By Alberto Garcia / La Prensa / November 12, 2024
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria benefited from five times more direct campaign funding than his opponent during a hotly contested re-election campaign that ended up being the closest outcome among high-profile competitive races in the county.
Gloria is currently ahead of his opponent, Larry Turner, by 55.3% to 44.6%, although about 140,000 votes still need to be counted throughout the County, with some yet-unknown portion of those expected to be from within the City of San Diego.
Many of the uncounted ballots were provisional votes or ballots with technical issues such as missing or unverified signatures. The County Registrar of Voters has until December 5th to attempt to validate outstanding ballots and certify the final election results.
Official campaign disclosures filed with the San Diego City Clerk show Gloria raised over $930,000 for his personal campaign committee and received nearly $120,000 in direct support from the San Diego County Democratic Party during the election cycle, including campaign mailings, paid door-to-door walkers, and drop literature.
Turner, a retired US Marine Lt. Colonel and current SDPD community relations officer, raised only $193,000 since first opening his campaign committee last year. As a non-partisan candidate, Turner did not receive any support from a political party, leaving Gloria with a direct funding advantage of more than five to one.
Additionally, Gloria benefited from over $1.7 million in expenditures made by three independent committees set up to support his re-election campaign. The committees, named California Progress for All, Big City San Diego, and San Diegans for Fairness paid for billboards, television and digital ads, and direct mailings for Gloria.
Contributions to Gloria and the independent committees included hundreds of thousands of dollars from developers, labor unions, and businesses with direct interests before the City.
Turner benefitted from over $1.5 million in expenditures made by an independent political action committee named Turn San Diego Around, funded primarily by the Lincoln Club of San Diego and local attorney Steven Richter. The PAC paid for digital and television ads, public signs, and direct voter outreach.
For the balance of this article, please go here.
