For a few months early this year, the electoral contest to lead Imperial Beach appeared to be shaping up as a classic two-way race between Mayor Mitch McKay, a conservative-leaning independent, and retired school construction manager Karl Bradley, a liberal Democrat with big ideas for change.
Then, in July, a third candidate entered the race. And city politics went a little haywire.
Local Democrats, unified in their desire to find a successor to former Democratic Mayor Paloma Aguirre, fractured over whether to endorse Bradley or his challenger, City Councilmember Matthew Leyba-Gonzalez. Aguirre left last year after winning a seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
Infighting over the endorsement grew so heated, the president of the local Democratic club resigned, according to Bradley.
Accusations flew that a powerful labor union supporting Leyba-Gonzalez – the union is also his employer – was trying to influence city politics.
Those concerns grew when the union – Local 89 of the Laborers International Union of North America, known as LIUNA – poured $25,000 into an independent expenditure committee backing Leyba-Gonzalez.
Then Bradley woke up one morning in August to find someone had slashed a tire on his wife’s car, torn up his campaign signs and possibly poured a foreign substance into his gas tank.
There was no evidence the vandalism was tied to the mayoral campaign. But tensions rose a few weeks later when a vandal scrawled racist, antisemitic graffiti on the house of a prominent local Democratic activist.
Police later arrested an 18-year-old computer enthusiast in the graffiti incident, who denied he was involved.
The acrimony has rattled the city.
And it has prompted Democrats in and outside of Imperial Beach to shake their heads in disbelief that the party appears on track to split its vote and surrender city leadership to McKay, a low-key retired aerospace engineer appointed last year to replace Aguirre.
One South San Diego County Democratic insider, speaking privately, summed up party sentiment: “That race is over,” he said.
Bradley and Leyba-Gonzalez insisted they are in the race to win and see a viable path to victory.
“I’m blessed and fortunate to be in this unique situation, and I’m going to approach it working as hard as I can and do the best I can,” Leyba-Gonzalez said.
“It’s politics, and I’m pragmatic and walking precincts, and I still plan on winning,” said Bradley.
Bradley, 69, entered the race in May.
A retired school construction manager, he said he’s running because he feels that under McKay’s leadership, Imperial Beach had abandoned the fighting spirit that characterized Aguirre’s seven years in City Hall – four as a city councilmember, three as mayor.
The city is beset by an overriding, existential issue: An ongoing sewage crisis in the Tijuana River that has closed local beaches, battered businesses and depressed tax revenue to the point that the city had to dip into reserves to fund some one-time projects.
“Paloma was in the media almost daily shouting from the rooftops about this,” Bradley said. “Our current mayor was interviewed in the Union-Tribune saying they need to dial back the rhetoric…There are those who think if we don’t talk about it, business will get better and developers will come back. That’s not realistic.”
Bradley said his decades of experience managing multimillion-dollar school construction contracts gives him the expertise to advocate on the sewage issue and ensure the federal government follows through on promises to resolve the problem.
“I’m very confident at least in the area of facilities and construction,” he said.
Aguirre, a surfer and environmentalist with a bi-national background, drew support from several constituencies in the city, in particular renters, immigrants, environmentalists and college-educated activists.
She often teamed up with Leyba-Gonzalez and a third city councilmember, Jack Fisher, to advance Democratic priorities.
Following Aguirre’s departure, a remaining majority of more conservative-leaning councilmembers swiftly appointed McKay to replace her. McKay first won election to the Council in 2022, representing District 3.
A few weeks after appointing McKay, the Council appointed Republican Mariko Nakawatase to fill his Council seat, further cementing conservative control.
McKay, 68, describes himself as a consensus-builder. Following his appointment, he said he moved to calm the waters by focusing on routine responsibilities, completing projects started under Aguirre and exploring ways to support Imperial Beach’s struggling business community.
He also tackled the sewage crisis by working with regional leaders and reaching out behind the scenes to federal officials, he said.
He rejected Bradley’s criticism that the city has lost momentum on the sewage issue. The key to making progress, he said, is working constructively with other leaders, not generating unnecessary conflict.
“How do you get people organized to do positive things for their community?” he said, describing his preferred approach to politics.
Bradley said McKay’s soft-touch to governing was not working.
“They’re not demanding transparency from [the federal government],” he said of city leaders. “When I tell people why I’m running, it resonates…I don’t want to backslide on this.”
McKay acknowledged that an effort he spearheaded earlier this year to secure federal aid for city businesses had failed to produce results after the Trump Administration essentially shut down the local branch of the federal Small Business Administration.
But he said the city is proceeding on other fronts the community cares about, including a recently completed $15 million sports park renovation and a new senior living center now under construction.
“[Flashy-sounding] plans are great,” he said of grand pronouncements about the sewage crisis. “But they are hard to put into effect.”
For two months after announcing his candidacy, Bradley geared up to run a two-way race with McKay.
He touted his stance on the sewage issue, talked of staging more public events to generate additional city revenue, raised campaign funds and unveiled a campaign website.
Then, in July, shortly before a filing deadline, Leyba-Gonzalez entered the race, instantly scrambling the electoral calculus.
A lifelong construction worker turned union business official, Leyba-Gonzalez said he entered the race because he feels the city’s working-class residents need a strong advocate atop City Hall.
“I know the issues our residents face,” he said. “I’m not a politician. I’m a hard-working blue-collar worker who wants to make things better.”
Leyba-Gonzalez, 54, first won a seat on the Imperial Beach City Council in 2020. He entered politics, he said, because “it seemed like my district was disenfranchised from the rest of the city.”
Not everyone agrees with his self-description as a political outsider. LIUNA, the union Leyba-Gonzalez works for, is a major force in San Diego County Democratic politics and one of the biggest spenders in county elections.
Among other responsibilities, Leyba-Gonzalez said he oversees 30 project labor agreements for the union in multiple jurisdictions throughout the county. The agreements guarantee publicly financed construction projects employ union workers and meet other labor-friendly criteria.
The union’s hefty campaign war chest, along with a $500,000 effort two years ago to install a slate of allies atop the county’s Democratic Party leadership structure, has secured it a central role in decisions over who runs in local races, who gets endorsed and who has the funds to compete.
The entrance of a second Democrat into the Imperial Beach mayor’s race instantly fractured the city’s tightknit Democratic community.
Bradley said some Democrats he reached out to for endorsements pointedly told him he should drop out to clear a path for Leyba-Gonzalez.
Bradley said he was taken aback by the bare-knuckle demand.
“I said I love this community too much and I said I’m not going to withdraw,” he said.
He sought the endorsement of the local Imperial Beach Democratic Club and won the support of 80 percent of members.
But the club’s other 20 percent wasn’t happy.
Aguirre, who financed much of her County Supervisor campaign last year with union support, backed Leyba-Gonzalez. Her allies in the Democratic club demanded the club do the same.
Debate grew bitter and the president, Felicia House, ultimately resigned over the issue, Bradley said.
“I’m very disheartened by that,” he said.
House did not respond to a request for comment.
Though the county Democratic Party’s Central Committee often defers to local sentiment when deciding on its own countywide endorsements, the committee voted to disregard the Imperial Beach club’s endorsement and backed Leyba-Gonzalez.
Bradley said he’d rather have local support than the backing of party elites. The party’s endorsement entitles Leyba-Gonzalez to placement on voter guides the party sends to members. The guides often play an influential role in local races.
Leyba-Gonzalez said he won the party’s endorsement because of his record supporting Democratic priorities.
“I’ve had the experience. I’ve built the relationships. Which is why I received endorsements from labor and from the Democrats,” he said.
Last month, LIUNA pumped $25,000 into an independent expenditure committee backing Leyba-Gonzalez. So far, the committee has spent more than $17,000 on mailers, voter research and consulting.
Bradley has raised roughly $11,000 in mostly small-dollar donations from supporters in and outside of Imperial Beach.
McKay has raised $5,500.
Leyba-Gonzalez voiced frustration with Bradley’s insistence on running for mayor despite his lack of previous electoral experience.
“He wanted to bypass serving on the Council to get experience,” Leyba-Gonzalez said. “He just wanted to run for mayor. I’ve gone through my apprenticeship and I’m like a journeyperson and I’m ready to go to be a foreman…You can’t just jump to being a foreman.”
Bradley countered that being a political insider is not a prerequisite to solving Imperial Beach’s most pressing problems.
“I think Imperial Beach is ready to go a different way,” he said. “The job[] of the mayor…is to be the voice of the city and advocate for us on this existential issue that affects every component of our lives.”
McKay said he can’t predict whether Bradley and Leyba-Gonzalez will end up knocking each other out of the race.
“I’m not a politician,” he said, echoing Leyba-Gonzalez. “I was in aerospace for 40 years.”
“I’m going to run a positive campaign,” he said. “Being mayor for 15 months is my resume. That’s what’s most important.”
Leyba Gonzales has been on Council for 6 years. He hasn’t accomplished very much and I cannot think of a single thing he’s done that showed his ability to deal with the sewage issues. While he has been a solid councilmember for his district, he does not exhibit the leadership qualities that a Mayor should have. As a result, the Unions are in control.
I believe that McKay does not possess leadership qualities either. He pushed through controversial decisions on Flock cameras and changes to the City’s ban on investing in fossil fuels. He is not a consensus builder, or pragmatist, or a conservative leaning independent. He is entrenched with the Republican establishment. He was appointed in a suspect, hastily approved process that reeked of collusion.
Karl Bradley is the best choice for Mayor. Democrats need to show unity and vote for the candidate who will represent the people and not be beholden to outside influences.
Paloma has spoken out loud about sewage and its gotten worse. She asked the City and County to back large investments in SAB plant in Mexico and Punta Banderas outfall and sewage has GOTTEN WORSE. in fact the more paloma talks the farther from a solution the region travels. Minute 328 is based upon bad science and a false premise all provable by reality and data. Now she wants to tax us– those who have been poisoned for years. No Thank You. And hopefully IB will reject that future as well. Keep Mexican sewage in Mexico. It is their responsibility not ours.