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Two Democratic former city council members and a repeat but little known opponent from the political right are running in the special election to fill the 80th Assembly District seat, and the race has recently turned to finger-pointing about campaign expenditures.

The election takes place April 5, but early voting and mail ballots are available now for the districts nearly 250,000 registered voters.

On the Democratic side Georgette Gmez, an environmental advocate who served on the San Diego City Council from 2016 until 2020, is competing against David Alvarez, a former social worker who held a San Diego City Council seat from 2010 to 2018.

Also Republican Lincoln Pickard is making a fifth run at the liberal district.

The special election is to fill a vacancy for the remainder of a term that ends in December. If no candidate wins a majority of votes, the two front-runners will go to a run-off held during the June 7 primary election.

The seat opened when Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, who served for nearly a decade, resigned Jan. 3 to take a job as chief executive of the California Labor Federation. California state redistricting changes had zoned her out of the 80th District, so she couldnt run for reelection without moving to a new home.

Even before she departed, Gmez and Alvarez signaled their intent to seek her seat if she did not run for reelection by posting announcements of their plans as soon as state district maps were released.

The open assembly seat represents a window of opportunity for both life-long San Diegans. Gmez and Alvarez were born and raised in the Barrio Logan area, graduated from San Diego State University and launched political careers at City Hall.

Alvarez lives in Logan Heights with his wife Xochitl and two school-aged children, while Gmez and her wife, Raquel Pacheco, are moving to Barrio Logan.

Over the past week their campaign contributions have generated more buzz than their backgrounds or policy platforms.

The two are closely matched in campaign funding. Gmez brought in $221,956 between Jan. 1 and Feb. 19 and spent $37,553, while Alvarez received $190,828 and spent $66,766. Both also have smaller campaign accounts stashed toward the November general election.

Recently political action committees and other donors have weighed in.

Alvarez received help from an independent political action committee named Keeping Californians Working, a Coalition of Educators, Insurance Agents, Technology, Energy and Healthcare Providers, which spent $70,029 on mailers to support him. In addition, a PAC called Jobspac, a bi-partisan coalition of California employers, dropped $28,707 on live calls endorsing him. Another PAC named San Diego Families Opposing Georgette Gmez, funded by a Sacramento company, Ramos Towing, spent $13,164 on mailers against his opponent.

Meanwhile, Gmez has gained labor support, as a PAC called Nurses and Educators for Georgette Gmez for Assembly 2022, sponsored by labor organizations, spent more than $200,000 on TV ads, mailers, polling and research on her behalf. Another PAC funded by the Laborers International Union of North America, Local 89, threw in more than $60,000 for mailers, polling and other services.

Gmezs campaign has criticized the third-party spending on Alvarezs behalf, arguing that big corporations are influencing his campaign. They also took aim at direct contributions to his campaign by several oil companies.

Alvarez didnt respond directly to those accusations but said he believes voters wont heed them.

I think that voters want to vote for candidates who present a positive vision of what they will do if they are elected, so I believe that Georgettes negative campaigning will backfire in the end, Alvarez said.

Gmez, 46, was born in Barrio Logan and grew up in the Logan Heights area. After being introduced to activism in high school through her older brother, she earned a bachelors degree in environmental and natural resource geography.

I wanted to do urban planning because of growing up in Barrio Logan and realizing that the community I grew up in was not built in a way that was healthy for the residents, having industry mixed in and not having the elements that one needs while growing up, with healthy foods and parks, she said.

She worked for 12 years at the Environmental Health Coalition, starting as a community organizer in Chula Vista and Barrio Logan and ending as associate director.

When former San Diego City Councilmember Marti Emerald left the citys District 9 in 2016 Gmez ran for the seat and won against Emeralds chief of staff, Ricardo Flores. Later she served as council president.

She said the most important issues she tackled included affordable housing, community choice energy and police oversight, including banning police use of the chokehold restraint after the death of George Floyd.

She ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Sara Jacobs for the 53rd Congressional District in 2020.

Alvarez, 41, also was born in Barrio Logan and now lives in neighboring Logan Heights. Like Gmez, he said the decision to remain in the area and run for office was informed by a desire to fix problems he saw growing up.

In the 80s and 90s it was the epicenter of gang activity, he said. I chose to stay and invest in our community.

Alvarez earned a psychology degree from SDSU and became a social worker before joining the staff of former State Sen. Denise Ducheny. He won a seat in City Councils District 8 in 2010 and served until 2018.

In 2014 he ran unsuccessfully for mayor against Kevin Faulconer.

Alvarez said his top achievements at City Hall included replacing an aging library in San Ysidro with a modern facility, adding parks, including Cesar Solis Park near Otay Mesa, and leading efforts to update decades-old community plans.

His priorities if elected are homelessness, education and public safety, he said. Children in K-12 schools need additional learning opportunities to overcome deficits from a year of school closures and remote classes, he said.

I think we need to focus on nontraditional hours for learning: after-school learning and robust summer programs with professional educators that can help our children catch up, Alvarez said.

He added he would work to build a state university in Chula Vista, which could help students competing for limited seats at other campuses.

Alvarez said current efforts to address homelessness arent working. He said the state should revise laws to commit people with mental health or substance abuse issues to treatment centers if they dont seek help on their own.

I believe that we need to become more focused on taking people off the streets, and the current laws do not allow us to do that, he said. So we need to change the laws so that we can have individuals go to facilities where they can get care.

Alvarez said he doesnt agree with calls to defund police but supports additional spending to hire licensed clinical social workers and improve neighborhood policing.

We need to continue to establish strong relationships between our law enforcement and the community, he said.

Gmez said she would focus on issues including housing, environmental health and educational equity if she wins the 80th Assembly seat.

We need to build more housing for middle-class and low-income families, she said. We need to build more supportive housing for the mental health and homeless populations.

She said she advocates streamlining regulations to remove barriers to housing construction and calls for a uniform permitting process that would satisfy local, state and federal laws.

How do we make it easier for housing to be built so theres only one process that a developer has to go through? she asked. That can impact time and cost.

Gmez said the state has made strides toward addressing the climate crisis, but it needs to look more closely at climate impact and air pollution in underserved communities located near industrial zones, she said.

I would love to go to the state to introduce a bill that is really focused on environmental justice in the climate crisis, Gmez said.

She supports funding to increase child care access, expand free higher education and reduce the digital divide in areas without reliable internet access.

The California Democratic Party endorsed Gmez for the 80th Assembly District.

Their Republican opponent Lincoln Pickard, 80, said he is running in opposition to policies favored by the Democratic majority in Sacramento.

Because of their regulations and taxes, people are leaving by the droves, he said. Ive had several friends leave. The reason Im running is because Democrats are not treating these issues properly.

Pickard has run for the seat unsuccessfully since the 2013 special election, when he joined the ballot as a write-in independent candidate, and in the 2016, 2018 and 2020 general elections when he ran as a Republican.

He said he opposes firearm restrictions, wants to lift remaining COVID-19 restrictions and favors outlawing abortion. Pickard said he doesnt believe that human activity is causing climate change and would like to increase oil drilling in California.

He knows hes in the political minority but said a vote for him is a vote against Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats.

If they elect me to this particular post in San Diego where the odds are pretty much against me, that would send a powerful message, Pickard said.

The Secretary of State did not display any campaign finance disclosures submitted by Pickard. Although he is the sole Republican in the race, he was not listed among the Republican Party of San Diegos election endorsements.

Residents in the district have until Monday to register to receive a ballot in the mail, officials said.

Otherwise they can vote in person at the Registrars office in Kearny Mesa or they can conditionally register at a vote center and vote provisionally through Election Day. Voters can vote by mail or at one of the Registrars official ballot drop box locations or at any vote center in the district. Hours of operation can be found at sdvote.com .

Continued here:
Two life-long San Diegan Democrats and a Republican battle for 80th Assembly District - The San Diego Union-Tribune