Gloria Headed For San Diego Mayor Runoff; Sherman, Bry Battling For Second Spot
Speaker 1: 00:00 We're back with election results for San Diego and yesterday's primary as the vote stands. Now, both of the countywide housing development measures a and B went down to defeat and the city of San Diego's measures C for the convention center. Expansion seems to have fallen short of the two thirds majority it needed for approval and Mara Elliott will face Corey Briggs in the November run off for San Diego city attorney. It's important to remember that there are 350,000 uncounted male and provisional ballots and the final totals won't be available for days. But there is a clear front runner in the race for San Diego mayor and he joins me now. State assemblyman. Todd. Gloria, welcome to the show. Speaker 2: 00:42 Thank you so much Maureen. Speaker 1: 00:43 Now even though the results are in final, as I said, you're clearly, you're headed to the general election and as the total stand now appear, you'll go up against Republican Scott Sherman in the runoff. Do you think that's a good matchup for San Diego, Speaker 2: 00:57 Maureen? I, I think, uh, I'm not actually particularly concerned about whether it counts number three or council member Sherman. You know, my campaigns and focused on myself and my vision for our city. And I think voters rewarded that last night by keeping a positive campaign focused on issues and vision. And so it doesn't necessarily matter which of the two candidates advanced. We're going to stay focused on this vision of San Diego that works for all of us. Um, and so I welcome the additional votes being counted, the election being certified, the opponent being set. Um, but our strategy is not going to waiver. We want to be focused on homelessness, housing affordability, and investing in infrastructure. Speaker 1: 01:31 Well, let's concentrate though now on, uh, Barbara Bray. She's in third place now. If she remains in third place, she obviously won't be in the November runoff. She's a democratic opponent. She ran on more restrictions for scooters and short term vacation rental rentals. How would you appeal to her supporters if she doesn't make it to the runoff? Speaker 2: 01:51 Well, this campaign featured six candidates, many of whom work myself are Democrats. My hope is that, uh, Democrats will consolidate around our candidacy, uh, and a democratic presidential candidate in November and that will win handily. Um, with the six candidates though, we still managed to get 40% of the vote. And so I think we're in a very strong position and I certainly would welcome any voter, uh, who, uh, very selected a different candidate in the primary to join our campaign. We have built a broad, unprecedented coalition of support, uh, for my candidacy. And, uh, we'd like to add more people to that campaign to really create a mandate for moving our city forward to build a new San Diego one that is focused on, uh, making a space here for the working middle class. Speaker 1: 02:36 Okay. So now that you face this streamlined campaign towards the runoff, what do you expect from this next phase of the campaign as you head into November? Speaker 2: 02:44 You know, I like to run my races like I'm 10 points behind and I don't, I will continue to do that because I think every vote has to be earned. There was a lot to get us to this point. There'll be a lot more of that. But ultimately the end result is not just a ticket to November, but I think victory in November and opportunity to set a new direction for our city. Speaker 1: 03:01 I've been speaking with, uh, Todd Gloria who came in first actually in the primary for San Diego. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you Todd. Speaker 2: 03:09 Thank you Maureen. Speaker 1: 03:10 Joining me as the Republican candidate who currently stands to face, Todd Gloria and the Renault for mayor city Councilman Scott Sherman. And welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. The race for the second spot in November is worn off for mayor is still pretty close. You're up by several points ahead of Democrat, Barbara Bray. How confident are you that these results are going to hold? Speaker 3: 03:30 Yeah, pretty confident. You know, I've, I've been through this a couple times before. My first election was 54 votes, so we know how it is to make sure everyone counts, but she's never led in any of the vote counts that have been coming since election night. And we keep growing our lead a little bit with each count. So I think we're pretty comfortable that it'll be Todd and I facing off against each other in November. Speaker 1: 03:51 Now you jumped into the race pretty late. Yeah. You also raised not much money compared to your opponents. Are you surprised by these results then in coming in second in this runoff? Speaker 3: 04:02 Yeah, actually it was very humbling to sit there and come in with only three months and, and limited times and funds to get the message out. The other two had been campaigning for over a year and raising money. So to come in second with that little bit of exposure is a very encouraging going forward. Speaker 1: 04:18 How do you think that happened? Speaker 3: 04:20 Um, I think it was seven years of having been on the council. And you know, there's one thing people say about me is that I'm consistent and they know where I stand and if I shake their hand and tell them, I mean something that I'm going to follow through with it. And I think, you know, after seven years of doing that and trying to lead by example, that maybe, you know, there were a few people paying attention. Speaker 1: 04:39 So the primary may have split the democratic vote between Todd and Barbara in November. You'll face most likely a consolidated democratic vote. What's your strategy? Speaker 3: 04:50 Um, to talk about the differences between Todd and myself. Uh, you know, if you want to look at grandiose visions and those types of plans for the city, then maybe people are going to look towards Todd. But if you want somebody who's gonna run the nuts and bolts operations of a city and that's what local government's supposed to be about, you know, its streets and public safety and safe neighborhoods, those types of things. Start talking about those, uh, issues that are first and foremost homelessness, housing. And uh, I think there's a definite difference between the two of us. And in my, uh, reelection campaign, it was a third, uh, Democrat, third independent, third Republican, and we won by over 60%. So the, the message I think resonates with people, it's just getting it out there cause at the end of the day, common sense shouldn't have a party affiliation attached to it. Speaker 1: 05:37 You said common sense and in your speech last night when you were coming in second andF and going onto this runoff election, but uh, but there is a Republican mayor now, so how is your common sense different from his? Speaker 3: 05:51 Um, I'm a little more straight forward and I talk to the people more directly, a lot more often and I think that's a big part of it and I just want to take a lot of things that the mayor has been doing and take it a couple steps further. You know, cutting regulation, cutting the red tape at city hall, unleashing the power of the individual instead of the power of government. And if we get that message going forward, I'm fairly confident that we'll have a, a good chance of being very competitive with that. Councilman Sherman, thank you very much. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: 06:19 Meanwhile, San Diego city council member Barbara Bree has not yet conceded. She says she's waiting for every last vote to be counted. Speaker 2: 06:27 There's still 350,000 votes countywide to count of which at least half are probably in the city. I'm very proud of the campaign that my tune ran, my leadership on SDSU West, the one-to-one Ash street scandal, and for, uh, defending our residential neighborhoods from the impacts of short term rentals and whatever happens, I'm going to continue to work for more accountability and transparency in city government and to work for the residents of district one. Speaker 1: 06:58 If Barbara Bree manages to overcome Scott Sherman's lead, that means San Diego will choose between two Democrats in November.
