Fueled by two years of pandemic politics over masks and vaccines, and culture war issues like critical race theory, conservatives mobilized to run for school board seats.
But things didn’t exactly work out in their favor, as education reporter Jakob McWhinney reports. Many of the most high-profile conservatives on the ballot were unsuccessful in their school board bids.
They include former San Francisco Giant Aubrey Huff, who ran in Solana Beach, and Sharon McKeeman, founder of the anti-mask and vaccine mandate group Let Them Breathe, who ran in Carlsbad.
Cody Petterson, the liberal, union-backed candidate in San Diego Unified’s District C also declared victory over conservative charter school founder Becca Williams in a Facebook post on Friday. Their race had devolved into a heavily funded partisan slugfest in the final month.
Read more about the fate of local conservative school board candidates here.
More Election Results are Trickling in
With some 165,000 ballots left to count, we are slowly getting a better look at election results, though some races are still TBD. Here’s where some races stand as of Sunday evening.
- In the Chula Mayor mayor’s race, Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar picked up more votes over the weekend. He’s now some 6 points behind Republican John McCann.
- Jordan Marks, a Republican, lost some ground over the weekend but is still holding on to his lead over Democrat Barbara Bry to be San Diego’s next Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk. He’s up 51.99-49.01.
- Measure B gained some ground over the weekend but the “No” side of the measure still leads with some 3,462 votes. The Union-Tribune writes that supporters of Measure B are considering putting it on the ballot again in 2024 — if it’s unsuccessful once results are finalized. Supporters are betting that the electorate that year would be larger and less conservative.
- On Measure C, the “Yes” side still leads, but it’s close.
VOSD Podcast hosts Scott Lewis, Andrew Keatts and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña recap the 2022 election results in the latest episode. Listen to their insights here or wherever you get your podcasts.
And … In the latest Politics Report, the crew takes stock of results from the hottest races. They give a couple takes on why some worked out as they expected and why others did not. Read the Politics Report here.
In Other News
- Are you curious how your neighbors voted in this election? The Union-Tribune put together a couple of handy interactive maps on voting patterns. Check those out here.
- According to a new study, rent is only going to get more expensive for San Diegas. (NBC7 San Diego)
- Meanwhile, KPBS published a Q&A with San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera about new proposals to protect renters from no-fault evictions. He spoke about his priorities and why it’s personal for him.
The Morning Report was written by Jakob McWhinney and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.
