Posted on 07/27/2005 11:30:24 AM PDT by calcowgirl
SAN DIEGO – Councilwoman Donna Frye, the surfboard shop owner who nearly captured the Mayor's Office with an improbable write-in campaign last year, moved a step closer to the prize Tuesday as she easily outdistanced a field of 10 other candidates in the special mayoral election.
But Frye fell short of getting a majority of the votes cast to win outright and will face a Nov. 8 runoff with former Police Chief Jerry Sanders.
Although Sanders' lead over businessman Steve Francis was a modest one, it held steady as the returns piled up, and Francis never gained significant ground on second place.
Three other candidates who received considerable attention during the campaign – attorney Pat Shea, taxpayer advocate Richard Rider and motorcycle dealer Myke Shelby – finished far out of the running.
Bolstered by a strong absentee vote, the turnout appeared to approach 40 percent of the city's registered voters.
The eventual winner will replace former Mayor Dick Murphy, who resigned and left office July 15, seven months into his second term, and will inherit a city besieged by financial turmoil and ethical scandals.
An ecstatic Frye reveled in her solid showing Tuesday night at Election Central at the Westgate Hotel.
"I'm thrilled. I'm excited. Thank you, San Diego. Thank you, all my supporters," she said. "We have had hundreds, if not thousands, of volunteers out on the streets that have been working the last 24 hours straight. It's been terrific."
Although Frye had appealed to voters Tuesday to deliver her an outright victory, she said she wasn't disappointed and was looking forward to the runoff campaign.
"Whatever happens, however the numbers play out, I'm ready for it," she said. "Obviously, you always hope that we could get this done tonight. But hey, I am thrilled."
Sanders stopped short of staking a formal claim to a runoff spot as he addressed supporters at his campaign headquarters near Balboa Park.
"I'm confident that I'll be in the runoff in November, and I thank all of you," he said.
The former police chief said he believed his resume of turning around troubled organizations helped secure his strong showing in Tuesday's election and would serve him well in the runoff.
"The issue in the runoff is who has the experience to really fix these problems," Sanders said.
Francis refused to concede defeat until nearly all of the votes were in as he clung to the faint hope that there were enough conservative precincts yet to be heard from to nudge him ahead of Sanders.
Finally, he called Sanders to congratulate him.
"I think you did a great job, and I just want to tell you that," Francis told Sanders. "I think I helped shape the debate, and you did, too. You've accomplished a lot in your life, and this is one more great accomplishment."
Francis said he had no regrets about spending $2 million of his own money in a losing cause.
"I have no regrets about the money we spent because I was able to get my message out," he said. "I plan to stay involved."
He did not say whether he planned to endorse fellow Republican Sanders.
A short time later, Frye visited Francis' campaign room at the Westgate Hotel to congratulate him on waging a spirited campaign.
Frye, a Democrat, was asked if she planned to seek Francis' endorsement. "I will ask and then I'll move on," she replied.
The unusual midsummer special election came at a time when the place that calls itself "America's Finest City" is beset with financial, legal and ethical woes and City Hall is operating at much less than full strength. The election was called after Murphy, San Diego's 33rd mayor, announced in April that he would resign.
Murphy, a former judge, had become hobbled by a financial crisis fueled by a massive pension deficit, estimated at $1.4 billion or more, that sparked multiple federal investigations of City Hall and focused a national media spotlight on the city.
The city's credit rating was suspended by Standard & Poor's in September 2004 because of missing audits of the city's books for 2003 and 2004. Another rating agency dropped the city to little more than junk-bond status. As a result, the city has been unable to sell bonds for new fire stations and an upgraded wastewater system mandated by the federal government.
The fiscal crisis has affected average residents in numerous ways, as the city has been unable to repair thousands of potholes created by the winter storms. Money has also been slashed for parks, libraries and after-school programs.
And the problems aren't all financial.
The city got another black eye last week with the convictions of Councilmen Ralph Inzunza and Michael Zucchet on federal corruption charges involving a scheme to loosen strip-club regulations in return for money.
The resignations dropped the City Council down to six members – meaning there's only one more than the five votes required to act on anything.
The campaign to replace Murphy was a largely civilized race by political-campaign standards, as an amiable band of six major candidates engaged in debates and forums around the city on a nearly daily basis.
Frye jumped into the race shortly after Murphy announced his resignation, finding herself running for mayor only about six months after nearly winning the office as a write-in candidate in the disputed November 2004 election.
Frye's rivals tacitly conceded first place to her, rolling the dice that she would be unable to clear the 50 percent mark and that one of them would get a second chance at her in a November runoff election.
Only during the final week or so of the campaign were some elbows thrown, as Francis and Sanders jockeyed for second place.
A second tier of candidates appeared at the multiple events with the top three.
Shea vowed to have San Diego file for protection under Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy code, reserved for troubled municipalities. He played a key role in the reorganization that followed Orange County's 1994 bankruptcy filing and said the process, while controversial, would be the quickest way for San Diego to overcome its many fiscal and legal problems.
Rider, a Libertarian Party stalwart, vowed broad privatization of city services, saying only the Police Department would be substantially immune to being farmed out to the private sector.
Shelby focused much of his time on the campaign trail speaking in favor of saving the Mount Soledad cross and tightening the U.S.-Mexico border against illegal immigration.
It was Frye who had the largest and most loyal following, owing to her ties both to organized labor and the environmental movement and her stunning showing in last year's election, which left many of her supporters convinced she had been robbed.
The courts handed the 2004 victory to Murphy after tossing out more than 5,500 ballots that had Frye's name written on them, but without the corresponding bubble filled in as required by state law.
Had those ballots been counted for Frye, she would have won.
Frye vowed to make San Diego's city government the most open and ethical in the nation.
Unlike the 2004 contest, when she promised open government but little else, Frye produced a financial plan as well as a blueprint for what a Frye administration would look like.
Sanders cast himself as a turnaround specialist who had put the Police Department in closer touch with the community and who later repaired the local United Way and Red Cross chapters.
Francis, executive chairman of AMN Healthcare, a publicly traded company that supplies temporary nursing services, dipped into his considerable personal fortune to finance a campaign that vaulted him to prominence from a starting point as an unknown.
A former Nevada legislator, Francis spent roughly $2 million of his own money, shattering personal spending records for San Diego mayoral contests.
Much of his spending went to a wave of television advertising and to a large campaign staff that included political strategists to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Gov. Pete Wilson.
Francis said San Diego needed a corporate executive as mayor and built his message around firm promises of no new taxes or bankruptcy.
Sanders, his campaign vastly underfunded in comparison, relied heavily on news conferences spread out over many weeks to get his message out.
He called for eliminating layers of middle management at City Hall and instituting a new code of ethics.
Sanders also said he would get union leaders to the bargaining table to renegotiate benefits, something leaders of the Municipal Employees Association, City Hall's largest union, said wouldn't happen.
Unofficial results. Updated at 12:28:46 a.m. on 07-27-05. MAYOR - UNEXPIRED TERM 721 of 721 precincts – 100.0 percent DONNA FRYE 104872 43.32% JERRY SANDERS 65399 27.01% STEVE FRANCIS 56887 23.50% PAT SHEA 5720 2.36% RICHARD RIDER 3756 1.55% MYKE SHELBY 3533 1.46% SHAWN A. MC MILLAN 561 0.23% JIM BELL 473 0.20% ED KOLKER 415 0.17% JEREMY LEDFORD 378 0.16% THOMAS KNAPP 98 0.04% PROP A - Mt. Soledad Veteran Memorial Property (REQ 2/3) 721 of 721 precincts – 100.0 percent YES 179820 75.90% NO 57107 24.10% There are approximately 24300 Absentee / Provisional ballots still to be counted.
>>Now, if Francis will come to his senses and endorse Sanders...
Any indication whether he will or not?
Yeah, sure. She plays dumb or outright lies when questioned about union financing of her campaigns. How open and ethical is that?
As "insiders", her and Sanders were the two worst choices. I don't think much is going to change until someone stands up to the public unions and I don't think either of these two will.
"As "insiders", her and Sanders were the two worst choices."
Sanders was never elected to public office, and he was an OK police chief.
The really good news is that Proposition A won with 76% of the vote. Three out of four voters in San Diego believe that the placement of a cross and other religious symbols on public land does not violate the Establishment Clause. Methinks it may be time to start the process of amending the Constitution to make it clear to the Supremes that the Founders were concerned about a state church and did not intend to create a society in which government could not support religious belief in any way.
It is impressive considering 43% of those voters were democrats that voted for keeping the cross. Maybe there is hope for dem yet as long as they stay away from Durban, Dean and Boxer.
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