The San Diego City Council chambers. Unofficial returns a few days after the Nov. 3 election showed new faces leading in three of the four seats on the ballot. Photo: Bengt Nyman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Unofficial returns a few days after the Nov. 3 election showed new faces leading in three of the four San Diego City Council seats on the ballot, and incumbent Kent Lee well ahead in the fourth, according to figures reported by NBC 7 San Diego in a Nov. 6 City News Service update. In District 4, which covers southeastern San Diego, political newcomer Martha Abraham led incumbent Henry Foster III, 20,166 votes to 17,871, or 53.02 percent to 46.98 percent. In District 2, Nicole Crosby led former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey, 32,676 to 24,818, or 56.83 percent to 43.17 percent. Lee led Mark Powell in District 6, 17,805 to 11,769, or 60.2 percent to 39.8 percent, NBC 7 said, citing the county Registrar of Voters.
Bailey, a Republican who changed his registration in February and ran as no party preference, had won the June primary with 35 percent, about a point ahead of Crosby, NBC 7 reported. The two Democrats in that primary, Crosby and Josh Coyne, together received about 47 percent. Abraham, a nurse and housing activist, has presented her distance from City Hall as an advantage and has said she would bring a public-health view to planning, especially in a historically Black and underfunded district, the station reported. Voice of San Diego, in a Nov. 9 account carried by KPBS, said Abraham’s lead over Foster was 1,617 votes as of Thursday night, which matches the NBC 7 margin, and that thousands of District 4 ballots were still uncounted.
In District 8, which includes San Ysidro, Barrio Logan, Sherman Heights and Grant Hill, Voice of San Diego said Antonio Martinez held a 2,880-vote lead over Gerardo Ramirez in the race to succeed termed-out Councilmember Vivian Moreno. NBC 7 published additional vote totals in its Nov. 6 update that were not clearly labeled by district in the text, so those figures are not used here. All of the numbers remain unofficial until the Registrar of Voters certifies the election.
A lead of a few thousand votes can shrink as late mail and provisional ballots are added, which is why Abraham’s District 4 race was still being watched after election night. Lee’s margin in District 6 was wider. Crosby, Abraham and Martinez, if their leads hold, would join a council that already voted this fall on Midway Rising and a data-center moratorium and that still has a Flock camera contract on its calendar.
