Measures A and B, which together would enact a major overhaul of county government and raise a countywide sales tax, strengthened their leads Wednesday amid ongoing vote counting.
Both Measures are still too close to call — but when vote margins widen that’s usually a good sign of where the final tally is headed.
Measure A would give county supervisors an additional term in office and strengthen their authority over the county’s bureaucracy. Measure B would generate TKTK to pay for healthcare and child care services and efforts to solve the Tijuana sewage crisis.
Both measures had about 52 percent of the vote and led the no camps by roughly 23,500 votes, as of Wednesday.
A win for both measures would mark a significant victory for the County Board of Supervisors’ three-member Democratic majority.
The three Dems, along with allied organized labor groups, crafted and backed the two measures in an effort to shift county government into a more activist gear.
Measure A, which gives supervisors the ability to hire and fire key county leaders and help craft the county budget, will enable supervisors to keep county bureaucrats focused on supervisors’ political priorities.
Measure B will ensure there’s enough money to enact those priorities.
ICYMI: Our Lisa Halverstadt broke down the fine print in Measure B so you don’t have to.
Vista May Be Getting a Socialist Mayor
Democratic Socialists of America member Kenneth Zuniga is within 500 votes of former two-term Republican Councilmember Joe Green in the race for mayor of Vista. There are still thousands of votes to count, but in each vote drop, Zuniga has narrowed the distance between himself and Green.
To Zuniga, the results are a testament to the hard work he and his supporters have put in. Since June, they’ve knocked on more than 13,000 doors and made more than 30,000 phone calls to Vista residents. During those interactions, he often asked voters what they wanted to see change in their city.
“It was mostly the bread and butter issues of affordability and making sure that we have a city government that is actually delivering results, whether that was wanting to drive down the cost of housing or basic infrastructure improvements,” Zuniga said. “The most basic functions that have been lacking because of previous City Councils’ lack of investment.”
Want more socialism? Reporter Jakob McWhinney recently wrote about the growth of San Diego’s DSA chapter and the chapter’s journey toward establishing its relevancy in the county.
Midway Rising
Last month, we broke the news that the Midway Rising megadevelopment might not create 2,000 “net-new” affordable homes like the project’s developer initially promised.
Now, the Union-Tribune reports, the city has closed the loophole that could have enabled the developer to get credit for building affordable units that didn’t actually boost the neighborhood’s overall supply of affordable homes.
The loophole, called off-siting, would have allowed the developer to absorb affordable units already required to be built elsewhere. City officials added language to the deal they’re finalizing with Midway Rising’s developer that forbids off-siting without express permission from the city.
Related: The Council’s independent budget analyst produced a report that found up to 800 units developers would already have to build could qualify to be placed at Midway Rising without a prohibition on off-siting units there.
A Special Election on the Horizon
Councilmember Marni von Wilpert declared victory over Republican Jim Desmond to represent the 48th Congressional District.
That means von Wilpert will presumably vacate her District 5 Council seat to head to D.C. District 5 includes neighborhoods like Black Mountain Ranch, Carmel Mountain Ranch and Scripps Ranch.
Once von Wilpert vacates her seat, her chief of staff will run the office and continue to provide constituent services. Within the first two weeks of the vacancy, a candidate nomination process will take place. Within 90 days, a special election will be held. If no candidate gets a majority then a run-off election will be held.
Correction: Gloria Recallers Have 120 Days to Submit Signatures
Yesterday, we wrote that signature gathering on a recall effort against Mayor Todd Gloria cannot begin until late November, and that the group trying to recall him only has 120 days after that to gather signatures of at least 15 percent of registered voters in the city.
It’s actually worse than that for the signature gatherers.
City Clerk Diana Fuentes informed us that the group actually has 120 days from Nov. 3 to submit signatures to her office. That means their deadline to submit signatures is March 3, 2027.
However, the earliest the group can start gathering signatures is late November. That’s because the mayor has until Nov. 17 to respond to the recall effort. Once the recall group publishes his response, the group still has to wait five days to start gathering signatures.
Read the Morning Report with our correction here.
The Blue Wave Reaches North County
Our Tigist Layne has the latest on several consequential North County elections. In short: The Blue Wave crested there too.
In Encinitas, conservative Mayor Bruce Ehlers is running neck and neck with Democratic challenger Rimga Viskanta.Two Democrats are also ahead in City Council races, potentially flipping the conservative-leaning Council to a Democratic majority.
A Democrat also narrowly leads in the race to replace Republican San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones, who won her race to fill a vacant seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
And a Democrat may flip a seat on the conservative-leaning Escondido City Council.
Read the full North County Report Here.
Big News Alert!
Our reporter Bella Ross is rebooting Voice of San Diego’s Culture Report. Bella is on a mission to prove that San Diego is more culturally rich than we could have ever imagined. She’ll track down the people, ideas and trends that define San Diego in ways that we have not typically understood ourselves.
Sign up to receive The Culture Report every other Tuesday.
In Other News
- Fewer than 9 percent of San Diego County adults have signed up for the city’s emergency disaster alert system, Alert San Diego, even as a potentially record-breaking El Nino weather pattern could bring floods, landslides and other disasters this winter. (Union-Tribune)
- A man arrested and jailed last year for being drunk in public died in his own waste in San Diego County jail after guards repeatedly neglected to check on his deteriorating condition, according to an independent investigation that faulted jail deputies. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Union-Tribune)
- Researchers at U.C. San Diego School of Medicine have identified a sugar in human breast milk that helps gut development in babies and prevents jaundice. Researchers said they hope the discovery can help to develop a supplement to aid infant development. (KPBS)
- Border Patrol agents seized more than 300 pounds of methamphetamine from the trunk of a car on Interstate 5 near Camp Pendleton after a vehicle stop. A drug-sniffing dog led agents to 36 packages of drugs hidden in the car. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Jim Hinch and Mariana Martínez Barba. It was edited by Will Huntsberry.