This week, San Diego City Councilman Mark Kersey and Democratic consultant Eva Posner joined hosts Scott Lewis, Sara Libby and Andrew Keatts to break down the most notable results and dynamics from last week’s primary election.
(You’ll notice that this was not the live recording we intended; that plan, like most public gatherings for the foreseeable future, was disrupted by the coronavirus.)
Posner said that regardless of who ultimately makes it into the No. 2 spot for the mayoral runoff — as of this writing, Councilwoman Barbara Bry is about 700 votes short of Councilman Scott Sherman with tens of thousands of ballots left to count — the results are a show of force for Democrats.
“I think that the bigger story is the overall vote totals and the fact that the democratic candidates in the mayor’s race got over 70 percent of the vote regardless of who you’re looking at. This is a Democratic city now,” she said.
Kersey said that if Bry does make it through to the general election, Republicans and independents will have a decision to make about whether to endorse a Democrat.
“I’m not sure we’ve ever seen two Democrats for mayor in November. I think it’s going to force a lot of evaluation on the part of a lot of folks in terms of how they view the politics of City Hall and what their activity level is going to be,” he said.
Kersey said that whoever wins might face a perilous financial situation: “I think the city’s finances could actually wind up being kind of a sleeper issue that most of us weren’t talking about a year ago, that we might all of a sudden be talking about.”
Posner also weighed in on another Dem-verses-Dem match-up: the race for the 53rd Congressional District, which puts City Council President Georgette Gómez against nonprofit exec Sara Jacobs. Like many intraparty battles, she thinks it could get mean: “I think negative campaigning works and if it didn’t, we wouldn’t do it. I know a lot of people say they don’t like it, but it motivates voters and it helps people make decisions. And I think that it is a reality that we live with,” she said.
Producer’s Note
This podcast was recorded on Wednesday night. A lot has changed since then — not just the election results discussed in the show. In response to the flood of news and information swelling around the novel coronavirus, VOSD has put together this guide to official guidance in San Diego. Check it out and share it with your friends.