Tomorrow Is Election Day In San Diego

Late last year Lucas O'Connor brought us up to date on the parameters of the mayoral election in San Diego. As he said, it's one of the last big cities in America that still has a Republican mayor. There was a big gap to close in December and progressive City Councilman David Alvarez seems to have closed it. And Saturday, Alvarez got a big boost when he was endorsed by President Obama: “As a native San Diegan, David Alvarez has been a fierce advocate for his city, and on the Council, has led efforts to build a strong middle class, put neighborhoods first and expand opportunities for kids in and out of school. Today, with the city’s economy and neighborhoods poised to make progress there is no question that David is the right choice to be San Diego’s next mayor and I am excited to support him.”

The latest poll is the closest of all, showing that Alvarez has caught up with his right-wing rival, Kevin Faulconer. With 7% still undecided, the poll released yesterday shows Faulconer with 47% and Alvarez with 46%, a last-minute surge for Alvarez. He leads 2 to 1 among Latino voters, significantly with women voters and leads among voters under 65. Faulconer's entire statistically-insignificant one point advantage is with people over 65 years old.  He's the candidate of old white men, increasingly the last bastion of the Republican Party everywhere.

Alvarez supporter Donna Frye, a former City Council member and unsuccessful candidate for mayor, wrote an OpEd for the Union-Tribune with the 10 reasons voters should pick Alvarez tomorrow.

1. David annoys the U-T San Diego Editorial Board folks-- the same ones who endorsed his opponent and think it would be a cool idea to split California in two and form a 51st state. They especially get riled up when he talks about supporting working-class jobs and providing services that average citizens deserve and expect.

2. David has support and endorsements from people and community organizations I respect and share common values with, including Interim Mayor Todd Gloria, Assemblymember Toni Atkins, former Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Diane Feinstein, and San Diego Unified School District President Kevin Beiser; community leaders Bruce Coons, Mel Katz, Lei-Chala Wilson, Dr. Allen Chan, Dr. Alan Gin and Bishop George McKinney; and organizations including the San Diego League of Conservation Voters, Bike SD and the Environmental Health and Justice Coalition.

3. David’s father lives with him. This is a really good thing because if David ever forgets he is a public servant, his dad will be there to straighten him out.

4. David supports increasing the statewide minimum wage.

5. David is a strong negotiator. During last year’s fight over Tourism Marketing District dollars, David became the mediator between the former mayor and tourism board members and prevented a total breakdown in the compromise talks. He got the best deal for the taxpayers, which included indemnification for the city should the ongoing litigation prove successful. When the matter again came up for a vote, David stood firm against repealing the taxpayer protection provision, while his opponent voted to remove it.

6. David actively supports community planning and believes residents should help decide what is best for their neighborhoods. One example is the Barrio Logan Community Plan. After five years of meetings, a compromise was reached to help protect residents from industrial pollution. It included requiring an approximate nine-block buffer zone between homes and industrial businesses and obtaining approval from the city at a public hearing before expanding or bringing new industrial uses into the buffer zone. David obtained a majority vote for the plan’s approval, despite the “no” vote by his opponent, who is now actively campaigning to overturn the wishes of the community.

7. David opposed the billion-dollar tax financing scheme to expand the downtown Convention Center. The funding comes mostly from increased tourist taxes, but unlike other tourist tax increases, there was no public vote. The voters have a right to decide how their taxes are spent, especially when the billion dollars could be used for streets, sidewalks and basic neighborhood services instead of one more big building downtown.

8. David stands up for what he believes and that is reflected in his votes. He does not put his finger in the wind to see which way it is blowing or try to reinvent himself for political purposes. His core beliefs and values are deeply rooted.

9. David thinks for himself and makes decisions, such as running for mayor, based upon his own best judgment. Unfortunately, his opponent let a small group of people (the local Republican Party chair, developers, the U-T San Diego publisher, and chair of the Lincoln Club) decide in a private meeting whether it was OK for him to run for mayor. He even promised them he wouldn’t run for mayor if they told him not to. Yikes! Real leaders don’t let other people tell them what to do. Thankfully, David doesn’t need a permission slip from the City Hall monitors before making decisions; he has the strength and good sense to make up his own mind.

10. My No. 1 reason for supporting David is because he has the integrity and right experience to lead our city. He values the people who live here and respects our great diversity of interests and other people’s points of view. I trust him to do what is best for the public and serve all of us. I hope you will join me in supporting David Alvarez as our next mayor.

David Alvarez Can Take San Diego For Good

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by Lucas O'Connor

San Diego is the largest border city in the country, and one of the last big cities where Republicans have been able to stay competitive. That's been changing in recent years thanks to a whole lot of hard work to organize emerging communities, and in a special election this February the city now has the chance to elect a strong progressive as San Diego's first Latino mayor. In the process, a rising progressive movement capitalizing on the region’s rapidly growing minority population can deliver a generational death blow to the local GOP, mirroring the shift that’s happened statewide in California and demonstrating what’s coming across the country.

The first public polling has recently been released in the runoff contest, reporting a tie in the campaign to complete the term of Bob Filner. With three months until Election Day, that means that after closing an 11 point gap in less than three weeks before the primary election, as an encore Alvarez has now closed a 13 point gap in three weeks. If you’re scoring at home, that’s a trip from 17% to 46% since Halloween. Most tantalizing is a quick look at who the remaining undecided voters are: Latinos, cell­phone voters, liberals, and young people jump out. These groups are natural Alvarez supporters, but also some of the most difficult to reach and turn out to the polls. It’s a tough climb, but it’s very winnable with the necessary work and the stakes are high.

Councilman David Alvarez grew up in the Barrio Logan community of San Diego, a neighborhood with a long history of standing up for fair treatment and basic justice when the city’s downtown power brokers weren’t interested. The son of a janitor and a fast food worker, Alvarez grew up next to an industrial plant and can trace his own asthma to a growing up amid toxic emissions affecting residential areas, school playgrounds, and parks. The experience helped launch his career that began as a social services worker and after­school teacher.

Now on the City Council, Alvarez has shown a rare willingness to stand up against the traditional establishment (of both parties) and ability to bring together the many pieces of the grassroots left. He’s run point on smart growth development projects and new local rules to hold banks more accountable for foreclosures, championed long­neglected funding for border, infrastructure and arts projects, and pushed to improve public safety. Along the way, Alvarez has become one of the strongest Council allies for working families in the face of strong attacks and forged one of the Council’s strongest environmental records while chairing the Natural Resources and Culture Committee. And along the way, he has set the standard for supporting progressive candidates and fostering stronger infrastructure.

Meanwhile, his opponent Kevin Faulconer is straight from empty­conservative­suit central casting. He lost his first run for city council, then eked out a special election win by a few hundred votes. Since then he hasn’t faced a serious electoral challenge while being elbowed out of bigger opportunities by other, stronger Republicans. He’s made a career of staying out of the fray, a mixed blessing for progressives now: His slim record means few voters know Faulconer or support him strongly, but it also means if he can keep his head down just enough, he can sneak through a relatively low­intensity special election with the more conservative electorate.

That’s a scary proposition because while Faulconer may be more inclined to simply drift along as the Tea Party drags things further right, remember that George W. Bush was supposed to be an aw shucks moderate once upon a time too and the extreme conservatives with their arms up the back of Faulconer’s suit jacket are ruthlessly effective given the chance. The attacks on working families, public education, the environment, responsible growth and public services are already rolling, and just last year the assault on public pensions they ran with Faulconer was so extreme that it not only left public workers with no pensions or Social Security, it managed to leave lifeguards and firefighters without death benefits. It could just be the beginning.

In general elections, San Diego votes for Democrats. But dynamics in this special election go beyond the usual Republican benefits. For example, before last year there hadn't even been a Democratic candidate for mayor on the November ballot in 20 years. Yet San Diegans made history by electing a Democrat by a five point margin. It was historic, but in the same election Obama won by a twenty­five point margin. That’s a seriously challenging gap.

Plus, the region’s only major newspaper is owned by aspiring-­Murdoch secessionist Doug Manchester. The retired hotel mogul has spent years dumping buckets of money into conservative candidates and ballot measures like Prop 8, and has spent his few years as owner of the local paper not only shilling for pet candidates and causes, but buying up smaller community papers with different opinions­ conveniently in electorally important parts of San Diego. And naturally, he was also central to a (relatively) secret meeting of powerful San Diego conservatives who anointed Kevin Faulconer for this mayoral race.

Last year, San Diego’s insider establishment was stuck in an impossible position: two strong ideological mayoral candidates, neither of whom were interested in business as usual. This year, they’ve hand­picked Faulconer as their golden boy to return San Diego to its decades of back­room plutocracy and slam the brakes on San Diego’s growing progressive movement. Those interests have already spent millions on this race, and they certainly aren’t done.

That’s why it's going to take a lot of help from progressive allies outside of San Diego itself. The voters are there, but decades of poor infrastructure that's only started coming back in the last few cycles means it’s particularly hard to reach those progressive voters in a low­turnout special election. But this is about the only game in town nationally, and by supporting David Alvarez and helping raise this race’s profile among progressives who generally tune out local politics, we can not only take it for the rest of our lifetimes, we can do it while demonstrating what the political future of the country looks like.