Council Candidate Went Down to Defeat Because He Was Out-of-Touch With District 2 Voters Despite Spending $80 Per Vote
By Paul Krueger / Special to OB Rag
Josh Coyne and his supporters raised more than $450,000 in his run for the San Diego District 2 City Council seat.
That money was not well spent.
Coyne finished a very distant third in the June primary, with just 5,622 votes. First place finisher Richard Bailey got 14,800 votes; Nicole Crosby was second with 14,325.
Bailey is a Republican-turned-Independent who raised and spent less than Coyne. He was also the target of $148,000 in negative ads sponsored by labor unions. But the former Coronado mayor still beat Coyne by more than 9,000 votes.
Democrat Crosby’s cost-per-vote total was even more impressive. She and her supporters raised $153,000 — one-third of Coyne’s war chest — but she beat him by almost 9,000 votes.
The starkest comparison is Coyne versus fourth-place finisher Mandy Havik, who raised just $45,000, or one-tenth of the money raised and spent on Coyne’s behalf.
Havlik is a long-time Democrat stalwart and beach-area activist who campaigned on limiting ADU and highrise development and empowering neighborhood planning groups. She captured 4,750 votes, at about $10 per vote, compared to Coyne’s $80 per vote.
We can extend our sympathies to Coyne for his dismal and very costly (under)performance. He’s intelligent and experienced, and he was laudably transparent about his political positions:
- Build more housing, everywhere, in every form;
- Support – without reservation — Midway Rising, with its high-rise towers, new arena, and proposed special exemption from environmental protections;
- An unyielding defense of underused bike lanes and parking exemptions for developers of high-density ADU projects on narrow and already-crowded cul-de-sacs.
What we can’t excuse is Coyne’s lack of awareness about the problems those policies have created and the anger they’ve generated in our neighborhoods. He thinks he lost because District 2 voters were out of touch with his priorities. In fact, he lost because he was out of touch with theirs.
In Voice of San Diego, a recent paywall-protected Q and A reveals[scroll to near end] how disconnected Coyne was with a majority of D2 voters and why he was flummoxed when voters unleashed their vitriol as he campaigned door-to-door in the Ocean and Mission Beach, Pt. Loma, Midway, and Clairemont communities.
“I wasn’t sure how to position my thoughts around the growing tension about housing and development in a district that has some challenges and has a big project (Midway Rising),” Coyne told VOSD editor Scott Lewis. “The idea of being anti-housing or anti-growth just wasn’t naturally aligned [with Coyne’s personal views].”
Well, Josh, you could try to understand why D2 voters are infuriated by ugly multi-unit ADU projects with no parking crammed on small lots in their neighborhoods – projects built by aggressive developers in a building industry that contributed generously to your campaign.
You could also try to comprehend why there is intense opposition to that one “big project” which proposes 4,250 high-rise apartments and a 16,000-seat arena built on unstable land in an area already choked with traffic.
But you’re probably blinded by the $308,000 independent expenditure packaged on your behalf by Labors’ Local 89 and other unions that will benefit hugely from Midway Rising’s “prevailing wage” provisions. And $30,000 from Brad Termini, the friend of Todd Gloria who heads the Midway Rising team, and his partners/ investors might also cloud your judgement. Not to mention the $25,000 spent on your behalf by AirBnB.
Coyne also told VOSD that he was “actually surprised by the anti-bike lane movement,” he confronted while canvassing voters. “It’s a deep-rooted misunderstanding and vitriol. I heard about it time and time again knocking (on) doors in that district.”
Well, Josh, if you’d look to your right or left while driving on most main thoroughfares in your district, you might realize that the backlash against bike lanes is not based on “deep-rooted misunderstanding” or “vitriol.” It’s a righteous frustration generated by mile-after-mile of consistently empty bike lanes on our busiest streets, when they could easily have been built nearby on parallel roadways with much less traffic.
Those bike lanes often remove a much-needed traffic lane, along with hundreds of parking spots, that local businesses depended on for customers.
So let’s be clear: There’s no “misunderstanding” about a process that actively ignores community concerns, won’t compromise on locations, and refuses to acknowledge that San Diego is not and never will be a “bikeable” city.
Josh also confided that “the hardest part for me was, as someone who worked at City Hall and knows how policy works, [explaining to voters] that the City Council has no ability to stop large-scale, outsized, neighborhood-busting developments [because] they’re all ministerially [approved].”
No, “the hardest part” would have been for you to acknowledge that you and your most visible supporters — including YIMBY Dems of San Diego, YIMBY Congressmember Scott Peters, and YIMBY State Assemblymember Chris Ward – created and continue to support the very system that you now claim you’re unable to modify.
You sounded like an arsonist who threw gasoline on dry brush and when the fire raged, said, “Sorry, I can’t do anything to put out those flames.”
It’s your coalition that stripped neighborhoods of their ability to learn about a planned high-rise project before the permits are approved and the construction fence is erected.
It’s your coalition that has muzzled democratically elected Community Planning Groups.
It’s your coalition that gutted design standards, shrunk set-backs from adjoining single-family homes, removed off-street parking requirements on the demonstrably false theory that anyone who lives up to a mile from a transit stop will not need a personal vehicle to navigate life in San Diego.
It’s your coalition that has failed to secure funding for parks, fire and police stations, and other much-needed infrastructure for this additional housing.
And it’s your coalition that assured approval of a state law that gutted local control of our coastal area and facilitates the proposed construction of a universally-hated 23-story highrise on a narrow street in Pacific Beach. (And sadly, the best response you and your colleagues can muster to the near unanimous rejection of the “Turquoise Tower” is to plead ignorance that the legislation would allow such an undesirable use and amend the law when it was too late to make a difference.)
No, Josh, you clearly didn’t have a clue about what issues matter most to District 2 voters. You couldn’t empathize with your neighbors when they voiced their frustrations with city hall. And you couldn’t see beyond the desires of your contributors and recognize your duty to represent the views of a majority of D2 residents.
That’s why even $450,000 wasn’t enough to stave off your humiliating defeat.
Yes you like the neo con Repub Bailey-that simple
You really think Bailey is pro bike lane lol? Or pro anything YIMBY? Come on now.
Right on !
You have pointed out exactly why I not only did not vote for Coyne, but also counseled as many as I could to vote for anyone BUT Coyne.
I was prepared to go door-to-door should he have gotten past the primary, something I have never done. I was also prepared to spend my own money to print and distribute letters to as many of my Clairemont neighbors as I could afford, exposing exactly where Coyne stood on these issues, primarily all the apartments on Clairemont Mesa Blvd that have just lost their street parking to bollards and bike lanes.
If you live in Clairemont and work elsewhere, and/or you have kids in school who cannot walk or bike themselves to school, you are already keenly aware of the ever-increasing traffic congestion here. Am I the only one who has noticed that almost every traffic light is now 15-30 seconds longer than it was a year ago ? I started informally measuring this with a timer last year after school started, when I noticed how long it seemed to take to drive my kid back and forth to school.
I travel CMB a minimum of 4 times every school day – drop off: to school and back home, pick up: to school and back home. Times five that is 20 segments of driving from Genesee & CMD to CMB & 163 each week. I see far more homeless using the bike lanes than cyclists. One or two cyclists per day is about the average, that’s out of 4 one-way trips
I’m still angry about what was done to Convoy St. It used to be a dining destination for our family at once per week minimum. Now I only drive through it without stopping, shaking my head at the empty bike lanes and their attendant bollards. I may see one or two riders in the course of a 4 trip day on CMB, but I NEVER see anyone cycling Convoy.
Meanwhile, the beat goes on. There are at least three 10 unit or more ADU projects on cul-de-sacs within a mile of where I live. And the large projects are continuing with new ones starting seemingly every week.
In January of 2026 nbcsandiego reported “Clairemont’s revamped community plan was signed into law by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria on Friday, paving the way for 14,000 new homes.” 14,000 !!
From online research and news reports, here are some of them:
Completed –
404 units added Mt. Etna & Genesee
531 units added at Convoy & Ronson
302 units on Aero Dr
Under construction –
38 units at Clairemont Dr & Clairemont Mesa Blvd
251 units (7 stories) at 163 Freeway & Clairemont Mesa Blvd
432 units 5550 Kearny Mesa Road
??? units 7700 block of Clairemont Mesa Blvd (site of old Zion and KM Bowl)
In the works –
600 units at Balboa & Clairemont Drive
Several others that are not getting much publicity, just look for the cranes. Unless something is done, this is going to get worse, not better
Robert, would you contact me at obragblog@gmail.com? — Frank
Thanks much for taking the time (and doing the reseach) to contribute to this discussion. I think your speak for many residents in your neighborhood, and confirm — yet again — why Coyne lost, and how out of touch his positions are/were with a majority of D2 voters.
Well-put, Paul. I think San Diegans have always understood that this coastal community will have to grow. But we do not want to destroy all sense of community, road safety, and livability by justifying massive overbuilding in under-supported and under-resourced neighborhoods with fictions about how we will avoid problems. It is laughable that anyone can call a transportation synapse, where one or more buses meet a trolley, a “transportation hub” in San Diego. And I still recall the city planner who appeared before the local League of Women Voters and answered, “They can use bikes or scooters” to the question of how residents who are encumbered even slightly by age, disability, baggage, or dangerous street planning could travel that last uphill, downhill, or twisty mile or more after getting off the bus. Ask anyone here, of any income level, how much harder it is to find employment when you have only public transportation to rely on. I personally serve so many low-income hard-working folks who have to spend precious earnings on Uber because the public transit system doesn’t run at the right hour, doesn’t run often enough or can’t get them to their destination on time or with necessities in tote. Coyne and so many others just don’t get it.
So well put, Joni. Thx much for sharing your insights.
ABsoLUTELY CORRECT! — EVERY WORD! An EXPENSIVE “reality check” for Coyne :P
I recall ads paid for by Coyne’s Union supporters that said he was everything he wasn’t. You mention “he was laudibly transparent”. Here’s a text I received, which is saying he was everything he wasn’t. “Our coastal neighborhoods are under attack.
Josh Coyne lives in Point Loma. He’s not a developer or a lobbyist. He’s a neighbor who will fight to protect our communities from overdevelopment and keep City Hall accountable.
Josh will oppose height limit increases in coastal communities, demand real community input before any major project moves forward, and stand up to the special interests that treat our neighborhoods like profit centers.
Josh Coyne for San Diego City Council. Your neighbor. Your advocate.
Paid for by Committee ID 1490441. Top Funder: LiUNA Local 89. Not authorized by a candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate. ”
Yep, and Josh and Denise who support more of the same ,”pack em in” planning, both finished ahead of Mandy Havlik. Mandy was a Unicorn. The only Democrat that wasn’t OWNED by this coming nightmare. And now she is out. Vote to end this destruction of our Community Plans.
Mandy got more votes than Josh.
Nope, I was wrong here. Josh got about 900 votes more than Mandy.
Josh: 5,630
Mandy: 4,759
Norm, you are absolutely correct about that mailer that totally misrepresented Coyne’s views on the issues. Thanks much for sharing that info. I will say that that mailer was an independent expenditure made by the Laborers’ Union, and that my law it’s consultants — who are responsible for the blatant misrepresentations of Coyne’s record — can not collaborate with the Coyne campaign on the mailers’ content. It’s illegal for any candidate to write, review, or edit any content in campaign material produced by an independent committee. It would be interesting to see if Coyne’s campaign distributed any mailers/text messages that similary mis represented his record.
Well said Paul.
I am writing in Mandy Havik for my vote.
Bailey seems like he’s on the path for Mayor and that means he will be beholding to the deep pockets and will cause a special election which will cost $$$$ and I question why Nicole Crosby who is already a city employee would take a cut in pay and run for council when in 2024, as San Diego Deputy City earned a base salary of $219,410.18, with a total compensation package (including benefits and pension debt contributions) of $336,943.55
That would be a wasted vote. Perhaps Nicole has a higher calling, a desire to directly help the people of her communities. It’s not just about the money, as you know. Why did I get a cut in pay from being a lawyer to being a publisher of the Rag with no pay?
Maybe wasted but my gut tells me neither is a good choice. So Mandy will get a my vote if a write in is an option.
It isn’t. In San Diego write-ins are allowed only in primary elections, not the general. And even in the primary you have to register as a write-in for votes to count.
Don’t think write-ins are allowed in General Election.
Debbie be careful. Ralph Nader stole votes for Dems with zero chance of winning. The Green Party has stolen Dem votes with no chance of winning. Republicans are like sheep and lemmings. Democrats have the ability to form their own thoughts. I voted for Barbara Bry and Mandy Havik. And I will vote for Crosby even if I have to wear a clothespin on my nose and bite my tongue because we can’t let a possible wolf in sheep’s clothing sneak in the back door. Make your vote make a difference that has a chance.
Can’t help but agree here with much of what you say, FJ, but respectfully have to disagree about Nader and Greens “stealing” votes from Dems. There was never any evidence about those claims. Clinton was responsible for her own campaign and lack of voters (she didn’t even visit certain key mid-western states).
I supported Mandy in both 2022 and this year, and contributed to her campaign and walked precincts for her, even though I don’t live in the district. I think she was far and away the most committed, honest, and independent candidate, and that her view reflect those of a majority of D2 voters more accurately that any other candidate. If I lived in D2, I’l also seriously consider writing in her name on the November ballot.
Coyne’s loss shows that voter fury is now more powerful than special-interest money. YIMBYs have always been a political minority. They have wielded undue influence thanks to boatloads of cash from the building industry. But all the money in the world can’t save them from this day of reckoning.
YIMBY land use and transportation policies have given us the wreckage Paul describes here: monstrous ADU complexes; empty bike lanes that cost a fortune; a critical shortage of street parking; traffic congestion that pollutes neighborhoods. The city treasury is depleted, and our unpopular YIMBY mayor has gone into hiding. This is why candidates like Coyne are running into a fierce headwind. You can only heap so much abuse on people before they turn on you with a vengeance.
On a personal note: Like Coyne, I placed third in a Council primary (D3 in 2024). I knew from the start that first-time candidates face impossible odds. I did not feel entitled to a victory. I never dismissed people who didn’t vote for me as showing “deep-rooted misunderstanding.” It’s too bad Coyne feels aggrieved by the outcome. For me, running for office was a wonderful experience, and I’ll always be glad I did it.
Thanks much for sharing these insights, Kate. I think Coyne is just captive to the YIMBY/BIA/Chamber echo chamber, and failed to understand/accept/acknowledge the frustration of D2 residents, especially in Clairemont and adjoining neighborhoods that have been overrun by massive ADU projects with no parking. We are all acaptive — to some extent — to our own peer group echo chambers — the challenge is to really listen and try to understand what our adversaries are saying, and not to personalize their comments, and to never demonize them, There is definitely room for compromise on these very divisive issues, and all of us should always strive for common ground.
Maybe COYNE LOST BECAUSE HE WORKED DOWNTOWN FOR THE AWFUL MAYOR YES WE NEED HOUSING NOT BIKE LANES HOMELESS NEED HOMES
That’s way too many words for someone who is just bland.
Vanilla.
(But also, let’s celebrate that being white and male is no longer sufficient)
Homeless still need housing development and building are facts of economic lufe