The election last week of City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez as National City’s next mayor doesn’t just signal a changing of the guard.
It’s a political 180.
Rodriguez will replace long-serving Mayor Ron Morrison, who announced his retirement earlier this year.
The two men are ideological and stylistic opposites.
Morrison, a conservative independent, entered city leadership more than three decades ago and since then has imbued National City with his small-government, pro-business, hometown-pride mindset.
He leaves office with the city deeply divided and facing an existential budget crisis.
Rodriguez, the son of working-class immigrants, is an unapologetic progressive who proudly proclaims his allegiance with the labor unions that backed his campaign.
He promises a wholesale change in the city’s direction. Depending on how one still-too-close-to-call City Council race turns out, he could end up with a Council super-majority to put his activist plans into action.
Union leaders are ecstatic. Residents are more mixed. Rodriguez has many fans in the city. He also has dedicated detractors who say his pro-worker persona is just masking raw political ambition and subservience to union leaders.
Rarely are changes in municipal power so abrupt, so stark and so symbolic of the leftward shift in San Diego County politics.
Mayor Says He Got Rid of San Diego’s Structural Budget Deficit
On Friday, Mayor Todd Gloria announced that the city’s revenue will cover next year’s expenses without relying on temporary funding or more spending cuts.
“Every fall the City looks five years down the road and asks a simple question: will the money coming in, cover expenses? For years, the forecast has opened with a gap. This one does not,” Mayor Todd Gloria said in a statement.
“We made a lot of hard choices and asked a lot of our employees and of San Diegans. Today, I can tell San Diegans that those decisions worked. We did not paper over this problem or push it to the next administration. We fixed it.”
The announcement comes on the heels of the release of the city’s five-year financial outlook, which the mayor says is far healthier than any previous outlook in at least a decade.
But there are still challenges. As the Union-Tribune reports, there’s no money to restore cuts to libraries and services, city reserves will remain millions below target and the infrastructure needs keep growing.
Last week, we reported how city officials tapped $4.7 million from its reserves in more than a decade to close out fiscal year 2026.
Politics Report: About the Mayoral Recall
In this week’s Politics Report, Scott Lewis analyzes the low point Mayor Todd Gloria finds himself in. Plus, Richard Bailey never had a chance in the District 2 City Council race.
The Politics Report is back to being for members for a few days.
Voice of San Diego members can read it here.
What to Watch This Week
Midway Rising goes to the full City Council today. It’ll be one of those long City Council days. It passed the city’s Land Use and Housing Committee unanimously but not without a demand that the developers ensure they build affordable housing units in addition to what other developers are required to build in the city. They can’t just take money from those developers and provide the units in Midway.
At least, they can’t without the city’s permission.
Sacramento Report: A Really Big Blue Wave
California Democrats already had a strong hold on the state Legislature, but they may soon have control of both chambers by historic margins.
Sacramento reporter Nadia Lathan writes that in San Diego, the Democratic Party is poised to protect all its seats while potentially flipping two others.
That includes state Senate District 40 where former San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott has
a lead over opponent Kristie Bruce-Lane, a Republican. The district has been represented by Republican state Sen. Brian Jones.
And District 74 Assemblymember Laurie Davies, a Republican, is almost tied with Democrat Sergio Farias as of Friday. Davies’ district includes Orange and San Diego County.
Read more about the state wins in the Sacramento Report.
Two Other State Races We’ve Been Watching
- Prop 45: Californians rejected a push by business groups to pass sweeping changes to how California’s landmark environmental law works. Prop 45 would have put a big legal stopwatch on the environmental review process that the California Environmental Quality Act requires before building or developing land. Proponents said Prop 45 would have helped developers build housing faster since CEQA is often used, they say, to stall projects so long that they become financially infeasible. The Associated Press deemed Prop 45 a failure with almost 56 percent of voters rejecting it. (Voice of San Diego hosted a debate on Prop 45 that you can view here.)
- State Insurance Commissioner: Bernie Sanders-backed state insurance commissioner candidate Jane Kim declared victory last week with at least 53 percent of the vote. She is proposing a state-backed “disaster insurance for all” funded by private insurance premiums. Her opponent, Los Angeles State Senator Ben Allen, had the backing of the California State Democratic Party and double the campaign contributions. The insurance commissioner race typically doesn’t garner much attention from voters. But the importance of the position gained notoriety following devastating wildfires swept through Los Angeles and insurance companies threatening to leave a state they claim is risky for business. Kim will now be in charge of regulating the nation’s largest property and casualty insurance market which includes homeowners and auto insurance.
VOSD Podcast: Vista, the Socialist Hotspot
On the latest episode, our hosts breakdown election results and a surprisingly tight race for mayor in Vista. They also explain what it would take for a group trying to recall Mayor Todd Gloria to actually succeed.
Listen to the full episode here.
The Live Podcast Is Tomorrow!
Meet our journalists and discuss the election results at our Brews & News Live Podcast tomorrow at Soda Bar. Join CEO and Editor-in-Chief Scott Lewis, Managing Editor Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña, and reporters Bella Ross and Jakob McWhinney with special guests Julie Roland, a local political professional and former Navy pilot (and magician) and Mason Herron, the political consultant and data whiz behind The Ballot Book for this live recording.
When: Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 6:00 p.m.
Where: Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego, CA 92104-1514
Tickets: $22.66 (Venue processing fees included).
To get your tickets, please click here.
In Other News
- If you’re going to the beach in the next few days, make sure you check the tide. The National Weather Service issued a warning beginning Sunday at midnight through Tuesday evening for all San Diego County coastal areas that coastal flooding is expected due to high surf and high tides. (Sac Bee)
- The Naval Base opened its gates to the public on Saturday as part of “Fleet Week” when San Diego’s biggest neighbor invites the public to look inside the military installations they see every day, but can’t touch. (CBS 8)
- Two people filed a civil rights lawsuit against the San Diego Police Department just as the department is stepping up operations in the Gaslamp District dubbed “Operation Last Call.” They accused police bike officers of excessive force after being taken to the ground and pepper sprayed during an encounter in downtown’s night life hotspot. (NBC 7)
- The San Diego Union Tribune took a look at crime data and spent time in the Gaslamp District during late night hours in an assessment of the problem there and whether Operation Last Call is working since it began Aug. 28. Many business owners and community leaders say increased police presence has helped.
- A local theater group is putting together an all-indigenous cast for a play about protecting the Tijuana River Valley. (Union-Tribune)
- The city of Lemon Grove changed its zoning to allow for more building of five-story, mixed-use buildings that include housing along its downtown corridor. (Union-Tribune)
- A developer wants to tear down the Fashion Valley JC Penny and replace it with restaurants, retail and 410 housing units. (Times of San Diego)