Category: Election

By Jacob Mitchell

I am a fourth generation San Diegan and the son of an Olympian. My life has been defined by the idea that if you play by the rules and put in the work, you deserve a fair shot at the podium, but if you look at San Diego today, you’ll see a city where the playing field is tilted.

We are currently governed by a system that treats residents as a revenue source and institutional developers as the only viable solution to our problems. I am not a politician, as a chemist and an MBA candidate, I don’t believe in vague talking points; I believe in data, systems, and accountability. It’s time we stopped managing San Diego through headlines and started managing it for long term results.

Housing: Bridging the Generational Divide

The most pressing issue facing our beach communities is the housing crisis. State policy mandates a certain number of new homes San Diego needs to build in 9 year cycles. Currently, the City’s response to the mandate is to drop development fees for corporate entities and hand out subsidies for hyper-dense projects that lack community oversight.

I hear two very different, yet equally valid, fears in our district.

By Gary Wonacutt

Eight years ago, District 2 Councilmember Jennifer Campbell campaigned against whole-home short-term rentals (STRs) in residential neighborhoods. Three months into her term, after extensive communications with Airbnb and Expedia, she shifted to a compromise that leaned heavily toward the platforms’ recommendations. Campbell asserted her plan would substantially cut the consultant-estimated 16,000 STRs citywide, but that number has since proven greatly exaggerated.

Early regulatory efforts faced stiff resistance. The Kevin Faulconer “anything goes” proposal failed at City Council, and the Bry/Zapf “primary only” ordinance was rescinded after threats of lawsuits from STR organizations.

City Attorney Mara Elliott’s letter confirmed that short-term rentals violated existing zoning and were illegal. Rather than amend the zoning code or land-use plan— which would have triggered complex procedures, potential Coastal Commission review in coastal zones, and greater difficulty for future tweaks— the City exercised its general police power.

The resulting Short-Term Residential Occupancy (STRO) ordinance (Ordinances O-21305 and O-21464) applies citywide to all dwelling units, regardless of base zoning. It overlays a licensing, permitting, tax, and enforcement regime— including a tiered lottery system and caps— without reclassifying properties in the zoning code. This approach allowed quicker implementation and easier future amendments by simple Council vote.

Here’s three media reports on the candidates for District 2, including on the last candidate debate / forum, held May 14th at Paradise Point Resort & Spa. We have reports from Times of San Diego, the Union-Tribune and Axios San Diego.

Here’s Dave Schwab of Times of San Diego‘s account:

District 2 candidates Richard Bailey, Josh Coyne, Nicole Crosby, Mandy Havlik, Jacob Mitchell, Mike Rickey and Paul Suppa answered curated questions from a panel of community leaders on far-ranging issues from the city’s budget to people living out of their vehicles, homelessness, housing density, public safety and quality of life.

The Ocean Beach Community Foundation along with the Pacific Beach and Mission Beach town councils joined forces to host the event ahead of the June 2 primary election. It is the last public candidate forum before the primary, which will send the top two vote getters to a November runoff election to replace termed-out incumbent Jennifer Campbell.

Everyone is invited to come out and celebrate a 50-year old community victory for Ocean Beach. It’s the half-century celebration of the very first election to the OB Planning Board — and we’re having it this Tuesday, May 26th, at Dirty Birds OB. From 6 to 8pm.

We’ll have some finger-foods, good vibes and brief statements in solidarity of this election. There will be representatives from different OB groups including members of the current OB Planning Board.

If you’ve ever been a volunteer for anything in OB, then you’ll appreciate this event — and help honor the hundreds of OBceans who have volunteered for the planning board over the many years it has been in existence.

Top Lawyer at Treasury Resigns in Protest and Disgust at $1.8 Billion Grift

The Treasury’s most senior lawyer has dramatically quit, just hours after the Trump administration unveiled a vast $1.776 billion fund to enrich Jan. 6 rioters and other MAGA loyalists. Brian Morrissey, the department’s general counsel, stepped down a mere seven months after his Senate confirmation, three sources aware of his decision told the New York Times.

His abrupt departure came on the same day that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Morrissey, who also served in Trump’s first administration, is a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a George H. W. Bush appointee.

Go to Daily Beast for more

Trump’s Justice Department announces $1.8 billion fund slammed as ‘slush fund’

By Steve Benen / Maddowblog / May 19, 2026

The fact that we knew the scheme was coming didn’t make it any easier to accept. Three months after Donald Trump filed a radical (and by any fair measure, frivolous) $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, the president’s lawyers announced Monday morning that they had agreed to withdraw the case.

Hours later, the other side of the agreement came to public light: In exchange for dropping his rather silly lawsuit, Trump’s own Justice Department announced the creation of a pool of money that it’s calling “The Anti-Weaponization Fund” — which Democrats and legal experts are more accurately characterizing as a “slush fund.”

Come celebrate the 50th anniversary of the very first election to the OB Planning Board! We’re having a party!

On May 4th, 1976, thousands of OB residents, tenants, property owners and business owners voted in the first democratic election of a neighborhood volunteer panel. And it’s still here — and so are over 40 other planning boards across the City of San Diego. But Ocean Beach was the first.

The celebration party will be Tuesday night, May 26th from 6 to 8 pm at Dirty Birds Ocean Beach, 1927 Cable Street.

The OB Rag, as well as other community groups, are hosting the celebration — the OB Historical Society, the current OB Planning Board, and we’re hoping others will jump on the bandwagon, such as the OB Mainstreet Assoc., the OB Community Development Corp., The OB Woman’s Club, the OB Community Foundation.

Dirty Birds is opening up their lower dining area for the party and because the event is community-oriented, is giving us a huge break on the price for finger-foods. (There will be a no-host bar.) Guests will be asked for a small donation.

The balloting for new Board members of the OB Community Foundation is over and the new directors have been elected. And here they are, plus the current Executive Committee

From the Richard Baily Campaign

San Diego is facing serious challenges. A growing budget deficit, mounting infrastructure backlogs, and declining basic services didn’t happen overnight – they are the result of years of bad policy, irresponsible spending, and a lack of accountability at City Hall. Fixing these problems will require better policies from experienced leadership with a clear vision for how city government should function..

That’s why I’m proud to endorse Richard Bailey for San Diego City Council.

Bailey is by far the most qualified candidate in the field and centers his entire campaign platform around policies, not politics.

Richard brings something that is increasingly rare in government today: a deep command of the actual policies and decisions that shape our city.

By Erwin Chemerinsky / Op-Ed Los Angeles Times / April 30, 2026

The Supreme Court has again dealt a devastating blow to voting equality in the United States.

On Wednesday, April 29th, in Louisiana vs. Callais, six justices effectively nullified a 1982 federal statute that prohibits states from running or establishing election systems, such as election districts, that have a discriminatory effect against voters of color. Simply put, unless it can be shown that a state or local government acted with the intent of racial discrimination — something very difficult to prove — it will be impossible to successfully challenge laws as having violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 or the Constitution.

The Voting Rights Act is, simply put, one of the most important federal laws adopted during my lifetime. Although the 15th Amendment, adopted in 1870, prohibits denying someone the right to vote based on race, this was a hollow promise due to an array of practices used to keep Black individuals from voting. In Mississippi in 1964, for example, only 6.7% of eligible Black citizens were registered to vote. At the time it had the highest Black population of any state in the U.S.

By Judge Runston “Tony” Maino

There are 61 people running for Governor. This includes one of the most interesting candidates, one Eric Swalwell,  who has decided to not run due to unfounded allegations made against him, namely his Peter Problem.

The first thing I noticed was the interesting names of some of the candidates: Living for God and Country Demott and Barrack D. Obama Shaw. These are real names and not AKAs.

More interesting than the names are the candidates’ statements as to why they wish to be Governor and what vision they have for California. Clean water, affordable housing, leadership, affordable health care and on and on with the usual buzz words.

I found it interesting that many of the candidates are going to abolish ICE, forgetting, or maybe not knowing, that ICE is a federal function and the California governor, legislature, and judiciary cannot abolish ICE.

But I digress. If you will spare me a few moments I will go over some of the more colorful statements from some of the candidates.

/>bold /italicBased on a polling of our writers, the OB Rag now endorses Mandy Havlik for District 2 of the San Diego City Council.

Mandy has long been active in the communities of Point Loma and Ocean Beach and has ingrained the wishes, dreams and complaints of the residents of this sector of District 2. For instance, she’s been the first vice-chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board for years, has been active in helping maintain Sunset Cliffs as a local treasure, active in the local Rotary and among the leadership of the local Democratic club.