North County Report: Congressional Musical Chairs 

We’re three months away from the June Primary elections, and big things are happening. 

By now, you’ve probably heard about recent major changes to two congressional races impacting North County – the 48th District race and the 49th District race. Both races saw new players come in and old players bow out, changing the dynamics of the upcoming election. 

Here’s the Sitch 

First of all, Rep. Darrell Issa is out. He is a Republican who currently represents the 48th Congressional District and was planning to run for re-election. And, up until voters approved a statewide redistricting measure last year, Issa had a good chance of winning. 

But that redistricting measure, called Proposition 50, really shook things up for Issa and the region’s Republican Party. It redraws political boundaries to create five additional Democratic-leaning seats, a move Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed in response to efforts by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Trump Administration to add more Republican seats in Texas.  

Proposition 50 allowed California to adopt a new congressional map more favorable to Democrats in this year’s midterms. One of the districts most impacted by the new maps is the 48th Congressional District. 

Before the change, the 48th District included Bonsall, Poway, Santee, Fallbrook, portions of Escondido, Romona and Temecula. The new map will bring in Vista, parts of Oceanside, San Marcos and portions of Palm Springs while cutting out Poway, Romona, Santee and Lakeside.   

Under the new map, voter registration strongly favors Democrats, which made Issa’s 2026 re-election bid much tougher.  

But last Friday, Issa dropped out of the race, and out of a congressional run altogether, and he tapped in Republican County Supervisor Jim Desmond, who was running for the 49th Congressional seat in hopes of unseating incumbent Democrat Rep. Mike Levin. 

Desmond dropped out of the 49th race and stepped in to run for the 48th District. But before that, Armen Kurdian, a retired Navy officer who had been running for state Senate with the Republican Party’s endorsement, withdrew from that race and filed to run for the 49th Congressional District, the same district race Desmond left. 

This all happened within a day of the deadline for filing election papers. 

What it means: In Voice of San Diego’s recent Politics Report, we wrote that Desmond will probably be a better candidate for the 48th District than Issa because he’s not as tied to President Donald Trump, he’s more connected to the redrawn district (he used to be the mayor of San Marcos) and he’ll likely get a lot of support and resources from the national Republican Party.  

Also: Several Democrats are running for the 48th District seat, too, including San Diego City Councilmember Marni Von Wilpert, Vista City Councilmember Corinna Contreras, Ammar Campa-Najjar, who lost the seat to Issa in 2020, and Brandon Riker, an economist and former staffer in the Obama administration. 

Who Is Armen Kurdian? Kurdian is a Republican retired Navy Caption and served in the U.S. Navy for 25 years. He’s also been described as a foreign policy and national security analyst by some news outlets. And, according to his LinkedIn, he still works with the Navy in a “systems engineering role.” 

In 2022, he ran for the Vista City Council’s District 4 seat against current Councilmember Dan O’Donnell, but he lost by a small margin. And in 2024, he was elected to the Republican Central Committee, his LinkedIn says. 

Until last week, he was running for the 38th Senate District, against Democrat incumbent Sen. Catherine Blakespear, before jumping into the 49th Congressional race. 

“I want to assure everyone that this was not in the works for months or even weeks. However, as a good soldier, I go to defend my country where I am most needed,” Kurdian said in a statement posted to his website. 

His priorities: According to his website he plans to focus on lowering the cost of living, supporting small businesses, expanding access to housing for all income levels, reducing energy costs and restoring “academic excellence” in schools. 

Around Town: The Latest on a Proposed Housing Project in Del Mar 

The Seaside Ridge saga continues.  

In January, I wrote about how California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office sent a letter to Del Mar officials warning that Del Mar could face penalties from the state if it continues refusing to process the application for an affordable housing project called Seaside Ridge.  

Seaside Ridge is a controversial housing development that I’ve been following since 2023. It proposes 42 low-income units, 43 moderate-income units and 174 market-rate units.      

City officials argue the developer’s application is incomplete and that it doesn’t meet the city’s general plan and zoning requirements. Officials also say the city already has enough affordable housing projects in the pipeline to meet its affordable housing goals.   

But the developer argues that the city has to approve the project because of a state housing law called the Builder’s Remedy, which says that if a city doesn’t have a state-approved housing plan, or Housing Element, in place by the time a project application is filed, then the city can’t deny it. When Seaside Ridge first proposed the project, Del Mar didn’t have an approved Housing Element.   

The back and forth led Seaside Ridge to file a lawsuit against Del Mar, which is still ongoing. 

Del Mar officials responded to Bonta’s office, again laying out the reasons why they believe Seaside Ridge’s application is incomplete and rejecting the idea that the Builder’s Remedy applies to the project. 

And last month, Bonta’s office responded to Del Mar saying, “the city and the applicant have reached an impasse.” 

In a letter, David Pai, supervising deputy attorney general, said city officials have been avoiding taking a final administrative action to either deem the application complete or deny the application as incomplete.  

“By continuing to avoid a final action on completeness, the city has effectively denied the application,” the letter said. “This continuous and effective denial … triggers a separate violation of the Housing Accountability Act.” 

In other words, Del Mar may be violating state housing law. 

Still, the letter said, Bonta’s office hopes the city and Seaside Ridge developers can work together to come up with a housing project the city can approve. 

“We remind the city that Builders’ Remedy applications have been approved in the coastal zone in comparable cities,” the letter said. 

Pai concluded the letter with a reminder of a state law that went into effect in January – if Seaside Ridge wins a lawsuit against the city, the city may have to pay Seaside Ridge’s legal expenses, which could be in the millions. 

In Other News 

• Escondido adopted new sidewalk vendor regulations last week, including establishing a permit program, requiring licenses and city-issued IDs and more. The rules will go into effect early next year. (Coast News) Related: I wrote about proposed sidewalk vending regulations back in 2022 when Escondido officials were first considering them. I spoke to sidewalk vendors and food truck owners about their experiences with these kinds of regulations. Read that story here. (Voice of San Diego) 
• Vista is considering increasing sewer rates as much as 5.5 percent over the next three years to cover increasing costs and maintenance projects. (Union-Tribune) 
• There was another bluff collapse in Del Mar early this morning, but no injuries have been reported. (Union-Tribune) 

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