Vote tallies released Thursday night didn’t deliver big news on many major San Diego County political races that are still unresolved.
Expect the results to continue to trickle in in coming days as the county Registrar of Voters continues counting thousands of ballots.
One result still looks definitive: San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria appears to have earned a second term. He remained significantly ahead of challenger and police officer Larry Turner in the latest tallies from the Registrar of Voters. As of Thursday evening, Gloria was up by more than 38,000 votes or 9.8 points.
Times of San Diego reported that Gloria declared victory in a Wednesday email to supporters.
“Please accept my heartfelt thank you for helping me win re-election as San Diego’s mayor,” he wrote. “With last night’s strong results, we have an incredible opportunity to move San Diego forward on all the critical issues we talked about in this campaign, and that’s in big part thanks to you.”
Turner, a political newcomer, still held out hope in a Wednesday statement declaring “it’s still too early to count us out.”
Gloria’s likely victory follows a more challenging campaign than he envisioned – and a challenging four years as mayor. Gloria, who grappled with rising homelessness and a pandemic during his initial four years in office, was caught off guard by a surprise $1 million donation to Turner — and later more — that changed the state of the race overnight.
He survived all of the above.
And there’s still a chance voters signed off on the biggest tax increase for the city of San Diego in decades. It would give him and other city leaders far more flexibility to address problems, retain key employees and avoid tough deficit cuts. More on that below.
The State of Other Races We’re Watching
Here’s a rundown of where other big races stood as of Thursday night. The county registrar’s office says the next data dump will be Friday at about 6 p.m.
That School Board Race
The winner of the San Diego Unified school district race between incumbent board member Sabrina Bazzo and newcomer Crystal Trull remains unclear.
Vote counts released late Thursday show Bazzo, who is backed by the teachers union, gained ground with a 589-vote lead but the race remains too close to call.
Reminder: As our Jakob McWhinney has reported, a win for Trull would make her the first candidate to oust a school board incumbent since 2014 and she would change the tenure of a board long known for unanimous decisions.
Big North County Mayoral Battles Continue
Incumbent mayors in Encinitas and Oceanside are still behind.
Oceanside Council member Ryan Keim is just 847 votes ahead of Mayor Esther Sanchez.
Encinitas Mayor Tony Kranz remains further behind his challenger Bruce Ehlers. Kranz trails Ehlers by 1,245 votes.
Both races remain too close to call.
ICYMI: Our Tigist Layne shared more details on both races in her latest North County Report.
Still on Sales Tax Watch
San Diego’s one-cent sales tax increase lost a little ground in vote tallies released Thursday but remains too close to call.
Measure E: As of Thursday, it was about 7,000 votes behind with about 49 percent of votes tallied in favor of the measure. The city’s sales tax rate is among the lowest in the county. Supporters say the extra $400 million per year the tax could bring into city coffers is desperately needed to fix a backlog of stormwater infrastructure, police and fire overtime and other demands.
While backers of the sales tax are likely on pins and needles each time new results are released, they told the Union-Tribune earlier this week that voting trends and late spending in the race may translate into an eventual win after all ballots are counted.
The SANDAG tax: A countywide measure to raise the sales tax by half a cent to pay for transportation projects also remains too close to call.
Both measures require a simple majority to pass.
As of Thursday evening, the Registrar of Voters reported that 48 percent of votes counted favored Measure G.
If the tax makes it, it could bring in $350 million each year for the San Diego Association of Governments, the region’s transportation planning agency, to pay for roads, bridges, storm drains, public transit, bicycle and pedestrian safety and help stabilize crumbling coastal bluffs holding a precious rail line.
SANDAG’s had trouble getting such a tax passed in the past. It tried back in 2016, but only got 58 percent of the vote, not a two-thirds approval.
City Reserved 30 Safe Sleeping Tents for Police
The city quietly set aside 30 tents at one of the city’s homeless campsites for San Diego police referrals amid halted intakes at two large shelters that must close by the end of the year.
The city isn’t saying exactly when it reserved beds for police at the city’s 20th and B Street campsite, a move that could help facilitate more enforcement of violations tied to homelessness.
City spokesperson Matt Hoffman said the city simply set aside spaces at the campsite earlier this year to give the police department’s Homeless Outreach Team a “resource to offer individuals that they engage with” and that police have referred homeless residents to the program since it opened last year.
Both police and homeless outreach workers have had more trouble moving homeless San Diegans into city-funded shelter beds since two Father Joe’s Villages shelters downtown stopped welcoming newcomers to prepare for the upcoming closures.
Until then, police had 150 set-aside beds at three shelters operated by Father Joe’s and Alpha Project. As of Wednesday, just 97 of those beds were filled due to the impending shutdowns and halted intakes.
Ahead of the shelter closures, the city is setting the stage to team with other providers to deliver new options, including by expanding the city’s safe sleeping sites.
In Other News
- Southeastern San Diego residents are raising concerns over a previously under-the-radar footnote in city code that’s allowing more dense housing in their area. (KPBS)
- Chula Vista-based Southwestern College students can now take a business class at CETYS University in Tijuana, which is helpful for students living south of the border. (Union-Tribune)
- A police oversight board in San Diego says cops need new guidelines for police pursuits after a few turned deadly over the past year. (CBS 8)
- The U.S. Navy fired its commanding officer of Leadership and Ethics command in San Diego and Naval Information Warfare Training Group on Wednesday due to “loss of confidence in their ability to command,” according to the military branch. (Navy Times)
- More than 1,200 SDG&E homes and businesses are without power after the utility shut it off due to wildfire concerns and high winds. (Union-Tribune)
- Oceanside’s assistant police chief will become the city’s next top cop after the current chief retires this month. (Times of San Diego)
- The San Diego Wave Football Club signed Trinity Byars Thursday, making Byars the first active NCAA athlete to sign with a National Women’s Soccer League team since the elimination of its draft. Under a new collective bargaining agreement, college and youth players are free to sign directly with teams of their choice. (ESPN)
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and MacKenzie Elmer. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.