South County Report: A Tale of Two (State of the) Cities 

What happens when you sweep everything aside and just watch two politicians at work in their native habitat? 

I’ve been covering the race to fill a vacant South County seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors from the moment former District 1 Supervisor Nora Vargas unexpectedly resigned late last year. 

This week, ballots arrive in voters’ mailboxes and South County begins the month-long process of choosing between two general election candidates: Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, a Democrat, and Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, a Republican. The last day to vote is July 1. 

For months, I’ve been explaining this race to readers from every conceivable angle because, arguably, it is the most important political race in San Diego this year. The winner will tip the partisan balance of power on the Board of Supervisors and determine how the county confronts a series of pivotal political decisions. 

I’ve let the candidates talk at length about their policies, followed the money, watched the ad war, studied polls, listened patiently to consultants’ spin and asked voters to tell me what matters most to them. 

In the end, the best way to evaluate these two candidates may simply be to watch them at work. No poll or policy statement can capture the complex human qualities that make or break a political leader. Who are voters really choosing when they vote for Aguirre or McCann? 

Last week, McCann delivered Chula Vista’s annual State of the City speech. That gave me an opportunity to watch him at work and compare his big speech with Aguirre’s State of City address in Imperial Beach in January. 

The two events might as well have taken place on different planets. 

Aguirre staged her speech in a former school auditorium at the headquarters of the South Bay Union School District. 

A high school mariachi band warmed up the crowd. Nervous ROTC cadets carried in the American flag. A tribal leader delivered a heartfelt land acknowledgement that doubled as a pan-religious invocation. Some attendees arrived on bikes wearing shorts and flip flops. Others wore power suits. There was Mexican food under a pop-up tent outside. Children’s school artwork decorated the walls. 

Aguirre mingled with the crowd beforehand and sat in an auditorium seat during introductions. After the speech, she watched while a team of youth folklorico dancers performed a routine in front of the stage. 

In Chula Vista, the setting was far grander. McCann spoke on a manicured lawn in front of the just-opened Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center on the Chula Vista bayfront. The hotel has been an object of community hope and pride for decades. McCann’s speech was an occasion to celebrate a signature civic achievement. 

Before the mayor arrived onstage, a pair of giant screens flanking the lectern played inspirational videos about the city set to movie-style music (interspersed with thank yous to the event’s platinum sponsors). Magic 92.5 radio DJ Xavier the Xman warmed up the crowd. 

Suddenly, sirens blared and McCann appeared in the distance in the passenger seat of a custom Chula Vista Police Department hot rod. The hot rod parked near the stage and McCann stepped out to a soundtrack of Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild.” Moments later, antique Navy fighter planes roared over the gathering in flying formation. (McCann is a Navy veteran and active Navy reservist.) 

The contrast seemed obvious: Funky, homespun Imperial Beach versus corporate, aspirational Chula Vista. But there was more artfulness to Aguirre’s event than met the eye. And the high-gloss trappings in Chula Vista only partly obscured an essential earnestness at the heart of McCann’s presentation. 

Aguirre began working on Imperial Beach’s State of the City event as far back as August, her executive assistant told me after the speech. The speech’s Jan. 30 timing was fortuitous. That same day, the powerful union representing San Diego County employees announced it had endorsed Aguirre’s supervisor bid. Fundraising emails from her campaign trumpeted the endorsement one hour before the speech. 

Several prominent union leaders attended the speech, including the head of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council and a representative from the county employees’ union. Since the start of this year, labor groups have donated close to $800,000 to support Aguirre’s candidacy. 

Even as she detailed Imperial Beach’s recent accomplishments, Aguirre made sure to hit talking points important to Democratic constituencies: Tenant protections for renters; a raise for city workers; compassion for immigrants. She sounded campaign-style battle cries: “We can make government work for everyday people…The state of our city is strong because you, the people, fight for change.” 

A few days later, another fundraising email touted the speech as a key moment in Aguirre’s campaign kickoff week.  

“We have the momentum. Let’s keep it going,” the email said directly above a “donate now” button. 

In Chula Vista, the grandeur mostly faded into the background when McCann started speaking. He is an unadorned, deliberate speaker who often pauses before answering questions and sometimes struggles with pronunciation. What he lacks in smoothness, he makes up in directness and unabashed love of his city. 

At one point, McCann turned toward the Gaylord hotel and led the audience in a round of applause for the 22-story building, as if it were a star performer in a local play. He made his standard self-deprecating comment about his wife: “She is my rock and definitely better looking than me. I married up.”  

He called Chula Vista a “military town” and asked all veterans in the audience to stand for a round of applause. 

“For my entire life, Chula Vista has been my home,” he said. Then he got in some digs at Democratic leaders in state and county government, where budget challenges threaten painful cuts.  

“That will never happen on my watch,” McCann said, pointing to Chula Vista’s just-passed budget that fully funds city services. 

Constituents I talk to routinely praise Aguirre’s disarming warmth, her work ethic and her ability to unify a politically divided City Council. 

She is also a seasoned politician who is not above doing what it takes to get elected. She was the first candidate to lob an attack in the supervisor race (against fellow Democrat Vivian Moreno). She courts labor union money and echoes labor union talking points. And she is quick to jump on high-profile issues, such as a recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a restaurant in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego. Following the raid, she announced a campaign appearance at the restaurant this weekend. 

That was her speech: Down-to-earth presentation combined with political calculation. 

McCann seems to come by his artlessness honestly. No city event is too small for him to make an appearance, and he once sent constituents an email with photos of himself attending what looked like every single Little League game in Chula Vista on the league’s opening day. 

He staged his speech at the Gaylord hotel, but his real legacy may be pushing his city to prioritize housing construction at a time when other cities in San Diego County fight state housing mandates. He says he does so because his mother credited home ownership with giving her financial stability as a working single parent. 

At the same time, real estate deals and McCann’s relationships with the powerful interests who make those deals have spurred corruption allegations against him in the supervisor race. His own real estate firm recently made moves to sell property in a $1 billion bayfront development project McCann helped to shepherd as a city leader and mentioned prominently in his State of the City speech. Developers eager to weaken county environmental laws that limit homebuilding in outlying areas are major funders of McCann’s campaign. 

Those contradictions also were on display in McCann’s speech: Aw-shucks delivery in a gold-plated setting. 

Whichever candidate is elected next month will start their term in office with high hopes and a go-getter policy menu. Then circumstances will change, emergencies will arise, and county leaders will be forced to make decisions they never anticipated. 

At that point, the human elements on display in Aguirre’s and McCann’s speeches will determine what happens next. That, voters, is the choice you’re about to make.