2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumSan Diego isn't the conservative paradise it used to be
"Just three months ago City Councilman David Alvarez barely registered as a known political entity in San Diego. Outside of his council district, hardly anybody knew who he was. And the notion that hed be seriously contending for Mayor of the nations eighth largest city would have been considered absurd."
Labors Ground Game Made the Difference in Alvarez Win
Doug Porter, San Diego Free Press
Mayoral candidate David Alvarez isnt taking the victory laps today on the morning talk shows. He cant. He completely lost his voice talking to voters as the special election neared.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting this morning, Faulconer received 89,043 votes, Alvarez 52,283 votes, and Fletcher 49,645 votes. There remain as many as 34,500 mail and provisional ballots still to be counted. By shortly after 10pm last night Alvarez had moved into second place and his lead grew throughout the night.
What little life was left in his vocal chords was expended as he thanked supporters last night at a rally held in the old Weber bakery building in the heart of the neighborhood he came from. Back in the day the bakery marketed its white bread as the ideal food for the white bread leaders of the community.
From a 1931 Evening Tribune supplement:
The big business man eats good white bread and milk because that food keeps him well fed, alert able to cope with every problem quickly and efficiently.
Today the 43,000 square foot structure has been repurposed as Bread & Salt, a multi-use office/workshop/gallery. The very mixed demographics of the overflow crowd last night were suggestive of the actual make up of a San Diego that has evolved away from its era of white bread dominance. Draft beer and Tecate in cans washed down the free tacos dispensed from the food truck adjacent to the building.
The election night parties of the three top candidates were an accurate reflection of their campaigns appeal. Former Assembly Nathan Fletchers campaign hosted an event at their campaign headquarters in a soul-less Mission Valley office building. The enthusiastic crowds were professionals; not too white collar and not too Caucasian.
The party wound down not long after election results came in suggesting a third place finish. One participant texted me wanting to know if they were serving up craft beer over at the Alvarez party.
City Councilman Kevin Faulconers event was at the historic US Grant Hotel, symbolic of an era when tycoons ruled the city and much of the riff-raff present at the other candidates parties knew their place (or went to jail, in the case of the unions). Business attire was the preferred costume. Cocktails were the beverage of choice.
Smug satisfaction permeated the air as the GOPs consensus candidate coasted to a first place win. The Traitor (Fletcher) had been vanquished. Compromise with those pesky neighborhoods at the expense of downtown developers could be dispatched with mere lip service. As one tweet noted, San Diego republicans way more excited to spike the football in Fletchers face than they are about Faulconers win.
The plan for the next round is simple: Kevin smiles a lot, while his buddies independently gin up fear about Another Filner with a dash of (wink, wink) racism.
. . .
http://sandiegofreepress.org/2013/11/labors-ground-game-made-the-difference-in-alvarez-win/
(cross posted in California forum)
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
gopiscrap
(23,725 posts)chillfactor
(7,572 posts)how can this be an Alvarez win...if he is in second place in voting totals....did he come out ahead because of the 34,500 mail and provisional ballots? How? there was a 36,750 gap between Faulconer and Alvarez after 100% of the precincts reported........
frylock
(34,825 posts)Zorro
(15,722 posts)Hopefully all those voters will go for Alvarez in the upcoming election.
JayhawkSD
(3,163 posts)Not that he wasn't fully trashworthy, but the financial resources not directly connected to Alvarez or Faulconer ran a negative campaign that moved him from the lead to third place in about two months.
San Diego County is still heavily Republican, but this is city politics, and the city is more Democratic than otherwise. Yes, the Democratic vote was split, and it will mostly unite behind Alvarez. I rather like they guy and there is a good chance, I think, that San Diego will have a Hispanic mayor and I, personally, think that is a pretty cool thing to happen.
Unfortunately, it does bring about an all too traditional labor/business confrontation which San Diego has suffered through too often.