By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – As Thursday, March 10, dawned there were 39 would-be candidates for seven municipal offices in San Diego, including the offices of mayor, city attorney, and five city council positions. At the end of the business day, 36 candidates were left. The other three failed to return their nominating papers to the San Diego City Clerk’s office by the 5 p.m. deadline.
This does not mean, however, that all 36 remaining candidates are guaranteed a place on the city’s June 7 primary election ballot. Now the City Clerk must go through the process of verifying each signature on the candidates’ nominating papers to make certain that candidates had achieved the required amounts: 200 valid signatures for candidates for mayor and city attorney, and 100 valid signatures for city council candidates.
The deadline to return the nominating papers was met by three incumbents who are seeking reelection: Mayor Kevin Faulconer, 5th District City Council Member Mark Kersey, and 7th District City Council Member Scott Sherman, who all share a campaign office at 7185 Navajo Road (in District 7) and list C. April Boling as their campaign treasurer.
There will be contests for open seats in the races for City Attorney, and in the 1st, 3rd, and 9th City Council Districts. In all the races, with or without an incumbent, a runoff election will be held Nov. 6 if no candidate achieves a majority vote in the primary election. Winners will be sworn into office on Dec. 10.
The three potential candidates who did not return papers in time for the deadline were in the 3rd, 5th and 7th Council Districts respectively: Joseph K. Brown, Mert Erel and Jose L. Fernandez, according to a tally by the City Clerk’s office.
Testifying to San Diego’s international character is the fact that eight of the candidates–or 22 percent of those running– were born outside of the United States. Three of these are running for mayor: Gita Appelbaum from Trinidad, West Indies; Steve H. Greenwald from Montreal, Canada and Sina Simon Moghadam from Tehran, Iran. Others include Christopher Ward (Council District 3), born in Frankfurt, Germany; Frank Tsimboukakis (Council District 5) from Athens, Greece; and three candidates in Council District 9: Sam Bedwell from Eritrea, Tami Le Murillo from Vietnam and Rebecca Paida from the Sudan.
Here is the complete list of San Diego municipal candidates, with incumbents listed first:
MAYOR –Kevin Faulconer (inc); Gita Appelbaum, Marty Gardener, Steve H. Greenwald, Ed Harris, Sina Simon Moghadam; Gregory Morales, Lori Saldana, and Lawrence Zynda.
CITY ATTORNEY – Gil Cabrera, Rafael Castellanos, Mara W. Elliott, Robert Hickey, Ryan W. Pease.
1st DISTRICT, CITY COUNCIL – Barbara Bry, Ray Ellis, Kyle Heiskala, Bruce Lightner, Louis A. Rodolico
3rd DISTRICT, CITY COUNCIL – Anthony Bernal, Scott Sanborn, Christopher Ward
5th DISTRICT, CITY COUNCIL– Mark Kersey (inc), Keith Mikas, Frank Tsimboukakis
7th DISTRICT, CITY COUNCIL – Scott Sherman (inc), Jose Aballero, Justin A. DeCesare.
9th DISTRICT, CITY COUNCIL – Sam Bedwell, Fernando Cajica, Ricardo Flores, Georgette Gomez, Araceli Martinez, Tami Le Murillo, Rebecca Paida, Sarah Saez.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below must be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the U.S.)