SANCHEZ HOLDS STRONG LEAD IN MAYORAL RACE
Weiss leads, Keim and Mackin tied in early council returns
Long-time City Councilwoman Esther Sanchez held a strong lead Tuesday in the crowded field of candidates for mayor of Oceanside, according to early returns from the San Diego County registrar of voters.
“(I feel) eternal gratitude that my community has supported me all these years, and they continue to support me,” Sanchez said Tuesday night. “Looking forward to working with our community in addressing our critical issues. I love Oceanside!”
Her fellow council members Christopher Rodriguez and Jack Feller were a distant second and third among the dozen names on the ballot. Sanchez and Feller both were first elected in 2000, and Rodriguez won his first term in 2018. Also in the top half of candidates were former council member and state assemblyman Rocky Chavez, long-time labor leader and community volunteer Rob Howard, and paramedic Ruben Major.
Also on the ballot for mayor were Perry Alvarez, David Joseph Turgeon, Fernando Garcia, Fabio Marchi, and Alvin L McGee, and Lou Uridel.
The one dozen candidates for Oceanside mayor is the largest field in more than 30 years. The biggest previous year was 1992, when the late Mayor Dick
Lyon won his first term with 47 percent of the votes cast for seven names on the ballot.
One reason for the large number of candidates this year was that there was no incumbent mayor asking for re-election. Long-time popular Mayor Jim Wood retired because of ill health a year after his election in 2016, when he received almost two-thirds of the votes.
Also bringing out the candidates were several controversial or attentiongetting issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the city’s handling of it.
Homelessness, affordable housing and renewable energy also were issues in Oceanside political campaigns.
Oceanside also had two City Council district elections Tuesday, in which the early unofficial results were too close to call. Peter Weiss, the city’s appointed mayor, held a strong lead over other the other District 4 candidates, Jane Marshall, Michelle Gomez and Morgan McCray.
Ryan Keim, a former Oceanside police officer who was appointed two years ago to an at-large seat on the council, and former Councilwoman Shari Mackin, were neck and neck in the race for the District 3 seat. Other candidates in that district, all significantly behind, were Amber Newman, Bill Batchelor, Kellie Davis, and David Ian Zernik. Batchelor announced Oct. 9 on Facebook that he was suspending his campaign.
This year’s election is the second half of a two-phase transition to the district system that Oceanside began in 2018. The mayor, city clerk and city treasurer positions continue to be elected at large.
Appointed City Clerk Zeb Navarro held a strong lead over his only opponent, Laura Richardson Bassett. City Treasurer Victor Roy was unopposed for re-election.
Two voting area seats are up for election on the Oceanside Unified School District board of trustees, with one incumbent unopposed for re-election and the other facing two challengers.
In Trustee Area 2, on the southern part of the school district, incumbent school board member Eleanor Juanita Evans, first elected in 2016, is running uncontested. And in Trustee Area 5, on the eastern portion of the district, incumbent Mike Blessing held a big lead in his bid for re-election against challengers Todd Maddison and Susana Arvizu.
Blessing has been a school board member in Oceanside since 2008, and currently serves as board president. He worked for the city of Oceanside for more than 40 years in planning and development. Maddison is a parent advocate who works part time as a data analyst, and Arvizu is listed by Voter’s Edge California as a homemaker.
Oceanside Unified also switched to the district election system in 2017, although it refers to each trustee’s territory as an “area.”