Category: Election

Tens of Thousands Expected Across San Diego County for No Kings March 28 

Organizers anticipate largest San Diego turnout yet after 80,000+ joined October mobilization

Tens of thousands of San Diego County residents are expected at 22 rallies, marches and family-friendly events on Saturday, March 28, building on the 80,000+ who mobilized countywide in October 2025. Participants say they are mobilizing in defense of democratic institutions, civil liberties, and social programs affecting San Diego families. Events are scheduled across San Diego County, including Downtown San Diego, Ocean Beach, La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Mira Mesa, Carlsbad, Oceanside,Vista, San Marcos, Escondido, Fallbrook, Temecula, Valley Center, Rancho Bernardo, Ramona, La Mesa, El Cajon, Chula Vista, Otay Mesa and Borrego Springs.

Here’s the updated list of No Kings events within San Diego County, March 28

MAIN SAN DIEGO RALLY & MARCH
Waterfront Park
10:00 a.m.–noon | 1600 Pacific Hwy, San Diego, CA 92101

Schedule:
10:00–10:45 a.m. — Main program & speakers
10:45 a.m.–noon  — March; return to Waterfront Park

Trumper Sheriff Bianco Is a Republican Candidate for California Governor

By Jen Rice / Democracy Docket / March 23, 2026

A Republican sheriff running for governor of California has seized more than 650,000 ballots cast in last year’s redistricting referendum election, an alarming signal that the FBI’s recent conspiracy-fueled raid of a Georgia county election hub could be just the first in a new string of attacks on the results of past votes.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco announced Friday that his office had seized the ballots and would conduct its own hand count after receiving complaints about an alleged discrepancy of 45,000 votes in the Proposition 50 special election. That vote allowed California Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map to wipe out President Donald Trump’s gerrymandering gains in Texas.

In recent weeks, the FBI has taken custody of ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, and subpoenaed records from Maricopa County, Arizona. In both cases, the focus was the 2020 presidential race.

But like in those cases, there are signs that Bianco’s challenge to the Prop 50 vote is also based on wrong or downright false information.

In statements to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors last month, county registrar Art Tinoco said the actual discrepancy between ballots cast and ballots counted was just 103 votes — roughly 0.016% of ballots. And the claim of a 45,000-vote discrepancy? It was based on misinterpretations of unprocessed, raw data, he said.

by Scott Lewis and Will Huntsberry / Voice of San Diego / March 21, 2026

D2 Race Is On

What do you get when a French mime, an MBA student, a merchant marine and a former mayor walk into a community center in Clairemont?

That would be a League of Women Voters candidate forum, of course.

Seven people are running for the District 2 council seat, which includes Ocean Beach, Point Loma, Mission Beach and Clairemont.

Any District 2 voters looking for San Diego’s version of Zohran Mamdani didn’t find him at the forum, which happened earlier this month. The debate was dominated by reaction to new fees, homebuilding and what the candidates viewed as poor management by current city leaders.

Allow me to break out some lanes for you that appeared evident at the forum.

Instead of ending the Iran war or improving the economy, Senate Republicans are championing Trump’s MAGA voter suppression bill.

By Ari Berman / Mother Jones / March 18, 2026

The world is on fire. Gas prices are rising. The US economy is in shambles. President Trump has bulldozed through his promise of “no new wars” and 6 in 10 Americans believe the country is worse off than it was a year ago.

But instead of addressing the issues that Americans actually care about, Senate Republicans are spending the next week or more attempting to further what has become the central organizing principle of Trump’s presidency: making it harder to vote.

On Tuesday afternoon the Senate began debating the Save America Act, which voting rights advocates describe as the worst voter suppression bill that Congress has seriously considered passing.

At its core, the bill is a solution in search of a problem, predicated on the lie that non-citizens are systematically voting in American elections.

The City’s Municipal Primary Election will be held on June 2, 2026. The top two vote-getters in the Primary will advance to the General Municipal Election, which will be held on November 3, 2026. The following candidates are qualified to appear on the ballot in the order below as selected by random draw:

Backlash Against Trash Fee and Paid Parking in Balboa Park “Uniformly and Powerfully Non-Partisan”

Editordude: Below, Rag contributor Paul Krueger responds to a Politics Report from Voice of San Diego (see end) which stated:

“The anti-tax-and-fees crowd is having a moment. Conservative politicians past and present are pushing ballot measures to repeal the city’s trash fee and paid parking in Balboa Park.”

By Paul Krueger

Just a few thoughts on the intro to your Politics Report, from a perspective that you might not hear, day-to-day. (And of course, no response is expected.)

I sense that the backlash against the trash fee and paid parking in Balboa Park is uniformly and powerfully non-partisan, and in no way exclusively supported by the so-called  “anti-tax-and-fees-crowd.”

The Lincoln Club and Richard Bailey may have filed the paperwork, but did so only because polling showed huge, bipartisan/non-partisan opposition to both fees: 81 percent of those polled oppose paid parking in the Park, and 60+ percent oppose the trash fees. Those numbers far exceed Democrat Party registration in the city.

Thousands of San Diegans who never have and never will identify as “anti-tax-and-fees” support the rollbacks because they’re angry that the trash fee was a “bait and switch,” and feel the  Balboa Park parking fees are unwarranted, unfair, and very poorly planned from the get-go (and opposition solidified and expanded after the botched roll-out of kiosks and the parking permit application process).

By Michael Smolens / The San Diego Union-Tribune / March 15, 2026 

The outrage over the city’s new parking fees at Balboa Park seemed ripe for harnessing into an effort to repeal them.

Now there is an initiative drive aimed at doing just that spearheaded by former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey, a relatively new resident of Point Loma running for San Diego City Council.

Backers of the initiative quietly filed the paperwork on March 6, though Bailey said a higher-profile unveiling is likely when they start collecting signatures in a couple of weeks.

That move follows a more public launch for a petition drive to at least temporarily do away with new city trash collection fees, which also triggered an uproar from those who have to pay them — single-family homeowners. That effort is being led by the Lincoln Club Business League and its CEO Kevin Faulconer, the former San Diego mayor.

There’s a lot more here than two former Republican mayors (Bailey has since changed his voter registration to NPP, or No Party Preference) potentially giving a bigger budget headache to the current Democratic mayor, Todd Gloria, and the members of the all-Democratic City Council, who already face a budget shortfall of at least $100 million.

By Judi Curry

First of all, I want to thank the Readers of the OB Rag for your calls and visits re: the health problem I had one year ago today.  I woke up one morning blind in one eye. The doctor said that the vision might come back so not to cover it, but it has been a year now and there is only a peripheral vision, and not all the time. But don’t feel sorry for me – comparing it to the alternative, I am still able to see my 20+ grandkids, and although no longer drive and depend on others, am aware of what is going on in the world – and District 2!  I find that although I seldom go to the meetings I used to go to, I frequently have meetings at my home where many topics are discussed.

About 4-5 months ago I had the opportunity to “meet” Richard Bailey through a “Next Door” post originally written by my handyman Glenn Millar.  We had a conversation, of sorts going, and I even told Mr. Bailey that I hoped that Glenn would run for the mayor’s job because I thought he was the best candidate for the position! Mr. Bailey told me agreed – that Glenn should run. I liked him already!

However, as time passed, and we are coming closer to the race, I decided to take a closer look at Mr. Bailey as a candidate (because I had already done extensive investigation into some of the candidates and had decided to vote for Mandy Havlik) and wanted to give him a chance.  And let me tell you why I was doing so much investigative work: I probably have voted a minimum of 70 times in governmental elections. (Yes, I am OLD!

An OB Rag supporter saw these signs in her neighborhood and wanted to share them with us.

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / March 10, 2026

Seven candidates seeking to represent Clairemont and Point Loma on the City Council clashed at a recent forum over bike lanes, ADUs, Balboa Park parking, the city’s budget deficit and a proposed empty homes tax.

Mike Rickey, a Merchant Marine from Clairemont, was the most vocal critic of new bike lanes being created across San Diego to encourage people to use cycling to commute and get around. “The money that we’re spending on these bike lanes and removing street parking is absurd,” Rickey said.

Jacob Mitchell, a chemist from Point Loma, said the biggest problem with new bike lanes is that they often don’t connect well with other safe areas to cycle.

Mandy Havlik, a Point Loma neighborhood leader, said the need for a safe cycling network should be balanced against the impact on businesses of removing street parking. “A lot of small business owners feel like they’re competing with a bike lane to stay open,” Havlik said.

Nicole Crosby, a deputy city attorney who lives in Clairemont, said bike lanes don’t make a lot of sense in communities like Clairemont where hills and canyons are a major challenge. “It’s putting the cart before the horse,” she said.

Richard Bailey, a former mayor of Coronado who now lives in Point Loma, said the city’s nearly $8 billion backlog of infrastructure projects means bike lanes must be a low priority. “Bike lanes are more of a nice-to-have, not a must-have,” Bailey said.

Community Planning Group Elections This Week

San Diego’s Community Planning Groups (CPGs) hold annual elections every March.

Here are dates, times, and locations for in-person voting at some of this week’s elections. Be sure to bring your driver’s license or another form of ID showing your home address.

Monday, March 9

Southeastern San Diego will hold its election starting at 6:00 p.m. at the Mountain View Community Center, 641 South Boundary Street

Tuesday, March 10

Eastern Area will hold its election starting at 6:00 p.m. at Teen Challenge, 5450 Lea St.

University will hold its election from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at 9880 Campus Point Drive on the third-floor patio of Alexandria’s GradLabs building.

Kensington-Talmadge is offering four in-person voting opportunities before its meeting on Monday, March 16:

Only one in four Americans approves of ?U.S. strikes on Iran that have plunged the Middle East into chaos, while about half — including one in four Republicans — believe President Donald Trump is too willing to use military force, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Some 27% of respondents said they approved of the strikes, which were conducted alongside Israeli attacks on Iran, while 43% disapproved and 29% were not sure. About nine in 10 respondents said they had heard at least a little about the strikes, which began early on Saturday with a ?surprise attack that killed Iran’s leader.

The poll, which closed on Sunday, showed that 56% of Americans think Trump, who has also ordered strikes in Venezuela, Syria and Nigeria in recent months, is too willing to use military force to advance U.S. interests. ?The vast majority of Democrats – 87% – held this view, as did 23% of Republicans and 60% of people who don’t identify with either political party.

The poll was conducted amid ongoing attacks on Iran by the U.S. and Israel, and closed before the U.S. military announced the first American casualties in the operation.