San Diego Redditors had questions about the District 1 Special Election. We had answers

The special primary election for San Diego County’s District 1 supervisor seat is quickly approaching. Ballots have been sent to registered voters and the last day to vote is April 8.

With a field of seven candidates, voters have a tough choice ahead of them. But that’s where we can help.

KPBS South Bay reporter Kori Suzuki and Voice of San Diego South County reporter Jim Hinch were on Reddit last week answering questions submitted by the r/sandiego community.

Below is a round up of the AMA:

That’s a great question, u/Outside_Quail3064.

Even though this race is taking place in the South Bay, it’s going to have a really big effect on the rest of the county. That’s because the Board of Supervisors is currently evenly divided, with two Democrats and two Republicans.

That means this special election will also decide which party takes control of the board. That will have a major effect on how the board votes on issues like immigrant rights and homelessness.

The leading candidates so far are Paloma Aguirre, John McCann, Vivian Moreno and Carolina Chavez. Aguirre, Moreno and Chavez are all Democrats — McCann is a Republican.

At KPBS, we determine who’s a leading candidate by looking at how much money each person has raised, how big their campaign presence is, how much recognition they have in the district and whether they’ve gotten any major endorsements.

You can learn more about all of the candidates at the KPBS Voter Hub.

— Kori Suzuki, KPBS

Hi u/NP_geek_17 thanks for the question.

Currently, the special election to fill the District 1 seat on the County Board of Supervisors is the only major election scheduled in San Diego County in 2025. The primary for this election is April 8, and the general election is on July 1.

Several of the candidates running in this race (including Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, Chula Vista City Councilmember Carolina Chavez, Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno) hold political office in a local city.

If one of those candidates is elected Supervisor, leaders in their city would have to decide whether to replace them by appointment or special election — meaning there could be another special election later this year.

You can find more information about county and statewide elections at the San Diego County Registrar of Voters and California Secretary of State.

— Jim Hinch, Voice of San Diego

That’s a great question, u/Rich_Mycologist-9819.

Homelessness has come up a lot in the lead-up to this election. All of the leading candidates have shared some specific policy steps they would take if elected, but not everyone agrees on the right approach.

For example, we asked all of the candidates if they support making it illegal to sleep or set up tents outside, which are commonly known as camping bans. That’s a specific approach that more California cities are taking and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors has considered, although those decisions have drawn strong criticism from unhoused people and their advocates.

Paloma Aguirre chose not to answer. She’s the mayor of Imperial Beach. She says she doesn’t think the government should be criminalizing homelessness or poverty but said it was difficult to weigh that with the needs of unincorporated areas. She says she wants to take a second look at that proposal if elected.

John McCann supported harsher restrictions on encampments. He’s the mayor of Chula Vista and has strongly supported that city’s camping ban. If unhoused people don't immediately accept help from outreach workers, he thinks law enforcement needs to step in.

Carolina Chavez also supported harsher encampment restrictions. She’s a city councilmember in Chula Vista. Like McCann, she voted to support the city’s camping ban. She says her priority is helping the business community.

Vivian Moreno opposed harsher restrictions on encampments. She’s a San Diego City Councilmember and voted against the city of San Diego’s own camping ban, which was passed in 2023. She says cities’ encampment laws have just forced unhoused people to move from place to place instead of leading more people to move into shelters or other emergency housing. Moreno says the county needs to be creating more shelters and transitional housing.

— Kori Suzuki, KPBS

Hi, thanks for the question. The Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center is currently under construction and is scheduled to open later this spring. It includes a 22-story hotel with 1,600 rooms, 400,000 square feet of meeting and event space and a 4.25-acre water park with pools, waterslides and a wave machine. The hotel is part of a larger bayfront redevelopment plan intended to replace a disused power station with a mix of parks, the hotel, housing and other amenities.

Candidates in the race for District 1 Supervisor do not at all regard the project as a boondoggle. On the contrary, two of them (Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and Chula Vista City Councilmember Carolina Chavez) helped to plan and implement the project and claim that it will become a regional business and tourism destination that will generate jobs and revenue for the city and surrounding communities.

Officials may be wrong about that prediction, but currently many local and regional business leaders I’ve talked to expect the project to generate jobs, tourism and local revenue. Already, the hotel is partnering with Southwestern Community College and other local organizations to host a series of job fairs to fill up to 800 jobs at the resort.

Your question about whether the Tijuana River sewage crisis will impact business at the hotel is very much on local residents’ and leaders’ minds. The sewage contaminating the river does not reach the hotel directly because the hotel is adjacent to San Diego Bay, whereas the river flows into the ocean south of Imperial Beach at the U.S.-Mexico border.

However, some residents of Chula Vista have told me they can smell sewage from the river on days when conditions are particularly bad. And the sewage crisis has gained national attention, which could discourage prospective hotel visitors from visiting the area. We won’t know for sure until the hotel opens.

Currently, there is no plan I’m aware of to give tourists air purifiers. The majority of requests for sewage-related air purifiers have come from residents and communities closer to the Tijuana River, where the greatest impact of the crisis has been felt.

One way to gauge whether the sewage crisis is becoming an issue for the hotel would be to look at the hotel’s marketing materials. If the hotel begins to reassure prospective visitors that it has air purifiers in all rooms or takes other steps to assure visitors that air quality is not a problem, that would indicate the hotel senses customer concerns about the sewage are becoming a problem. Currently, the hotel website makes no mention of air quality.

Overall, all the major candidates in the race consider the hotel to be a positive economic development for South San Diego County, which they believe has been economically neglected and deserves the kind of upscale amenities the hotel promises to provide. You can expect at least some of the candidates to take credit for it, while others will say they want to bring other major economic development projects to the region.

— Jim Hinch, Voice of San Diego

We have not, u/Negative_Pack4901.

KPBS follows PBS standards which include abiding to section 399 of the Communications Act and following PBS membership requirements which prohibits public television stations from supporting or opposing any candidate for political office

Additionally, KPBS is governed by rules set for section 501(c)(3) organizations that prohibit political endorsements.

Learn more about KPBS News' Politics, Democracy and Elections Policy here. 

Having said that, we do list the candidates' key endorsements in our race explainer.