San Diego voters elected a new mayor yesterday in a special runoff election to replace the disgraced Bob Filner.
Filner, the first Democrat in 20 years to serve as mayor San Diego, resigned after being engulfed in sexual harassment allegations and is now serving a period of home confinement after a plea bargain on related criminal charges of false imprisonment and battery.
In the special election, Republican Kevin Faulconer defeated Obama-endorsed Democrat David Alvarez by a margin of about 55 percent to 45 percent and will serve the remaining 33 months of Filner’s term. Both men are members of the San Diego City Council. In contrast to the actual results, pre-election polling suggested that the election was a tossup.
President Obama carried the city of San Diego by landslide proportions in the 2012 presidential election.
Labor unions spent more than $4 million on behalf of Alvarez in a failed attempt to defeat the fiscally conservative , pro-business Faulconer. “Faulconer, who was backed by Filner’s two-term Republican predecessor, Jerry Sanders, highlighted his opposition to a 2010 ballot measure to raise the sales tax, which lost resoundingly, and his support for a 2012 measure to cut pensions for city workers, which passed overwhelmingly. Alvarez backed the losing sides.”
In the first round of voting in November, Faulconer won 44 percent of the vote while Alvarez received about 25 percent in the 11 candidate field. Alvarez and fellow Democrat Nathan Fletcher where nearly neck-and-neck for second place. Before all the votes were counted, Fletcher — a Republican turned Independent turned Democrat — endorsed Alvarez, however. No candidate broke 50 percent, thereby making yesterday’s runoff between the top two finishers necessary.
Kevin Faulconer’s win in San Diego makes him perhaps the most important GOP officeholder in the Golden State. “San Diego becomes the nation’s largest city with a Republican mayor, and Kevin Faulconer will be the only Republican to lead a major city in California, where Democrats hold all statewide offices.”
New San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer takes office on March 3.
