San Diego County's District 2 Supervisor Seat Is On The Cusp of Change
Speaker 1: 00:00 After 28 years under the leadership of Diane Jacob San Diego counties. District two is about to see some change. KPBS is my, a triple C gives us a look at who is contending for a coveted seat on the County board of supervisors. Speaker 2: 00:15 District two is the largest district in San Diego County sprawled across 2000 square miles from the Southern border to as far North as Julian from the Imperial County border too, as far West as San Diego state. Since 1992 it's been represented by incumbent supervisor, Diane Jacob. But term limits mean she's on her way out. And after serving such a long tenure, Jacob won't go without throwing her weight behind her pick for successor. Speaker 3: 00:45 Diane Jacob has about a half a million dollars left in her campaign account. Uh, she's made it very clear in the media, uh, that she will spend every dime of that to make sure that I'm elected. Speaker 2: 00:55 Jacob has passionately endorsed Steve Voss, who is currently serving his second term as mayor of the city of Poway and is chairman of the San Diego association of governments. Vos hasn't had a long history and politics and the Grammy award winning singer songwriter who's usually seen in public wearing a cowboy hat may seem like an unlikely politician, but he says his experience in local government uniquely qualifies him to be what he calls the mayor of East County. Speaker 3: 01:24 But I've got a track record of getting things done. And you know, I think a city that's generally considered to be the envy of every other jurisdiction and the County. Uh, and I think that's because we focus on the important stuff. We don't chase shiny objects. We get things done and we take care of our friends and neighbors. Speaker 2: 01:42 Voss says his priority is to keep his constituents safe from crime and fire, but also to improve housing. He drew criticism in December when power ways water became contaminated by rain runoff, rendering it undrinkable for almost a week. Voss says that helped his candidacy rather than hurt it Speaker 3: 02:01 because folks saw mayor who stepped up, took care of business. But within 12 to 18 hours we had water available, handed out thousands and thousands of cases of water and folks saw their mayor out on the front line. Speaker 2: 02:15 Another Republican candidate in the race is former state Senator Joel Anderson who has been officially endorsed by the Republican party of San Diego. He is also a former president on the board of the Padre dam water district and a starch adversary of Vos. During the Poway boil water advisory, Anderson accused Vos of turning the city in the country into a third world country. KPBS reached out to Anderson for an interview about the race, but he was unavailable in the hopes of flipping the district seat in 2020 the democratic party of San Diego has endorsed Rancho San Diego resident Kenya Taylor for the board of supervisors. Taylor has a background as a licensed marriage and family therapist and is executive committee member of the NAACP San Diego branch. I'm the only candidate who has the expertise to manage the mental health crisis that we are seeing in our County and unfortunately this is the worst. Speaker 2: 03:12 I've seen it in my lifetime. Taylor says she wants to make sure jails are not being used as the largest mental health program in the County. Among her other priorities, Taylor wants to focus on supporting small businesses, environmental issues like clean air and food. She says the large geographic size of district two means governing requires a one size does not fit all approach. That 22 year old student who's living in their car has a different need than the 84 year old person who has a home that they retired in. She says she has donated over 10,000 hours for volunteer work and tries to imagine what she could do with a real budget to support those who want to improve their lives. Not to mention this would be the first time for us to make history. We've never had a woman of color ever and all of the districts, but that's not why I'm running. I'm running to make sure that we're safe in our areas. Another contender for the seat is longtime Lakeside resident cattle rancher and general contractor Brian Susko. He is a registered independent. He is relying on word of mouth of friends, neighbors, and social media for promotion. My [inaudible] C K PBS news.
