By Miriam Raftery

 June 17, 2018 (Santee) – Activists in Santee are spending Father’s Day  gathering signatures on two petitions on issues impacting Santee and Mission Trails Regional Park areas.   

 The first aims to put the Santee General Plan Initiative on the ballot to require voter approval of development projects larger than the general plan currently allows.  The second calls on the California Public Utilities Commission to halt SDG&E’s proposed gas pipeline. Click links in this paragraph to read ECM’s prior articles on these issues.  Below are details on where you can find petition gathers and rallies: 

Does photo released by Germany’s Chancellor show a bold president standing up for U.S. interests, or a petulant outsider betraying America’s strongest allies and being scolded by a powerful woman leader?  It all depends on your perspective.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Jesco Denzel, posted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel via Instagram

June 12, 2018 (Berlin) – Hours after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced at a news conference that leaders of all seven nations at the G-7 summit signed a communique agreeing on a broad range of economic and foreign policy goals, a statement affirmed other allied leaders, President Donald Trump sent tweets aboard Air Force One blasting apart the reputed deal. Trump accused Trudeau of “false statements” and said he has instructed Congress “not to endorse the Communique.”

Further frustrating allies, Trump also called for Russia to be readmitted to the G-7. Russia was kicked out for its backing of the Crimean invasion, a violating of international law, the New York Times reports.

By Miriam Raftery

June 8, 2018 (San Diego) – Superior Court Judge Gary Kreep, who was censured for 29 counts of judicial misconduct, failed to win reelection outright, earning only 31.5% of the vote – far short needed for a majority.  He will enter a run-off race in November against Deputy District Attorney Matt Brower, also a judge advocate in the military, who earned 21.7% of the vote in the five-man race.

Brower is rated as qualified by the County Bar Association, which rated Kreep as lacking qualifications.

By Miriam Raftery

June 8, 2018 (Sacramento) – Republican fears of being shut-out of the gubernatorial race in California did not come to pass. The November run-off election will pit Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, against John Cox, a Republican businessman. 

The two have dramatically different visions for California's future, giving voters a clear choice.  Having a Republican on the top of the ticket is also expected to help the GOP with turnout in November, a factor that could help the party's down-ticket race candidates as well in California, a state dominated by Democrats who currently hold every statewide office and control both houses of the Legislature.

By Ken Stone, credit to Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  Diane Harkey (left) with a supporter at Golden Hall in downtown San Diego. Photo by Chris Stone

June 6, 2018 (San Diego) - In a race Democrats are eager to win to increase their strength in Washington, Republican Diane Harkey grabbed the lead Tuesday evening in the battle to replace retiring Rep. Darrell Issa, but a Democrat appears bound to challenge her in the November runoff.

By Miriam Raftery

June 6, 2018 (San Diego) – California voters, by strong margins, approved four ballot initiatives on yesterday’s ballot, with only Prop 70 failing to win passage.

Update June 6, 2018 -- With 100% of precicnts counted and only late mail-in and provisionals remaining, Munoz is up with 56.73% over Lund with 43.07%.

By Miriam Raftery and Jonathan Goetz; photo by Jonathan Goetz

June 5, 2016 (San Diego's East County) -- Incumbent County Board of Education member Alicia Munoz has fended off a challenge by East County Chamber of Commerce president and community college instructor Eric Lund.  Munoz, who had heavy backing from the American Federation of Teachers, has 57.46% of the vote over Lund's 42.34%, with 20% of precincts reported.

"It's been a good learning experience. This is my first time running and I'll be more prepared next time," Lund told East County Magazine.

 By Miriam Raftery

Jonathan Goetz contributed to this report.

 June 6, 2018 (San Diego) – District Attorney Summer Stephans and Sheriff Bill Gore looks likely to win reelection. 

With 15.3% of votes counted, she has over two-thirds of the votes at 64.53%.  Challenger Genevieve Jones-Wright, a progressive Democrat, has only 35.32% of the vote.

Sheriff Gore has 57.2% of the vote vs. Dave Myers, a Democratic Challenger from within Gore's own department, who has 42.6%. 

Update June 6, 2018 -- Across both San Diego and Riverside County, with 100% of precincts tallied but not late mail-in or provisional ballots, according to the Califiornia Secretary of State the results are:  Randy Voepel 44.5%,  James Elia 31.3%, and Larry Wilske 24.2%.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo by Jonathan Goetz, who also contributed to this report

June 5, 2018 (San Diego's East County) -- In the 71st Assembly district held by  Republican Randy Voepel, with 15.3% of precincts counted, Voepel is on top in San Diego County with 44.13% but Democratic challenger James Elia is in second with 32.2% of the vote among the roughly 34,000 ballots tallied so far. 

Republican challenger Larry Wilske, a retired Navy Seal, had attacked Voepel with accusation of stolen valor, claiming Voepel inflated his military record.

In conservative Riverside County, which has a small percentage of voters, Wilske is actually ahead of the incumbent. Among Riverside's roughly 3,000 votes counted thus far, Wilske has 35.26%, followed by  Elia at 33.17%, and Voepel at just 31.57%. Voepel has strongest name recognition in East County, where he formerly served as mayor of Santee.

"We laid it all on the line, we've knocked on as many doors as we can and we look forward to the end of the night and we're confident we're going to November," Elia, an accountant, said tonight.

June 5, 2018 (San Diego) -- On election night, we all want to know who won what race and which proposition passed – and as soon as possible! But the June 5 gubernatorial primary election results may take a little while to come in. Here’s why.

• A high number of registered voters: San Diego County has over 1.69 million registered voters.
• 1,444 polling places across the county.
• More mail ballots than ever before were issued by the Registrar’s office, over 1.1 million.
  

East County News Service

June 3, 2018 (San Diego) - Countywide elections are Tuesday and the San Diego Democratic and Republican parties have announced their endorsements below:

http://www.sddemocrats.org/sites/sdcdp/files/pdf/Endorsements_Flyer_P201...

http://www.sandiegorepublicans.org/endorsements.html

East County News Service

June 1, 2018 (Sacramento) -- Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. yesterday signed SB 606 by Senator Robert Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) and AB 1668 by Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) to help the state better prepare for droughts and climate change by establishing statewide water efficiency standards.

By Tracy DeFore, County of San Diego Communications Office

June 1, 2018 (San Diego) - If you want to vote in the June 5 gubernatorial primary election, but your tight schedule won’t allow you to visit your polling place Tuesday, take advantage of weekend voting hours at the Registrar of Voters office in Kearny Mesa.

By Miriam Raftery

May 31, 2018 (San Diego) – Matt Brower, candidate for Superior Court Judge in seat 37, sat down for an in-depth interview with East County Magazine on KNSJ radio. He’s a deputy district attorney and a judge advocate in the Marne Corps Reserve running for San DIego Superior Court seat 37.

He says if elected, he will “be focused on a daily basis with treating all people with professionalism, dignity and respect.”

He’s running against incumbent Judge Gary Kreep, who was censured by the State Commission on Judicial Performance for 29 counts on judicial misconduct and running his courtroom in a biased manner, making derogatory comments about minorities, women attorneys, and people with cases before him.

Listen to his full interview at the audio link, or scroll down for highlights.

Hear our interviews with 4 candidates in the race on their immigration views

By Miriam Raftery

May 30, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – A campaign mailer sent by 50^th Congressional candidate Josh Butner, a Republican-turned-Democrat, to voters contained false smears against his opponent, Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar.  KPBS reports that Butner’s mailer distorted Campa-Najjar’s stances on immigration, falsely claiming he’s defended Trump’s Muslim ban.

It also has a photo taken before Donald Trump’s presidency, when Campa-Najjar says was working with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, to falsely position Campa-Najjar as a Trump supporter when in fact, he has been a vocal opponent of a wide range of Trump’s policies.