By Macy Meinhardt, Voice & Viewpoint Staff Writer
Early reports indicate that District 4 City Council candidate Henry Foster III has commanded the position for the Special Election District 4 seat, garnering over 53% of the vote based on early poll calculations. As of print time, candidate Chida Warren-Darby follows behind at 27%.
Early poll indications are based on mail ballots received before Election Day, as well as vote center ballots from early voting between Feb. 24 – March 4. Throughout the county, 1.9 million ballots were sent out, and as of March 4, 360,000 of those had been returned.
This race for Southeastern leadership is described to be “consequential” as Foster holds the potential to influence the balance of power among various factions within the democratic City Council. As former Chief of Staff to Supervisor Monica Montgomery-Steppe, Foster has been incredibly critical of the mayor on his campaign trail, and advocates against the strong mayor form of government San Diego is currently in.
“I am grateful for the experience, I am grateful for the support, our district needs a lot of prayers and a lot of work,” said first runner up Warren-Darby during her campaign watch party at the George L. Stevens Center.
Meanwhile, for the 79th District Assembly seat a runoff is likely to come into play since neither of the three candidates accumulated 50% of the vote. However, La Mesa City Councilmember Colin Parent is taking the early lead at 40%, followed by Mayor of Lemon Grove Racquel Vasquez at 31%. Lashae Sharp-Collins sits in last at 27%.
What is a runoff election? A runoff election is a second election between the top two candidates when no candidate meets the criteria for winning in the first election.
For the state senator position in District 39, former Assemblymember Akilah Weber takes the lead securing over 59% of the vote, followed by Bob Divine at 40%.
The race for United States senator has fluctuated during the early poll counting hours, and the race will also finish in a November runoff. As of print time, Republican nominee and former Dodgers Baseball Player Steve Garvey takes first place at 38%, followed by Democratic candidate Adam Schiff at 28%. Katie Porter is in third at 16% and Barbara Lee at 8%.
In the San Diego region, over 1.9 million residents are registered voters. Turnout numbers so far are projected at 22% with 425,572 ballots being already counted.
This primary election, two measures were put on the ballot for voters to select yes or no from–Prop. 1 and Measure A. Spearheaded by Governor Gavin Newsom, Prop. 1 is a $6.4 billion tax initiative that addresses mental health and homelessness by taxing incomes over $1 million to build treatment facilities and permanent supportive housing for mental health and substance abuse treatment.
“Proposition 1 will TRANSFORM our mental health system. It will help those living on our streets to get the care they need. It will provide $1 billion to help our veterans. It will fund more mental health care workers. It’s a game changer,” said Gov. Newsom in a recent social media post supporting the measure.
Although Blacks in San Diego comprise 5% of the county’s population they are overrepresented among the homeless population. A study by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness found in 2022, Black San Diegans made up 28% of the homeless population.
Furthermore, “The drug-induced death rates among Blacks in California is also relatively high at 28.3% as compared to 23.2% among Whites and 11.1% among Latinos,” according to a study by the National Institute of Health.
As of 7 A.M. on March 6, the vote for the initiative is rearing a cross split; 50% of California voters have said yes whereas 49.7% have voted no.
Measure A on the ballot, would authorize the office of the City Auditor, which is currently overseen by the City Attorney’s office, to authorize the Auditor and the cities Audit Committee to source outside legal counsel instead. So far 66% of voters have votes yes, and 33.7% have voted no.
Below is a list of how other races in the San Diego region are turning out.
- City of San Diego City Attorney: Heather Ferbert 52%, Brian Maienschein 47%.
- City of San Diego Mayoral race. Todd Gloria, incumbent, at 50%, Larry Turney 24%, and Geneviéve L. Jones Wright 14%.
- City of San Diego City Council District 9 Race, Sean Elo-Rivera, incumbent, 47%, Terry Hoskins, 33%, and Fernando Garcia 18%.
- City of San Diego City Council District 3 Race, Stephen Whitburn, incumbent, 54%, Coleen Cusack, 18%, Kate Callen 17%, and Ellis T. California Jones, 9%
