The latest installment of San Diego’s serial of races for mayor is over. Kevin Faulconer will be the 36th mayor of San Diego (or 37th, if you count Interim Mayor Todd Gloria).
As of this writing, the final – though still unofficial – tally of votes from Tuesday’s special election to replace former mayor, Bob Filner stands at 137,296 (54.53 percent) votes for City Councilman Kevin Faulconer and 114,478 (45.47 percent) for Councilman David Alvarez – with 36,000 provisional and mailed ballots yet to be counted.
From the get-go, folks at the Alvarez campaign were saying it would be a long night. And a long night it was, as Faulconer’s 13-point lead, which had stood for most of the evening, eventually shrunk to about 10 points. But by 12:25 a.m. Wednesday, Alvarez conceded by Tweeting, “I want to congratulate Kevin Faulconer. It’s clear that he will be the next mayor of San Diego. I look forward to working with him.”
Faulconer’s supporters were predictably pleased.
“Looks like the voters of San Diego have turned the page on the past,” said Log Cabin Republicans of San Diego County president, Susan Jester. “They went for experience, character and steady leadership.”
Referred to in local television news, print and online reporting as “leaders of San Diego’s LGBT community,” Jester and San Diego LGBT Weekly columnist and city commissioner, Nicole Murray Ramirez endorsed and campaigned vigorously for Republican Faulconer.
Yet, some of San Diego’s most prominent LGBT leaders campaigned with equal vigor for Democrat Alvarez. One very prominent member of San Diego’s LGBT community who backed Alvarez was recently elected to be the next speaker of the California State Assembly.
“David has always been with us,” 78th District Assemblywoman Toni Atkins told LGBT Weekly moments before taking to the podium to reassure a throng of supporters gathered at the venue for Alvarez’s intended victory celebration in Barrio Logan.
“Kevin (Faulconer) didn’t originally support marriage equality the first time, when I brought it before the City Council,” Atkins said. “He has since changed positions; but David has always supported us.”
Yet even the endorsement of Atkins, herself a popular, even beloved former San Diego city councilwoman combined with a last-minute nod from the nation’s highest-ranking Democratic LGBT ally – the president of the United States – wasn’t enough.
Although at the time of our interview with Atkins in Barrio Logan, the candidate she had shown up for had not conceded the election, Atkins said ultimately either of the candidates would govern inclusively of lesbian, gay, bi and transgender San Diegans.
“Candidates in San Diego have to be LGBT-friendly,” Atkins said. “That’s our community; that’s our paradigm in San Diego now.”
At the Grant Hotel, Log Cabin Republican Jester was ebullient about her candidate’s apparent win.
“Kevin Faulconer’s vision for San Diego and the voters’ wishes fit perfectly together,” Jester said. “But it’s not over till it’s over.”
Councilman Faulconer posed for a photo with openly gay former city councilman and fellow Republican, Carl DeMaio.
Ironically, the apparent victor’s party was attended by markedly fewer supporters than that of his opponent across town in Barrio Logan.
And, while the Alvarez crowd was a sea of faces representing all ages and races one sees throughout San Diego, the assemblage of Faulconer supporters at the Grant was a decidedly more homogenous bunch.
But what they lacked in numbers and diversity, they made up for in excitement about the outcome of the election.
“This is a great night for San Diego – a great night for Republicans,” said San Diego Republican Party Chair Tony Krvaric. “America’s eighth largest city is now back in Republican hands even though the president weighed in and put his imprimatur on David Alvarez, this is a great night.”
However, Krvaric pointedly declined to specifically acknowledge or express appreciation for the support that his candidate received from LGBT voters.
In fact, asked if he valued the support his candidate received from the San Diego Chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, Krvaric said, “We welcome votes for Republican candidates from wherever they come.”
Earlier, at the Alvarez campaign, Democratic Party political consultant, Laura Fink said that that there was a difference between Kevin Faulconer’s stated support of LGBT equality and what she says is David Alvarez’s heartfelt support of equal rights for LGBT Americans.
“You can tell when someone is trumpeting it from the mountaintop or just stating a party line,” Fink said. “David was trumpeting even when it was unpopular with some of his supporters.”
