VOTE FOR JACOBS. SHE DID HER HOMEWORK.

Voters in the 53rd Congressional District — which includes western El Cajon, eastern Chula Vista, parts of central and eastern San Diego as well as

Bonita, La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley — have an intriguing pair of choices of two progressive

Democrats, both local natives, to replace retiring

Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego.

City Council President Georgette Gómez, 44, a

San Diego State graduate, has rapidly ascended the local political ladder after winning her council seat in 2016 following a successful stint as a community organizer and as an associate director of the Environmental Health Coalition. Sara Jacobs, 31, holder of a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from

Columbia University, has rapidly ascended the local political ladder with the help of her family’s immense wealth. She’s the granddaughter of Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs.

At a time of growing awareness about privilege and how it helps those with it, this seems like a classic example — an heiress who Wikileaks revealed got a job working for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign after a prominent, prolific Democratic fundraiser’s involvement taking on a Latina who grew up in Barrio Logan and became the first

LGBTQ Latina to lead the City Council.

But that framing only makes sense at a cursory glance, and isn’t fair to Jacobs, who at a young age has worked at the United Nations, at UNICEF and as a contractor in the State Department. Since 2018, when she ran in the 49th Congressional District to replace departing Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, she has come across as extremely informed, not entitled.

In an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board before the March primary, after being asked about how poor families can handle the additional costs that would result from the Green

New Deal, Jacobs’ answer was razor-sharp: “The reality we’re living in is the cost of not acting is much higher than the cost of acting. So we do need to make sure that we design it in the right way, in an equitable way so that we’re not unfairly burdening people who are experiencing poverty, not unfairly burdening middle-class people. ... But I think it’s a false dichotomy to say that the cost of acting is too high because the cost of not acting is so much higher.” In a subsequent Zoom interview in September, she made a powerful case that issues of war and peace were very important in a district with such a heavy military presence. To those who hold her family against her, consider this: She would be a welcome addition in what have frankly been embarrassing congressional conversations about big tech.

The gap between Jacobs and Gómez in knowledge about crucial national issues is immense. And

Jacobs isn’t just an unusually informed candidate.

Gómez is disconcertingly unfamiliar with big topics.

In an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board before the March primary,

Gómez was impressive in discussing her years on the council and its work on housing, homelessness, climate change and more. But when asked about massive U.S. budget deficits and the mushrooming national debt, Gómez said “just like the local, the federal government is the same thing, you set priorities.” The two are not at all the same thing because so much federal funding is automatic and predetermined — starting with Social Security and

Medicare — and it can’t be readily reduced by new priorities. In a Zoom interview in September, as in the previous interview, Gómez’s views on U.S. foreign policy amounted to a declaration that she didn’t know much but was ready to learn on the fly.

If voters prefer Gómez because of her appealing personal history, her support by the Democratic establishment or a belief she will grow on the job — or because they see Jacobs as a carpetbagger — that’s politics. But Jacobs has done her homework

— and her taxes right — and Gómez hasn’t. We support Sara Jacobs in the 53rd Congressional District.