UPDATED: Lightner to face Ellis for city council seat; Peters to square off against Bilbray in 52nd Dist. congressional race
Though a sitting city council member has not lost a bid for reelection in 20 years, the advantage of incumbency was not enough to produce an outright win or lead for Lightner, who fell behind Ellis at the polls Tuesday evening. As of Wednesday morning, June 6, Ellis was ahead with 45.54 percent of the vote to Lightner’s 41.63 percent. Attorney Bryan Pease (D) and Torrey Pines Planning Board chairman Dennis Ridz (R) trailed behind with 7.22 percent and 5.60 percent respectively (votes that could go to Lightner or Ellis in the November election).
Speaking with the
La La Light
Wednesday afternoon, Lighter said she was “proud of the positive campaign I ran.”“I have a lot of very powerful volunteers and great supporters and contributors and I look forward to the race going forward. I hope that we can clean it up a little bit in the future ... get rid of the negative mailpieces, that would be very helpful, let’s discuss the issues.”
Lightner said she will forge on to the General Election using the same strategy. “That’s to run on my record,” she said.
Unless Ellis or Lightner tops 50 percent of the vote in late results on Wednesday — an unlikely scenario — they will square off in the General Election on Nov. 6.
An Ellis victory would give the Republican Party its first opportunity in years to control the City Council, as
La Jolla Light
media partnerVoice of San Diego
reports.Mayor’s race
Republican City Councilman Carl DeMaio and Democratic Congressman Bob Filner are headed for a November runoff as the top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s primary election for the job of San Diego mayor. Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher came in a close third, while District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis trailed in fourth.DeMaio is a conservative Republican and Filner is a liberal Democrat. Though the mayor’s race is ostensibly nonpartisan, pundits predict a classic left-versus-right battle for votes in November.
Congress 52nd District
In the newly redrawn 52nd congressional district, incumbent Rep. Brian Bilbray (R) will be heading to a runoff against Port Commissioner Scott Peters, who narrowly edged out fellow Democrat and former state Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña, garnering 22.72 percent of the vote to Saldaña’s 21.94 percent.Speaking with the
La Jolla Light
Wednesday afternoon, Saldaña said her campaign office was littered with empty energy drink bottles.“We may have been outspent, but never outworked,” she said. “Our volunteers worked their hearts out.”
Bilbray said it was exciting to see how close the race was for his challengers.
“There was a lot of people who wanted us to spend more money but, frankly, we’re looking at the November race,” Bilbray told television station KUSI. The district was shifted from being oriented along the North County coastline toward inland areas as far east as Poway. District boundaries are adjusted every 10 years, according to fresh U.S. census data.
78th Assembly District
In the newly redrawn 78th state Assembly district, which includes La Jolla, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Coronado and Imperial Beach, former San Diego City Council member Toni Atkins (D) sailed to victory over Republican opponents Ralph Denney and Robert E. Williams, garnering nearly 60 percent of the vote.Here is how some of the leading propositions fared on Tuesday:
Prop 29, tax on cigarettes
No: 52.43 percentYes: 48.57 percent
Prop 28, term limits
Yes: 61.3 percentNo: 38.7 percent
Prop A, Project labor agreements
Yes: 58.23 percentNo: 41.77 percent
Prop B, change/amend retirement benefits
Yes: 66.19 percentNo: 33.81 percent