By Megan Burks
Yesterday I visited three polling places in City Heights – Church of The Brethren in Fairmount Park, the City Heights Recreation Center and the Mid-City Police Substation – to talk with voters about which candidates and measures motivated them to get out and vote. Below are the results of some of those motivators, as well as a little analysis.
President
City Heights’ City Council District 9 is majority Democratic, so it’s no surprise all but one of the voters I chatted with yesterday wanted to help President Barack Obama net a second term. They succeeded – Obama won both the Electoral College and the popular vote.
Reports out yesterday and today show Asian and Latino voters played a big roll in reelecting the president, making up for a decline in support from white voters. According to The New York Times, Obama lost white voters by 19 percentage points last night, compared to a 12 percent margin in 2008.
Mayor
Residents who talked with me yesterday seemed to lack the kind of enthusiasm they had for the presidential race when it came to the mayor’s race. Many told me they simply cared more about the outcome of the presidential race and state propositions. Some said they were discouraged by an onslaught of negative advertisements and incessant phone calls for the race leading up to election night.
Most who filled in a bubble for mayor did so for Democratic Congressman Bob Filner. Some called him a “nice guy” and “accesible.” Others called him the”lesser of two evils” and wanted to follow their party line.
Filner ended up beating out Republican Carl DeMaio early this morning with just more than 50 percent of the vote. Today, some San Diegans are looking forward to seeing the new mayor make progress on his promises to make San Diego more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly.
Death Penalty and Three Strikes
Propositions 34 and 36 seemed to be the biggest motivators for City Heights voters when it came to state propositions. One would have overturned the death penalty in California. The other aimed to soften the state’s Three Strikes law so that life sentences couldn’t be handed down for non-serious crimes.
One resident told me the Three Strikes law hits close to home. He said he has uncles who have suffered harsh sentences after being implicated because they were racially profiled.
Racial profiling and non-restorative sentencing are common worries in City Heights, which has a high Latino, African-American and immigrant population. Some advocacy groups in the neighborhood are trying to work with San Diego police and schools to improve police-community relations and make punishments more rehabilitative.
Prop. 36 passed by more than 20 percentage points. Voters, however, chose not to repeal the death penalty.
Funding For Schools
City Heights voters were also motivated to vote by tax and bond measures that promised to restore school funding. Prop. 30, the tax increase pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown, passed. That means San Diego’s school year will not be shortened. Voice of San Diego had a report this summer on how a shortened school year would be especially rough on low-income immigrant families, who don’t have much money for daycare and whose children are more likely to fall behind when school is out.
The approval also means state universities will send students tuition reimbursements and community colleges will reinstate many cut classes.
Another tax increase, Prop. 38, did not pass. Local bond measure Prop. Z did and will bring in money for school repairs and technology upgrades.
Food Labeling
Though not many voters talked to me about Prop. 37 yesterday, the measure to label genetically-modified foods was a big one for food justice advocates in City Heights. There’s a robust dialogue in the community – which boasts a farmers market and refugee-run community gardens – about the benefits of fresh food. The measure did not get enough votes.
Richmond’s Soda Tax
While not on San Diego ballots, proposals to tax sweetened beverages in Richmond, Calif., and El Monte, Calif., caught the attention of community health advocates in City Heights. The measures aimed to tackle high obesity rates.
The propositions had the support of The California Endowment, which also funds nonprofits in City Heights (Speak City Heights being one of them). Both cities gave the tax a resounding “no.”
Crawford’s School Board Representative
Very few voters I talked with yesterday knew about the school board race between Marne Foster and William Ponder. Both were vying to replace Shelia Jackson, who represents schools in the Crawford and Lincoln clusters. It could be because interest in these kinds of races is traditionally hard to stir up. Or it could be because the primary election told us Foster was a shoe-in. Like in the primary, Foster won with nearly 70 percent of the vote.