New faces take lead in City Council race

Candidates Jose Rodriguez and Marcus Bush took a lead Tuesday in the race for two City Council seats in National City, according to early returns from the county registrar of voters.

In the race to replace longtime City Clerk Michael Dalla, who is set to retire, voters favored Luz Molina over Javier Alvarado, according to the unofficial results.

Molina is a contract and grant officer at UC San Diego. Alvarado is a representative and auditor for the Laborers’ International Union of North America, LIUNA Local 89.

Meanwhile, longtime City Treasurer Mitch Beauchamp was poised to win re-election. He did not face a challenger.

In the City Council race, Rodriguez and Bush appeared on the ballot along with five other candidates: incumbents Jerry Cano and Gonzalo Quintero, as well as Daniel Perez, Ditas Delossantos Yamane and Lorna Delos Santos. The top two vote-getters will win the seats of Cano and Quintero.

The City Council appointed Quintero in February 2019 after Mayor Alejandra Sotelo-Solis, a former councilwoman, won her mayoral bid and vacated a council seat. Cano was elected in 2012.

Rodriguez and Bush, who were in the lead Tuesday in the City Council race, outraised other council candidates.

According to data from the City Clerk’s Office, Rodriguez’s campaign took in $101,000. Labor unions based in San Diego, Long Beach and Sacramento provided the largest contributions.

Bush reported almost $66,000. The largest contributions to his campaign came from labor unions in San Diego, Long Beach and Los Angeles.

Yamane reported about $21,000, including $10,000 from the California Real Estate PAC. Personal loans were the largest contributions to Quintero’s campaign, which raised about $4,000, and Perez’s campaign, which took in about $1,000.

Delos Santos and Cano didn’t report campaign contributions.

In the race to replace Dalla, Alvarado’s campaign totaled about $78,000 in campaign contributions, more than four times the amount collected by Molina’s campaign, at $16,500, according to the City Clerk’s Office.

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