SAN DIEGO — San Diego City Councilwoman Barbara Bry, conceding she had lost the mayor’s race to Assemblyman Todd Gloria, told a news conference on Zoom Monday that she plans to organize a new political organization to give neighborhoods and residents a stronger voice at City Hall.
The Jewish councilwoman said that she had telephoned Gloria on Sunday to formally congratulate him, but said she was hurt by the attacks made on her during the campaign by Gloria’s supporters, whom she said spent over $2 million on false advertising including likening her political positions to those of President Trump. She noted that like Gloria she is a Democrat and that she voted for Joe Biden for President. She also said sexism was at play in the election, adding that it is more difficult for a woman to win an executive position than a legislative one.
However, San Diego has had female mayors in the past, in particular Maureen O’Connor, a Democrat, who won the office in 1985, and Susan Golding, a Republican, who was elected in 1992.
Asked if she thought that she and Gloria would be able to reconcile, Bry responded that she had “offered him my congratulations,” and noted that he has “difficult decisions ahead” and that the community needs to be involved in those decisions. At the time of her 10:30 a.m. news conference, which lasted 16 minutes, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters showed the vote total in the mayor’s race to be 337,979 voters, or 56.4 percent for Gloria, and 264,090 or 43.86 percent for Bry.
Shortly after the news conference, Mayor-elect Gloria’s campaign issued this statement: “I want to thank Councilmember Bry for her service to our City and I wish her and her family well. It is time to put the campaign behind us and come together as San Diegans to resolve the many challenges we face. Voters have embraced my vision of creating a City that works for all of us. It’s now time to turn that vision into reality. I am honored to be the next Mayor of San Diego.”
Bry, the 1st District City Councilwoman, who will be succeeded in December by Joe LaCava, said that just as she had organized a company to match tech companies with other businesses, and later created the Run Women Run organization, she will gather interested parties from San Diego neighborhoods , to hash out what kind of structure will be needed to make certain neighborhood concerns are made known to the mayor and City Council.
That work will begin sometime next year, she said, but first she wants to take time off to be with her family, which soon will include six grandchildren. She is married to Neil Senturia, CEO of Deckard Technologies and Blackbird Ventures.
Bry said there have been other times in her life when things didn’t work out — she mentioned her first marriage — but “when something hasn’t worked out, another door opened.”
“I want to be a voice for our neighborhoods,” she concluded.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com