Two contenders remain in a non-partisan mayoral race turned blue and red.
Republican Councilman Carl DeMaio gained 32 percent of San Diego’s votes, followed by Democratic U.S. Rep. Bob Filner with 30 percent.
The two front-runners for the November runoff appeared in NBC 7 studios the morning after the primary election, but refused to sit next to each other, apparently setting the tone for the next five months.
DeMaio said the first item on the agenda now that he knows he’s in the running to be elected is to start implementing his pension reform measure, Prop. B, which passed Tuesday night. In his speech to supporters, he said he planned to start working on implementing the measure Wednesday.
"We're going to hit the ground running in implementing Prop B to get pension reform, before I'm Mayor,” DeMaio said. “I'm not waiting to be mayor to get that done.”
“We are also going to continue to put pressure on City Council to act on hundreds of cost saving ideas in the Roadmap,” he added, referring to his economic recovery plan.
DeMaio's campaign out-spent Filner's campaign four-to-one, with a significant portion of his donations coming from himself. However, Filner's campaign will likely gain a high volume of donations from Democrats and independents who previously backed Fletcher.
Nathan Fletcher was expected to be in a close finish with Filner. But as the night progressed, the margin between the two widened, and the independent assemblyman came out with 24 percent of the vote. Fletcher met with reporters the morning after the elections. Asked what his next step would be, he responded: “I’m going surfing.”
Local
“Beyond that, I don’t know,” he added.
Dumanis assumed a loss early in the night on Tuesday. However, true to form, she remained cheery and optimistic.
"I’m proud of the campaign we ran, we ran a positive message, different than what people have seen and I think that’s a message of leadership.”
Turnout in Tuesday’s primary election was historically low. The latest figures from the San Diego County Registrar of Voters show about 26.8 percent of registered voters turned out to vote. In 2008, more than 60 percent of registered voters turned out for the primary.
About 135,000 absentee ballots have yet to be counted, so the voter turnout percentage may increase after those are counted.
For results from all races in San Diego County, check out our final elections results page.
Follow NBCSanDiego for the latest news, weather, and events: iPad App | iPhone App | Android App | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Instagram | RSS | Text Alerts | Email Alerts
