Opinion: 2020 San Diego Election Explained
On November 3, the city of San Diego’s election had a variety of offices up for election, including state assembly seats, city council seats, and the mayoral office of San Diego. Once all of the winners were named, there were various new and recurring faces in local governments across California.
Todd Gloria was elected as the mayor of San Diego, making him the first openly gay person to be elected in this positon. He was publicly endorsed by Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom. Coming from a lower socioeconomic status, Gloria believes he understands how to help all San Diegans and has vowed to do so. Gloria presents traditionally democratic ideals, as he plans to combat climate change, gun violence, and racial injustice. As per Gloria’s website, the issue he finds most pressing is the homelessness epidemic ravaging California and San Diego. Gloria believes that San Diego cannot truly be “America’s Finest City” while it does not spend adequate time helping its large unhoused population. He aims to focus more on permanent housing solutions rather than the temporary solutions of tents and shelter we have today.
A common theme of Gloria’s is his desire to be aggressive. Whether it is in his housing plan or climate action, he states that he wants results and doing so requires an aggressive approach. When asked about Gloria’s aggressive ideas, a local voter, Matthew Wightlin, said that he is “excited to see what happens because plans for the future have been moving very slowly in San Diego.” Gloria shares a similar view when he states that there is a clock on how long we have to combat climate change before it is irreversible.
Brian Mainenschien was also re-elected to California’s 77th State Assembly District, marking his fourth time being re-elected to the state assembly. In 2019, Maienschein switched parties from Republican to Democrat in 2019. When asked about Maienschein’s party switch, Wightlin stated, “His change could seem a bit opportunistic.” However, Wightlin believes that it is not possible to tell what Maienschein’s party switch means for his political career until he shows what changes he makes as a Democrat. That is, if Maienschein sticks to his more recent progressive ideas, or if he goes back to the ideals of his former party.
According to Maienschein’s website, he is pro-choice and has received accolades from Planned Parenthood. He is also concerned with mental health, specifically that of mothers, and wrote legislation while in the state assembly that requires pregnant women to be screened for mental health problems. Similar to Todd Gloria, Maienschein has worked to end homelessness and was San Diego’s first Commissioner of Homelessness where he helped reduce the number of unhoused people in San Diego.
Another popular topic on the ballot was the highly controversial Proposition 16. Prop 16, also known as the Affirmative Action Amendment, would repeal an amendment made to the California constitution in 1996 that stated race and sex cannot be a factor in decision making in public university acceptances and workplace admissions. Prop. 16 did not pass and there will be no changes to Affirmative Action. There has been a strong difference of opinions across California as to what the proposition means for the state. While some view it as discriminatory, Prop. 16’s proponents view it as equity. Those against the proposition believe that neither race nor sex should play a part in decision making, whereas those who view it as equitable want to acknowledge that it could benefit certain races and sexes with less socioeconomic privledges than others.
With new elected officials like Todd Gloria and other returning representatives such as Brain Maienschein, San Diegans can expect to see many changes in how the city handles issues like homelessness, women’s rights, and climate change.