South County Report: Democrats Seek to Regain Momentum

Last summer, South County Democrats were on a roll. 

Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre’s victory in the race to fill a vacant seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors cemented Democrats’ control of the Board and put South County issues at the heart of San Diego’s political agenda. 

The future looked bright. 

Until all of a sudden, it didn’t. 

As Democrats turn their attention to this year’s local elections, they find themselves facing a more complicated electoral landscape than they expected. 

Not a single South County city currently has a Democratic mayor. The mayor of the region’s largest city, Chula Vista, is a popular Republican who, so far, is running unopposed for re-election. 

In National City, where a messy personal feud at one point seemed to threaten the political future of the city’s veteran independent mayor, Democrats’ hopes of an upset now appear sidetracked by a deepening schism between two Democratic city councilmembers. 

No high-profile Democratic mayoral candidate has emerged in Imperial Beach, where Aguirre’s ascension to the Board of Supervisors handed control of the City Council to a conservative-leaning majority following a series of appointments. 

Even the region’s school districts, where strong teachers’ unions traditionally favor Democrats, have posed a challenge. 

After one Democrat on the Chula Vista Elementary School District Board of Trustees unseated a fellow party member in a controversial electoral move in 2024, a quirk in the district’s appointment process wound up doubling the number of Republicans on the board. 

The board’s two Republican trustees have become thorns in the side of the district’s Democratic leadership, peppering officials with questions at board meetings and criticizing how the district is run. 

“Our party missed the boat,” said San Diego County Democratic Party Chair Will Rodriguez-Kennedy of Democrats’ recent fortunes in South County. 

The problem, Rodriguez-Kennedy said, is twofold. Infighting between Democrats cost the party seats that should have been easy wins, he said. 

And, in many cases, voters did not see Democrats making progress on the region’s most pressing problems. 

“What people aren’t feeling is that the problems that they’re facing in their day-to-day lives are getting better,” Rodriguez-Kennedy said. “What we have to do is mitigate the economic impacts people are feeling. It’s the economy, stupid.” 

Rodriguez-Kennedy had blunt advice for South County Democrats: “Stop the drama and do the work. ICE is terrorizing our communities. We have major issues of the cost of living. That has to be our focus beyond who gets to be mayor or king.” 

Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one in South County. In coming weeks, I’ll be taking a closer look at elections in each of our region’s three cities to see whether that electoral advantage translates into victories in November. 

Already, candidates are emerging, labor unions are weighing endorsements and fundraising is ramping up. 

Jason Bercovitch, the Democratic Party’s South Area Vice Chair, said his party is in better shape in South County than naysayers think. 

“People can talk about doom and gloom,” he said. “We still control an overwhelming majority of seats in the area.” 

Bercovitch said his party’s candidate “pipeline is up and running…We are going to have a robust slate of candidates up and down the ballot. I’ve spoken to at least a dozen people who are thinking about which race to run for.” 

That includes, he said, three people considering a run to unseat McCann in Chula Vista. 

“Two of them are currently elected officials in South Bay looking at that race,” Bercovitch said. He declined to name the prospective candidates. 

Bercovitch said he expects Democrats to make South County a high priority this year. 

“Anything that happens in South Bay will have a regional impact,” he said. “We still see the vast majority of South Bay residents and voters want Democrats to be in charge. And we expect that trend to continue.” 

Imperial Beach Grocery Store Is Here at Last 

It took almost 10 years, but Imperial Beach’s days as a grocery store desert are over. 

Suncoast Market Co-Op, a member-owned cooperative grocery store founded by a group of Imperial Beach residents, will hold its grand opening Saturday at the market’s gleaming new 6,200-square-foot location less than a mile from the city’s iconic beachfront. 

The market will be the city’s only full-service grocery store, selling fresh produce, dry goods, bulk foods and a wide selection of hot and cold prepared dishes. 

“It’s such an amazing feeling,” said Mel Lyons, one of a core group of volunteers who has helped to bring the market to life. “It seemed like it would never open, and now it’s about to.” 

I wrote about Suncoast last summer, when volunteers were still raising money and the inside of the market was a construction zone. Since then, Lyons said, the store raised the remainder of $4 million needed to open and volunteers spent countless hours erecting shelves, installing kitchen equipment and filling aisles with groceries. 

Like San Diego County’s other co-op grocer – Ocean Beach People’s Food Co-Op in San Diego – Suncoast Market will be owned by members who pay a $200 one-time fee and, in return, receive a share of profits. 

So far, 1,501 people have purchased ownership shares, said Shirley Soth, the market’s volunteer treasurer. Other funds have come from what Lyons described as “lots of grants from municipal agencies and government agencies, the state of California, private donors and foundations.” 

The store has 25 employees, including a full-time general manager and assistant managers in charge of different parts of the store. 

Soth said a market analysis commissioned by store leaders estimated the store would generate $60,000 in sales per week, or $2.7 million per year. A key customer base, she said, would be employees at nearby military bases. 

“It will be a big mix of people,” she said. “We’ll be a regular full-size grocery store for people in the Imperial Beach area.” 

The grand opening takes place 9 a.m. Saturday at 600 Palm Ave. in Imperial Beach. There will be giveaways, live music and local dignitaries, including San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre and Imperial Beach Mayor Pro Tem Jack Fisher. 

In Other News 

• Last week, I wrote about San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre’s call to use millions in county reserve funds to address pollution problems in the Tijuana River. This week, Aguirre made good on that request, securing close to $9 million to fund additional air purifiers for local residents, fix a pollution hot spot and study regional health impacts. 
• South Bay Union School District teachers continued to threaten a walkout this week as contract negotiations remain stalled. Teachers are demanding wage increases and smaller class sizes for special education students. District officials say the district faces financial challenges and must close schools in coming years amid declining enrollment. 
• The California State Senate this week advanced two bills authored by state Sen. Steve Padilla that would tighten air quality standards for pollutants emanating from the Tijuana River and strengthen efforts to protect children from sexually explicit material generated by AI chatbots. 
• Also in Sacramento, the state Assembly passed a measure authored by South County Assemblymember David Alvarez that would speed up the use of state bond money for cleanup efforts in the Tijuana River. 
• The governing board of the Sweetwater Authority water agency has new leadership. At their first meeting of the new year last week, board members appointed National City Councilmember Ditas Yamane as chair and board member Hector Martinez as vice chair. “Under my leadership, the governing board remains committed to delivering safe and reliable water at the most affordable rates through sound supply management, full transparency and careful stewardship of every ratepayer dollar,” Yamane said in a statement. 

The post South County Report: Democrats Seek to Regain Momentum appeared first on Voice of San Diego.