future –according to the city auditor budget analyst –isn’t sustainable. Faulconer has spent the last few years trying to blackmail voters by tying funding for homeless issues to an a ballot measure for convention center expansion.

Most of the action in city elections this year involves Dem on Dem contests. I wish I could say there are clear ideological lines, but there aren’t in many races.

Instead we’re mostly looking at crafted images, and assorted long-term grievances left over from past elections. Older people are still arguing over how and why Bob Filner was forced to resign as mayor. Younger people are like WTH?

Mix in a gallon of real estate money, a quart of white privilege, a pint of patriarchy, and a dash of activism, and you’ve created the unique flavor of our local politics.

The State of California’s move into early presidential primary voting wasn’t accompanied by a corresponding shift in filing dates, so everything isn’t set in stone as far as ballots are concerned until December 6th. Mail-in voting starts February 3 and concludes a month later.

Thanksgiving thru early January are historically lackluster periods when it comes to fundraising and voter outreach, so local candidates have a couple of months now, and one month later to get their campaigns rolling.

The high profile issues in San Diego’s Mayoral contest are housing, homelessness, roads, and climate action. Future posts in this series will address the differences between the various candidates on these and other issues.

Running for Mayor are…

Todd Gloria – Lives in Mission Hills, served eight years on the City Council before being elected to the state Assembly in 2016. He was interim Mayor of San Diego (8/2013 – 3/2014) after Bob Filner’s resignation. While on the Council, Gloria was instrumental in the creation of a proposal for a Climate Action Plan and a campaign to raise the local minimum wage + paid sick leave.  If he wins, he would be the city’s first openly gay mayor.

Barbara Bry – Lives in La Jolla, was elected to the City Council in 2016 after a long career in the private sector that included founding several local high-tech companies. She is currently President Pro Tem of the San Diego City Council. Her background includes stints working as a journalist first with The Sacramento Bee and later with the Los Angeles Times. In 2008, Bry founded Run Women Run, a nonpartisan organization that inspires, recruits, and trains qualified, pro-choice women to seek elected and appointed office.

Tasha Williamson – Lives in southeastern San Diego and co-founded the San Diego Compassion Project to advocate for family members of police violence victims in the region. In 2013, she was one of three California activists to receive a California Peace Prize from the California Wellness Foundation. She launched Building Justice last year, a non-profit benefiting disadvantaged individuals trying to navigate the educational, criminal justice, and social service systems

Lesser known candidates in the 2020 mayor’s race so far include Gita Applebaum, Bonnie Eisner, J’Erek Evans, Andrew Gade, Cedric Green, Richard Hansen, Beatrice Marion, Rich Riel and Daniel Smiechowski.

Already dropped out: Attorney Cory Briggs announced he was running for mayor in January, motivated by what he saw as a giveaway to developers in return for promises of affordable housing. He dropped out of the race in May, and is now running for City Attorney.

Spoiler alert: Termed out City Councilman Scott Sherman has made noises about running for Mayor as a Republican. His entry into the race would pull votes from Barbara Bry, whose business background is appealing to some Republicans.

The top two finishers in the March 2020 primary will advance to a runoff in November 2020.

Basic information…

Check your voter registration status here.

San Diego voter registration by party as of August 31, 2019

• Democrats: 318,507
• No Party Preference: 242,522
• Republicans: 162,004
• *American Independent: 24,216
• Green: 3,423
• Libertarian: 7,553
• Peace & Freedom: 2,831
• Misc: 6,166

*Many people registered as American Independent mistakenly thought they were signing up for No Party Preference. The AI party is actually the remnants of Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s neo-segregationist movement.