San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
COVID-19, PARTISANSHIP ARE FOCUS IN DIST. 7 S.D. COUNCIL RACE
The COVID-19 pandemic, government’s role in solving problems and partisanship at City Hall are key issues in the runoff for San Diego City Council District 7, a race where Republicans could lose one of their two remaining council seats.
Republican Noli Zosa and Democrat Raul Campillo are battling to replace termed-out Republican Scott Sherman in the central suburban district, which includes Linda Vista, Mission Valley, Serra Mesa, Allied Gardens, Tierrasanta and nearby communities.
A win by Campillo, who got 2,200 more votes than Zosa in the March primary, would increase the Democrats’ six-vote majority on the nine-member council to either 7-2 or 8-1, depending on another Democrat-versus-republican battle in District 5. Registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans in District 7, 39,331 to 24,091, on Sept. 1. Nearly 23,000 voters in the district declined to state a party affiliation.
Zosa said voters should choose him to help maintain
a solid partisan balance on the council, and because he thoroughly understands the challenges facing small businesses as co-owner of the local Dirty Birds restaurant chain.
“The pandemic has really highlighted the importance of small businesses to our local economy,” Zosa said this week. “We need someone on the council who knows how to create jobs and maintain jobs.” Campillo, a San Diego deputy city attorney focused on prosecuting misdemeanors, said it’s important for government and community leaders to take the initiative to solve problems, not wait for corporations to solve them.
He said most voters don’t care whether their council member is a Democrat or Republican when it comes to potholes and park space, but the difference does matter when it affects how someone would solve problems.
“A councilmember should believe in government, and I’m not sure Noli does,” Campillo said.
Zosa said he believes government has an important role. “You can’t have businesses solve everything, but they can be crucial when government is slow to act,” he said.
Campillo has criticized Zosa for raising doubts about the legitimacy of the pandemic and criticizing the media for what Zosa described as sensationalizing the public health crisis.
Zosa has apologized for those comments, stressing that he made them last spring after businesses — including his — were abruptly forced to close.
“It was just me expressing frustration — it was just an ignorant statement,” Zosa said. “It’s a serious pandemic. We need to balance a public health crisis, the needs of small business and some head-scratching decisions by government.”
Zosa said another key difference between the candidates is his long record of community involvement that spans a few decades and includes service on roughly 20 local boards and commissions.
They include the Linda
Vista Community Planning Group, the city’s Mobility Board and the city’s Park and Recreation Board.
He helped get Linda Vista its first skate park, saved Skateworld from possible closure and created a “campus cash” program to encourage University of San Diego students to shop in Linda Vista.
Campillo said he would happily compare his accomplishments against Zosa’s, stressing that he’s helping boost public safety and reduce homelessness with his work for City Attorney Mara Elliott.
He said his years of prosecuting white-collar crime in the private sector before joining the city would also help him on the council. If he had been on the council in 2016, Campillo said, his expertise would have helped the city avoid buying a downtown high-rise filled with asbestos.
For the city, he works on gun violence restraining orders, helps get homeless addicts into drug treatment and prosecutes a variety of misdemeanors. He says he was inspired to do such work partly by his brother who died of an opiate overdose six years ago.
After graduating from University of San Diego High School in Linda Vista, Campillo left the region to attend Harvard, where he got undergraduate and law degrees.
“I grew up here, and my career choice was to come home and make a difference,” Campillo said.
On partisanship at City Hall, Zosa said it’s important for San Diego to have Republican voices in local government. Campillo said District 7 could get ignored by the Democratic majority if Zosa wins.
Zosa has been endorsed by nearly every prominent local Republican and the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Campillo has been endorsed by the city’s firefighters labor union and the city’s largest union, the Municipal Employees Association. He’s also been endorsed by the San Diego Imperial Counties Labor Council, an umbrella group for local private sector unions.
Campaign contribution disclosures submitted this week show Zosa with a substantial lead over Campillo. Zosa collected nearly $44,000 between July 1 and Sept. 19, while Campillo received less than $24,000. Zosa had more than $95,000 ready to spend in the campaign’s final stretch, while Campillo had just over $54,000.
Campillo, 32, lives in Mission Valley. Zosa, 47, lives in Linda Vista.
david.garrick@sduniontribune.com