Polls closed just more than 12 hours ago and the county registar reports all votes counted. The results from the races we’ve been covering in-depth: Two tax-related propositions were hammered into the ground, the school board remains like-minded, the City Council races turned up surprises but the Board of Supervisors did not.
• The city’s top political, labor and business players formed an unprecedented coalition, but that couldn’t prevent the staggering collapse of Prop. D, a sales tax tied to reforms.
John Nienstedt, the pollster for No on D, said the opposing campaign faced three hurdles from the start: low voter trust, low turnout and opponents with official city titles able to take on the high-profile proponents. What comes now for the city? Can Mayor Jerry Sanders and Councilwoman Donna Frye — who ends a nine-year stint in that job next month — keep the coalition together? “I’m never gone,” Frye said.
San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith says he’ll put cost-cutting options on the table, including privatizing trash collection, but he still won’t consider bankruptcy for the city. In a brief heated exchange, he and former City Attorney Mike Aguirre agreed to debate each other about bankruptcy, “As long as it’s on the subject of bankruptcy and pension solutions and we don’t interrupt each other,” Goldsmith said.
• Although everyone knew Prop. J — the parcel tax for school funds — would be an uphill battle, the meager results are still a blow for San Diego Unified School District. SDUSD now faces a nearly $142 million deficit next school year, one that threatens to eliminate librarians, vice principals and school police and slash as many as 1,000 educators from the payrolls. School board member John Lee Evans says “it’s back to the drawing board.“
• The numbers were two to one on Stephen Whitburn’s side. He was a Democrat running for the county Board of Supervisors in a heavily Democratic district. But his campaign fell flat, as his criticisms were repeatedly disarmed by his opponent, incumbent Republican Ron Roberts. Roberts handily took 58 percent of the vote to 42 percent for Whitburn, who said he had expected the early returns to be closer. That, together with incumbent Supervisor Bill Horn’s defeat of Steve Gronke, represents broad voter approval of the existing county government, which both challengers harshly criticized in the first general election challenges a supervisor had faced in more than a decade.
• In the City Council races, state senate staffer David Alvarez defeated attorney Felipe Hueso in the race to replace Felipe’s younger brother Ben in District 8.
One of the evening’s most competitive races pitted Republican businesswoman and political newcomer Lorie Zapf against former Democratic Assemblyman Howard Wayne. She beat him by about 5 percent. Republican Party Chairman Tony Krvaric has said a Zapf council victory would be the first step toward Republicans taking control of city government two years from now.
• Voters gave a thumbs-up to candidates who are likely to partner with the existing school board, even as they shunned a new tax for schools. Middle school math teacher Kevin Beiser knocked out businessman Stephen Rosen, solidifying a labor-backed board. Write-in votes for incumbent Katherine Nakamura haven’t been counted, but early totals showed few write-in votes at all. In a tighter school board race, budget consultant Scott Barnett squeaked by dissident John de Beck, 50.7 percent to 49.3 percent.
• We’ll continue to analyze the election outcomes, consolidate political thought and report on new plans in the coming days.
More:
• We canvassed more than a dozen polling stations to find out what people were thinking and how they voted. Despite the small sample size, Voices of the Voters reflects the election sentiments remarkably well.
• Carlsbad High School TV, an elective class for students interested in working toward careers in broadcast news production, sent 40 students to Election Central to conduct interviews and film the events. They were clearly having a ball but were serious about their work.
• Statewide, pro-marijuana Proposition 19 failed. As Union-Tribune writer Matthew Hall said in Twitter, “People don’t want to pass Prop 19. But they sure do want to read about it.” His story is one of the most popular on the site.
• Proposition A, banning the requirement of project labor agreements that set base pay and benefits for workers, succeeded. The county government is the third government in San Diego County — the other two are city governments — to pass a similar law. (KPBS)
• OB Rag reports on the ugly scene at Golden Hall, when supporters of Republican Nick Popaditch, decisively beaten in the 51st Congressional District by incumbent Democrat Bob Filner, got rough with Filner and his supporters. Kinsee Morlan of CityBeat caught some of the commotion on video.
• A September newscast by San Diego’s Channel 10 that simply did not go well — including missed cues, bad throws, and muffed lines — has now been taken off YouTube as a copyright violation after going viral and receiving hundreds of thousands of views, though you can still track it down if you’re resourceful. Trust me: sometimes broadcasts simply do not go well, no matter how well you prepare. You should see my inbox after I use a wrong pronoun on the air (“You, of all people!”).
Correction: This article originally said “San Diego is the third city in the county to pass a similar ban.” In fact, the county government is the third government in San Diego County — the other two are city governments — to pass a law saying that project labor agreements are not required.
Please contact Grant Barrett at grant@voiceofsandiego.org or (619) 550-5666 and follow him on Twitter @grantbarrett. Randy Dotinga is on vacation.