Voters on Tuesday elected two Republicans in landslides to San Diego County’s top law enforcement posts — Summer Stephan as district attorney and Bill Gore as sheriff. And that’s in a county where voter registration favors Democrats.
Of the county’s 1.69 million voters, 36.4 percent are Democrats, 29 percent Republicans and 28.9 percent don’t state a party preference.
inewsource has mapped Stephan’s and Gore’s election results by precinct, and they show the two prevailed in similar areas of the county.
Stephan, appointed district attorney last year, beat Deputy Public Defender Geneviéve Jones-Wright, 64 percent to 36 percent, even though Jones-Wright had more money backing her campaign. A political action committee funded by New York billionaire George Soros spent more than $2 million on commercials and other ads to support Jones-Wright.
Gore, who was appointed sheriff in 2009 and first elected in 2010, outraised his challenger, sheriff’s Cmdr. Dave Myers. Gore, who also had more outside money supporting his campaign, won with 56 percent of the vote to Myers’ 43 percent.
Like Stephan and Gore, Jones-Wright and Myers won similar precincts in their races. Both captured North Park, Ocean Beach and Barrio Logan in San Diego, for example, as well as National City and parts of Encinitas and Vista.
But Myers also won areas of San Diego that Jones-Wright didn’t, including parts of Kearny Mesa and Point Loma.
Stephan and Gore captured most of the northern and western swaths of the county, including Escondido and Borrego Springs.
The exact vote totals may change slightly as absentee and provisional ballots are counted over the next few weeks. The Registrar of Voters Office plans to update the vote totals daily at 5 p.m., beginning Thursday, a county spokesman said. The official election results will be certified on or before July 5.
