By Miriam Raftery

November 6, 2024 (Lemon Grove) – Sitivi “Steve” Faia has pulled ahead of Councilman George Gastil in the Lemon Grove City Council race, where four candidates are vying for two seats.  Jessyka Heredia remains in the lead with 28.86% of the votes counted, followed by Faia, a youth sports coach, with 25.40% and 2,410 votes. Gastil, at 25.16% trails Faia by just 23 votes, leaving open the potential for yet another shift as more votes are tallied.

Planning Commission Chair Seth Smith is in fourth place with 20.58% and 1,952 votes.

East County News Service

November 6, 2024 (Sacramento) – Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, who led impeachment efforts against Donald Trump, is poised to defeat former baseball player Steve Garvey, a Republican, to represent California in the U.S. Senate.

Shiff has nearly 60% of the votes, with over half of all votes counted statewide, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.

By Miriam Raftery

November 5, 2024 (El  Cajon) – All three incumbent El Cajon City Councilmembers have won reelection.  Councilmembers Michelle Metschel and Phil Ortiz ran unopposed.  Councilmember Steve Goble has more than twice as many votes as his opponent, Courtney Hall, 69.64% to 30.36%.

East County News Service

November 5, 2024 (Santee) – Santee Mayor John Minto has won reelection over challenger Kelli O’Brien, with 79.39% of the votes tallied thus far.  Councilman Dustin Trotter appears cruising to victory over Padre Dam Water Board member Augie Scalzitti, with 61.85%.  Laura Koval has also been reelected, running unopposed.

By Miriam Raftery

November 5, 2024 (Lemon Grove) – Councilmember Alysson Snow may be poised to oust incumbent Mayor Racquel Vasquez in Lemon Grove, if early election returns hold. With 855, 948 ballots counted out of the county’s 1,983,767 registered voters, Snow has 41.27%,  Vasquez 30.34%, and Councilmember Liana LeBaron  28.39%.

East County News Service

November 5, 2024 (San Diego’s East County) – With 844,948 ballots counted out of 1.9 million registered voters in the county, Akilah Weber, a Democrat, appears breezing to a win in the 39^th State Senate district with 61.53% of the votes over Republican Bob Divine at 38.47%. 

View video of full interview,  hear audio,  or scroll down for highlights

East County News Service

November 2, 2024 (San Diego’s East County) – Stephen Houlahan is a former Santee City Councilman and registered nurse who led successful effforts to block a dangerous liquified natural gas pipeline through the 48^th Congressional district that he is now running to represent.  That seat is currently occupied by Rep. Darrell Issa. The contrast is dramatic—and Houlahan says he’s running to restore freedoms, protect our democracy, and bring home federal dollars to underground power lines that have sparked wildfires and caused insurance rates to skyrocket.

The contrast couldn’t be more clear.

• Issa voted against certifying the 2020 election results and opposed efforts to investigate the Capitol insurrection.  Houlahan says a peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of democracy, and has won endorsement from National Security Leaders of America, a bipartisan group of retired military leaders and cabinet officers.
• Issa is coauthor of a bill to outlaw abortion nationwide, with no exceptions even to save a mother’s life.  Houlahan wants to restore women’s reproductive freedoms taken away when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
• Issa voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Houlahan wants to fight to bring home infrastructure dollars to improve storm drainage infrastructure, repair the dangerous El Capitan dam, and improve fire safety.
• Issa has opposed clean energy investment.  Houlahan  backs rebuilding the energy grid, including undergrounding power lines to protect our backcountry.
• Issa voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Houlahan wants to protect it and expand Medicare to cover those 55 and up, also adding a MediKids program to cover 4 million uninsured children.
• Issa, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, has been accused of corruption including most recently failing to timely report hundreds of thousands of dollars in treasury bonds, a potential violation of the Stock Act.  Houlahan says he will stand against corruption and for transparency, calling for tougher penalties on insider trading by members of Congress and a need for honest leadership.

In an exclusive interview with East County Magazine also aired on KNSJ radio,  Houlahan also shared his views on the economy and inflation, immigration and border security NATO, the Israel-Gaza conflict,  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and more.

By Sammie Ann Wicks

November 1, 2024 (San Diego) --The voting public on Tuesday will again weigh in on the housing crisis, as homeless advocates and the real estate industry go head-to- head over a new rent control proposal, Proposition 33. If passed, the measure could change the current housing scenario in California drastically.  While the measure does not mandate rent control, it would enable local cities or counties to enact restrictions on rental rates.

By Brooke Binkowski, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo: Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Labor Foundation, AFL-CIO, speaks while flanked by Democratic and Republican local leaders.

October 31, 2024 (San Diego) -  Saying he lacks ethics and integrity, local elected officials and community leaders gathered in Scripps Ranch Wednesday to offer an “anti-endorsement” of far-right Republican candidate and AM radio personality Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego City Council member and two-time congressional candidate.

Slashing federal disaster relief, privatizing public education, politicizing federal agencies, gutting intelligence bureaus, stripping away rights of protected groups, and ending climate change actions are among the proposals detailed in Project 2025

By Miriam Raftery

October 7, 2024 (Washington D.C.) -- Project 2025 is an 887-page blueprint for a second Trump administration, according to its authors. Trump has alternately praised it, claimed never to have read it, and said he disagrees with parts of it; he has denied knowing its authors, even though those authors include 140 top officials and advisors from Trump’s first presidential term, some of whom wrote entire chapters.

ECM has reviewed the entire document and provides this analysis of its most controversial provisions, in summary and detail. Some page citations are provided; citations are available on request for every fact cited.

Project 2025’s  stated mission is to restore family as centerpiece of American life, “dismantle the administrative state” (p 3), defend our nation’s sovereignty and borders against global threats, and secure ”God given individual rights to live freely.”  But if fully implemented, it would dismantle many branches of our federal government, politicize every federal agency,  threaten  our democracy and take away many rights and protections for women, minorities, the LGBTQ community, and our environment.

SUMMARY

Some of its most polarizing proposals include:

Shutting down and privatizing agencies: It aims to close down entirely agencies ranging from the Department of Education (p. 285) to  the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service (p 664) which could charge for weather reports and warnings, also privatizing FEMA  (p. 135), the Federal Emergency Management Agency that provides aid to victims of wildfires, floods and other disasters, privatizing Small Business Administration disaster loans, and privatizing National Flood Insurance. The Transportation and Security Administration, or TSA which was set up to protect us from terrorists after 911 including airport screenings, would be privatized as well. 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left:  Screenshot of Trump at rally in Aurora,Colorado Friday where he threatened violence and military retribution against his enemies in America

October 16, 2024 – Alarm bells are being sounded by former generals who served under Trump, who warn that his increasing threats of violence and retribution against political enemies and journalists are “fascist,”  as is his stated admiration for Adolf Hitler's generals.

Trump told Fox News this week that he would order the National Guard and “if really necessary, the military” to go after “enemies within” on American soil if he is reelected, ABC reports.

He has frequently used the “enemies within” description for his political opponents such as Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the impeachment hearing against Trump. Trump has repeatedly threatened retribution against his political enemies, including charging retired generals who have criticized him with treason.

In addition, he has threatened journalists and major news outlets, called for arrest by the military of anyone he deems “radical left lunatics,” aims to build camps to detain tens of millions of immigrants. He has also called for a “single day of violence” to curtail crime, said he would use force to quell protests against him if he wins the election and said Jews will be to blame if he loses.

By Miriam Raftery

October 13, 2024 (San Diego) – Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, a Democrat, and El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells, a Republican, gave sharply divergent responses on a host of issues during a 51^st Congressional District candidate forum. The event, held at Temple Emanuel last week, was moderated by CBS 8 journalist Heather Myers with questions posed by the audience, plus in a twist, one question posed by each candidate to their opponent.

Wells sought to blame Democrats’ “radical left” policies  for problems ranging from inflation to rising homelessness and crime,  repeatedly criticizing immigrants while downplaying concerns over abortion. Jacobs sought to portray Wells as out of touch with women’s concerns over losing their reproductive freedoms if Republicans ban abortion at the national level and she denounced immigrant bashing as “dangerous” to Jews as well as immigrants.

Both voiced strong support for the Israeli people, but differed sharply in their views on how to defuse tensions and violence across the Mideast.  Wells chided Jacobs for focusing more on reproductive freedoms than economic issues, while Jacobs slammed Wells’ refusal to acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. She fired back that such “lies” led to the Capitol attack in which insurrections wearing “team Auschwitz” t-shirts burst into the House Chamber moments before Jacobs, a Jew, was evacuated.“

October 10, 2024 (Lemon Grove) – East County Magazine will host two candidate forums tonight on Zoom.  The Lemon Grove mayoral  candidates’ forum will begin at 6 p.m., followed by the Lemon Grove City Council candidates’ forum  at 7 p.m.

You can watch live on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EastCountyMagazine/.  The forum will also be posted later on our homepage at https://www.eastcountymagazine.org.

All candidates have agreed to participate.

Read full transcript of Vice Presidential debate

View Video of Full Debate

By: Rachel Williams & Miriam Raftery

Vance refuses to pledge to certify election results in a future presidential election, even if all 50 governors submit certified results.

October 6, 2024 (New York City, NY) — Senator JD Vance and Governor Tim Walz maintained a tone of civility during Oct. 1’s demure debate at the CBS Broadcast Center’s historic studio 45 on October 1, a sharp contrast from the contentious presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Polls show a stalemate, with neither VP candidate a clear winner.