For the mayoral race, incumbent Todd Gloria has an 11 percent lead over his challenger Larry Turner, a retired Marine Corp. Lieutenant Colonel.
Gloria has 55.7 percent of the vote with 180,392 voters, while Turner has 44.3 percent with 143,758 votes, preliminary results from the San Diego Registrar of Voters show.
Gloria, a Democrat, was elected as San Diego’s 37th Mayor in 2020. He represented California’s 78th State Assembly District from 2016 to 2020 and was elected to the San Diego city council from 2008 to 2016.
Turner said he’s an independent—“not a career politician”—and he will “refuse to become one.”
Homelessness, public safety, infrastructure, and housing are some of the key priorities for both Gloria and Turner.
Gloria said he will continue to push for his controversial 1,000-bed mega-shelter plan in San Diego’s midtown. He believes “the only true solution to both addressing homelessness and housing affordability is to build more housing” through his Affordable Housing Density program, according to his campaign website.
Turner said San Diego’s budget for the homeless has ballooned but the homeless population has surged in recent years. Instead of temporary shelter, he will invest in “permanent supportive and affordable housing,” and “apply a tourniquet to the bleeding of [homeless] shelter beds in our city.”
Both Gloria and Turner support state Proposition 36, a reform of 2014’s Prop. 47, and have made calls for tougher penalties on some repeat offenders.
Turner, also a retired San Diego police officer, has faced pushback from his own union, after he said he would consider cutting police benefits and putting a freeze on new hires as a way to balance the city’s budget, but has since walked that back.
Gloria too received criticism from the San Diego Police Officer’s Association during the pandemic by initially requiring all city employees to be fully vaccinated. The mayor ultimately backed down, allowing for significant numbers of police officers and other city employees to have exemptions.
The police union endorsed Gloria on Oct. 10 following Turner’s statements of police benefits cut. Gloria also has the endorsements of the state and county Democratic party, Gov. Gavin Newsom, the city’s firefighters, and Planned Parenthood.
Turner’s website does not list endorsements, but he has received the backing of newspaper La Prensa.
In March’s primary election, Gloria and Turner won 50 percent and 23 percent, respectively, of the votes, becoming the two candidates among the five contestants who qualified to proceed to the November election.
County Board of Supervisors Races
San Diego County voters are also deciding on who should be on the board of supervisors. Three out of the five seats—Districts 1, 2, and 3—are on the November ballot.District 1 incumbent Supervisor Nora Vargas was challenged by business owner Alejandro Galicia, with Vargas leading at 62.8 percent of the vote.
In District 2, incumbent Supervisor Joe Anderson was challenged by Port of San Diego official Gina Jacobs, with Anderson leading at 62.0 percent.
District 3’s incumbent Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remmer and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer are facing off for the third seat.
Lawson-Remmer holds a 13 percent lead over Faulconer at 56.7 percent of the vote.
Although supervisor seats are nonpartisan, the candidates all have either Democrat or Republican party affiliations. Vargas and Lawson-Remer are Democrats and Anderson a Republican, and their challengers are from the opposite parties.
Currently, the board’s makeup is three Democrats (Vargas, Monica Montgomery Steppe, and Lawson-Remer), and two Republicans (Anderson and Jim Desmond).
District 3 appears to be the most hotly contested of Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors races and could potentially change the board’s left-right alignment.
On Lawson-Remer’s campaign website, she lists the environment, homelessness, gun safety, reproduction freedom, healthcare, cost of housing, and climate crisis among her top issues.
She will make it “a priority to upgrade the County’s stormwater infrastructure” and tackle the homeless crisis by cleaning up streets, clearing encampments, and getting people “the help they need and into supportive housing.” She will also ban assault weapons, make San Diego County “a safe haven for abortion access,” and tackle the cost of housing by measures including “building more affordable housing near transit and places of work.”
Faulconer served as the 36th mayor of San Diego from 2014 to 2020. On his campaign website, he lists homelessness, public safety, fiscal responsibility, innovative governing, and climate actions as his top priorities.
He will “aggressively build shelters to make sure every person has a safe place to sleep, clean themselves, and get the help they need.” Faulconer says he will support law enforcement, expand natural spaces, and encourage building the neighborhood “that people of every kind want and need, at every different price point.” He will also implement “bold solutions to invest in clean and reliable green energy without higher bills.”
Lawson-Remer has been endorsed by labor groups including the Southwest Carpenters, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 135 and the Service Employees International Union Local 221; environmental groups including the Sierra Club and Climate Defenders; and organizations such as the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of the Pacific Southwest and San Diego Education Association.
Faulconer’s endorsements include the Lincoln Club Business League; business groups such as the Building Industry of San Diego, California Restaurant Association, and Associated Builders and Contractors of San Diego; and law enforcement groups such as the San Diego Deputy District Attorneys Association, San Diego Police Officers Association, and Carlsbad Police Officers Association.
San Diego Registrar of Voters Cynthia Paes told reporters Oct. 3 that the projected turnout rate this election is 80 to 84 percent. Turnout rates for the 2016 and 2020 general elections were 81.5 percent and 83.5 percent, respectively.
The first unofficial results released Tuesday night were from the 787,702 mail ballots and 68,246 voter center ballots (total 855,948) before Election Day, and periodic election night result updates will continue throughout the night until all vote center ballots are reported, according to the San Diego Registrar of Voters. Remaining mail ballots and provisional ballots will be counted after Election Day, and the Registrar of Voters has until Dec 5 to certify the election results. The office mailed out a total of 1,983,767 ballots to registered voters for the November election.
