The sun had barely risen when National City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez pulled up to the Machinists Hall in west Chula Vista Tuesday morning. He was there to start his final day campaigning for re-election with a get-out-the-vote rally convened by his biggest supporters: Local labor unions.
“I’m feeling great,” Rodriguez said inside the union hall where labor representatives gathered with candidates and campaign workers to pump themselves up for a final day of persuading voters. “We’ve done the work. We’ve knocked on thousands of doors and spoken to thousands of people.”
Like other candidates across South County, Rodriguez planned to spend Election Day knocking on a few more doors and talking to a few more people. Then he’d head to a watch party and join the rest of the nation as voters learned just who they’d picked to lead their country and local communities.
The real power in the room. It was a strange campaign season in South County. Some races, such as those for City Council in Imperial Beach, were mostly friendly and low-key. Others, including a City Council contest in Chula Vista and a battle over a ballot measure backed by Rodriguez, were hard-fought, at times verging into lowball tactics and outright vitriol.
As I wrote last week, big money poured into key races, especially from organized labor groups and a mysterious political action committee backed by the real estate industry. The money showed who wields the real power in local politics: Well-funded interest groups with the resources to bombard voters with advertising and mount aggressive get-out-the-vote efforts.
At the union rally Tuesday morning, every politician who spoke, including Rodriguez, longtime U.S. Rep. Juan Vargas and Chula Vista City Council candidate Cesar Fernandez, made a point of paying tribute a woman leaning against the wall keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings: Brigette Browning, head of San Diego County’s most powerful labor coalition.
So far this election season, the San Diego Labor Council, which Browning leads, has spent more than half a million dollars backing candidates and ballot measures in local races. Browning is also married to local political consultant Dan Rottenstreich, who this year is managing campaigns for Rodriguez, Fernandez and several other candidates and ballot measures around the county.
“The amazing Brigette Browning,” Fernandez said at the rally, inviting Browning to the stage. In a brief post-rally interview, Browning said her coalition was “investing the most resources” in Fernandez’s and Rodriguez’s races, along with the campaign of Michael Inzunza, running to represent district three on the Chula Vista City Council.
“We feel the people running against [all three candidates] are not pro-union,” she said. Then she directed canvassers to gather their materials and hit the streets.
“I bring my ballot here for good luck.” Later that morning, while interviewing voters at a polling place at Chula Vista City Hall, I ran into County Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas, who is running for re-election to represent south San Diego County on the board.
Vargas was not going door-to-door. She didn’t have to. Her challenger, a little-known Republican whose campaign did not draw significant support, is not considered a threat. Instead, Vargas was there to cast her vote (she lives in Chula Vista) and talk to as many TV news cameras as turned up.
“I bring my ballot here for good luck,” she said, wearing a “Latinos con Harris” t-shirt. She interviewed in Spanish with Univision and with the cross-border television station KSDY, then in English with Fox5 . She marveled to the Fox 5 cameraman that a woman “born and raised in Tijuana” could “work her butt off” and get elected to the most powerful political body in San Diego County.
The cameraman said he wanted to film Vargas walking to the voting center. “Make me look good,” she said. The cameraman got into position and Vargas walked toward City Hall, holding up her completed absentee ballot. “Perfect,” said the cameraman.
I asked Vargas about Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre’s recent abrupt move to rescind her local Democratic club’s endorsement of the supervisor, the latest in an ongoing series of tit-for-tat digs between the two prominent South County leaders. “You know who’s making a beef between me and the mayor?” Vargas said. “The media. We all want the Tijuana River Valley to be fixed.”
“Part of the democratic process is we disagree, but we all want the same thing,” Vargas went on. As for that Imperial Beach Democratic club? “I love them anyway and I have a lot of supporters in Imperial Beach.”
Waving signs in the sunset. A few miles away, Randi Castle-Salgado, running to replace Jose Rodriguez on the National City City Council, was standing on a street corner near city hall, waving a campaign sign alongside two supporters. Evening was approaching.
“We’ve been out here since 2 p.m.,” she said. “The community response has been amazing.”
At the union hall that morning, insiders told me they expected Rodriguez to win handily. He’d posted a last-minute social media attack against Castle-Salgado implying that she’s a Trump supporter, even though she’s a registered Democrat and actually quit the Republican party in 2017 in response to Trump’s election. I asked her whether she felt outgunned in the race.
“I might have raised $10,000,” she said—four times less than Rodriguez. “I know I’m going up against union money and outside interests…There’s sweat equity and there’s liquid equity. I didn’t have the cash but I had the sweat…I ran a strong campaign with honesty and dignity.”
Castle-Salgado said she would remain on the corner until darkness fell, when she and her family would join other local candidates and politicos at a watch party at a casino near the Chula Vista waterfront. She was still waving her sign as I walked back to my car.
In Other News
- It’s not all election angst out there. The Bonita Museum and Cultural Center, which features exhibits and programs dedicated to local history, recently celebrated winning runner-up in the San Diego Reader poll of best museums in San Diego County. Some collection highlights: Fossils from Sweetwater Valley; a recreated 1880s kitchen; and something called “the Procter Valley Monster Footprint.” (bonitahistoricalsociety.org)
- The Port of San Diego’s ongoing effort to electrify its operations received a major boost last week when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the port a $59 million grant to speed up electrification of its freight operations. Along with $28 million in local funds, the money will be used to buy more electric trucks, install a truck battery charging station and build on-shore power units that enable ships to turn off their engines while in port. (Port of San Diego)
- National City residents are objecting to a proposed fuel transfer station that would bring up to 70 trucks per day into the community to transport biofuels brought to the transfer station by rail, inewsource reports. Community members and environmental advocates say the proposed facility will bring toxic fumes to an area already burdened by numerous industrial facilities. The Texas-based company proposing the project said community concerns will be addressed during an upcoming environmental review.