The Morning Report
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Here’s someone I wasn’t expecting to see following the voting returns at Election Central tonight: School board member John de Beck. The long-time San Diego Unified board member is not up for re-election, but as soon as the absentee voter numbers came out, de Beck made his predictions:
- A win for John Lee Evans, who is challenging incumbent school board member Mitz Lee, by at least 3 percent. Evans has said that if he wins, he will be the first challenger to beat a sitting San Diego Unified school board member in 30 years. The absentee numbers show a nailbiter race with a tiny lead for Lee, but de Beck said those numbers tend to favor Republicans so he expects Evans to triumph.
- A win for Proposition S, the $2.1 billion facilities bond.
- The re-election of school board member Shelia Jackson. And de Beck followed his prediction with another prediction: “I have no doubt that Shelia will be running in the middle of her term if she’s elected” for another elected office. Which one, he didn’t specify.
Predictions are just so much crystal ball-gazing, but de Beck is probably a better seer than most: He has been re-elected to the school board at least four times, according to my scan of past elections on the county registrar website.