Election Results and South O

Oceanside Results

Once the initial local election results were posted, there wasn’t a lot of suspense remaining. Three of the four measures passed easily: term limits (K), cannabis tax (M) and tax increase for school bonds (W). The most controversial topic this year — North River Farms and Proposition L — failed miserably by a 2:1 margin.

Our next mayor will be Councilwoman Esther Sanchez, while our current mayor Pete Weiss will become District 4 councilman. Both won easily — with nearly twice as many votes as their nearest competitor — and both will have a limit of three terms in that new position.

The only suspense is over who will be the council member for District 3 and South O: former councilwoman Shari Mackin took an early lead, but incumbent Ryan Keim led in the final tally of the night (which does not included many uncounted ballots). As expected, business owner Amber Newman finished third.

Both candidates opposed North River Farms (while Weiss and the 2nd and 3rd place mayoral candidates supported it). Both strongly supported Save South O positions on Coast Highway and redevelopment of Buccaneer Park, although Keim thus far has been much weaker on Short Term Rental regulation. In the campaign, the two both appear to support protecting the South O business district, but differ on policy and beach issues.

Mayor-elect Sanchez is vacating her District 1 seat, which will be filled by appointment (likely if Keim wins) or by special election (likely if Mackin wins and the council deadlocks on an appointment).

Several issues will be important to the city in the next two years

1. Rebuilding the city’s economy — both recovery of small business and attracting new business — when the national epidemic ends in 6-12 months with the vaccination of a substantial proportion of the country.
2. Preserving the character of our business district with the changes in local business and jobs inevitable with that recovery.
3. Dealing with the need for affordable housing and strong state pressure to increase house density, while pushing back against an ongoing pattern of developers seeking to maximize profits by providing limited parking onsite and generating increased demand for neighborhood parking
4. Repairing the Short Term Rental ordinance as the impacts on neighborhoods continue to worsen.

Beyond these citywide issues, Save South O will continue to push the city to reveal a master plan for the future of Buccaneer Park and the surrounding area.

Elsewhere in San Diego County

North County’s two first-term representatives in Sacramento (Tasha Boerner Horvath) and Washington (Mike Levin) easily won re-election. Horvath will be re-elected one more time before term limits kick in; however both will represent different parts of San Diego County when the 2022 redistricting kicks in. 

Rep. Levin and Scott Peters are joined by newly elected Sarah Jacobs (granddaughter of billionaire Irwin Jacobs) in safe Democratic seats. Barring scandal, they will have a job for life — like Ron Packard or Susan Peters did — or until they decide to run for something else (Bob Filner). Meanwhile, the future of the swing seat closely fought by Darrell Issa and Ammar Campa-Najjar will depend heavily on the 2022 redistricting.

Most incumbents easily won re-election, with one notable exception. Former Encinitas mayor Kirstin Gaspar (a moderate Republican) lost badly to community organizer Terra Lawson-Remer. Barring a surprise reversal, this will give Democrats a majority on the Board of Supervisors for the first time in decades.

Finally, after decades of electing outsiders as mayors, San Diegans elected the ultimate insider Assemblyman Todd Gloria — a statewide Democratic leader and former interim mayor — over Councilwoman Barbara Bry. Gloria has supported a number of controversial measures in Sacramento, including AB5 (eliminating most independent contractors) and mandating increased housing density by cities without regard to local preferences.

He is expected to accelerate the city’s trend towards increased housing density and reducing or eliminating parking to force residents out of their cars (or force their cars onto local streets). He has stated his opposition to Short Term Rentals because they reduce housing supply, but it is unclear how (or if) he will get a majority of the council to institute meaningful regulation and enforcement to preserve that housing supply.