Source:  Indi Squared

Photo:  Indi Squared Canvass Kickoff, Escondido CA  9/2/18

November 16, 2018 (Escondido) -- Just as Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke is being credited with the “Beto Effect” – a massive voter turnout that lifted down-ballot Democrats to victory in Congress and the Texas legislature – a similar, if smaller, dynamic may be taking place in CA50.

Extraordinary voter outreach on behalf of congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar exceeded any effort on behalf of a Democratic campaign in CA50 history. While ballots are still being counted at the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, with 92,873 votes, Campa-Najjar has more than doubled the vote for Duncan Hunter’s last midterm challenger, James Kimber, who received 45,302 votes in 2014, according to Ballotpedia.

By Miriam Raftery

November 14, 2018 (Sacramento) – A key statewide race has flipped, with the counting of late mail-in and provisional ballots. Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, a social worker, has pulled ahead in the State Superintendent race. Thurmond now leads over Marshall Tuck by around 74,000 votes and a full percentage point.  

By Buck Schott

November 5, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – On Election Eve, here are a few last-minute signs of the times:

Stealing or defacing campaign signs is illegal. But in Santee, someone has found a creative way to augment info for voters by adding their own message underneath Congressman Duncan Hunter’s signs (left).

By Miriam Raftery

View Kendrick Schedule A contributions report

View Kalasho Schedule A contributions report

October 30, 2018 (El Cajon) – Council Ben Kalasho has raised $10,259.77 for the reporting period ending October 20^th, and 100% of that was donated by  Kalasho, who lists no other donors to his campaign. By contrast, his opponent, Councilman Gary Kendrick, has raised $23,170 this reporting period.  For the campaign to date, Kendrick has raised over $46,000 while Kalasho has received $22,200 total, according to reports filed with the city of El Cajon.

By Tracy DeFore, County of San Diego Communications Office

October 23, 2018 (San Diego) - State law allows voters who missed the voter registration deadline on Oct. 22 to register on a later date and vote on that same day. However, San Diego County residents who want to take advantage of the Conditional Voter Registration law for the Nov. 6 Gubernatorial General Election must visit the Registrar of Voters office in Kearny Mesa to do so. Conditional Voter Registration is available only during the 14 days prior to and including Election Day. Prospective voters will be able to register to vote, mark and cast their ballot provisionally on-site.

By Miriam Raftery, Editor, East County Magazine

Photos, upper left to lower right:  Evlyn Andrade-Heymsfelt, Zack Gianino, Laura Koval, Councilman Ronn Hall, Councilman Rob McNelis, Lynda Marrokal, Rudy Reyes

Updated October 18 with responses from Rudy Reyes

October 8, 2018 (Santee) – This is the first time Santee has held district elections, where the winners will each represent a specific neighborhood instead of being voted on by the city at large. We sent questionnaires to the seven candidates running for three City Council seats in Santee, asking the same questions of everyone. All seven candidates replied. Their thoughtful responses address a range of issues such as balancing growth and open space, also offering some fresh ideas, such as creating a community choice energy program for Santee.

Below are their answers in full to our questions, along with a link to their ballot statements for more information, arranged by district and in alphabetical order within each district.

East County News Service

October 11, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – A local political race for an open state Senate seat has remained relatively low profile, pitting Santee Councilman and former three-term Assemblyman Brian W. Jones against Cal Fire Captain Jeff Griffith, who is also a paramedic and two-term Palomar Health District board member. Both are fired up to fill the 38^th state Senate seat left vacant by Joel Anderson due to term limits.

By Miriam Raftery

October 5, 2018 (Alpine) – Nine candidates are running for seven seats on the Alpine Community Planning Group, including incumbents Glenda Archer, Louis Russo, James Easterling, Richard Saldano Jr. and George Barnett, as well as challengers Justin Johnston, a general contractor/entrepreneur, writer Mary Harris, retired school Superintendent Albert Haven and real estate attorney Jennifer Swanson.

It costs hundreds of dollars to submit a ballot statement to the Registrar of Voters, which can be prohibitive for some candidates, especially those running for all-volunteer positions on planning groups. Only four candidates submitted ballot statements to the Registrar (Barnett, Haven, Johnston,and Russo). A sixth, Mary Harris, sent her statement to East County Magazine and asked us to publish it. We’ve reached out to other candidates who left contact info with the Registrar and invited them to send theirs in, too. Jim Easterling replied by our deadline and his has been added below. Statements of those available are published below, in alphabetical order:

By Miriam Raftery

Photos: Ek, McKenna and Vacio billboard; Kiel image via Facebook

September 23, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – The November election could have high stakes in the San Miguel Fire Protection District.  A slate of three incumbents who voted to return the district to local control and axe a contract with Cal-Fire are running for reelection: Theresa McKenna, Jim Ek and Mike Vacio. All are backed by the district’s firefighters. Also in the race is William A. Kiel, son of board member William Kiel, who voted against ending the contract with Cal Fire.

By Miriam Raftery

September 18, 2018 (Lakeside) – Five candidates are running for the Lakeside Fire Protection District Board.  Three are incumbents:   Robert Robeson, a retired Cal Fire assistant chief, Mike Haworth, a retired fire division chief, Peter Liebig, a retired firefighter/paramedic. Two are challengers:  fire captain Tim Robles and volunteer emergency responder Ron Kasper.

East County Magazine sent questionnaires to all five, and three responded (Robeson, Haworth and Kasper).   Below are their responses (published in the order received), plus links to their ballot statements.

By Miriam Raftery

August 28, 2018 (San Diego) – In his prior five campaigns for Congress, Duncan D. Hunter waltzed easily to victory over his Democratic opponents with margins of victory ranging from 17% in 2016 to a whopping 42.8% in 2014. But a new poll by Survey USA of likely voters released Monday, days after Hunter’s indictment on federal corruption charges, shows him with a mere 7%  lead over Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar.

By Miriam Raftery

August 1, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – The filing deadline to run for local offices is August 10^th.   We checked with El Cajon, La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Santee to find out which seats are on the ballot, and who has taken out papers declaring an intent to run for city council or mayor so far.  Below is the list of prospective candidates to date, though more candidates may file, and prospective candidates are not confirmed until they turn in signatures and meet verification requirements to qualify for the November ballot. 

If you are interested in running, you have until August 10 to pull papers and turn in the required signatures from registered voters in support of your candidacy. Since some city offices are closed on Friday the 10th, be sure to check with your local jurisdiction.

City Council and Mayoral races are officially nonpartisan; however, some officials tout their endorsements or affiliations with political parties. For those candidates, we have listed their affiliations.

By Miriam Raftery

July 26, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) – The filing period to run for local offices opened on July 16 and closes August 10.  But so far, no candidates have pulled papers to run, let along qualified, in most East County or other inland San Diego County races listed on the Registrar’s site for school boards, water boards, fire boards and community planning groups. In others, only incumbents have filed.

For instance, in the Grossmont Union High School District, heated controversies and lawsuits have erupted over alleged bond misappropriation, failure to build an Alpine High School, and efforts to shut down popular charter schools.  Yet so far, incumbents Jim Kelly, Robert Shield and Dr. Gary Woods have all pulled papers to seek reelection, but nobody has filed to run against them.

Note: City council and mayor candidates apply through cities and will not be listed until after the filing deadline has closed. ECM has requested info from East County cities on those races.

Below are other local races in East County, including names of any candidates who have pulled papers to run (though not yet qualified).

East County News Service

July 18, 2018 (La Mesa) – Dr. Akilah Weber, a physician who is the daughter of Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, has announced she is running for the La Mesa City Council.

If elected, she says her three top issue priorities will be public safety, health and wellness, and housing affordability.

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