Early voting has begun for California's June 7th primary election. In San Diego, primaries are being held for City Council Districts 2, 4, 6, and 8. In District 6, three candidates are running to take over the seat currently held by Councilmember Chris Cate. He has represented that district for eight years and is termed out.
San Diego City Council District 6 includes the neighborhoods of Clairemont Mesa, Kearny Mesa, Mira Mesa, Park Village, Rancho Penasquitos and Sorrento Valley.
Democrat Tommy Hough is a former radio host and has worked at environmental non-profits in the area. He ran for the seat in 2018 and says his number one focus is on roads and infrastructure, but he also wants more transit for people living in Mira Mesa and to look into potentially rezoning parts of the district for affordable housing that he thinks have been overlooked.
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"Instead of going to south University City where people already live, instead let's consider a place like the north area of Miramar where really there is not a living soul after 6 p.m.," Hough said.
Democrat Kent Lee is a non-profit leader. He's a first-generation Asian-American, father of two, and a small business advocate. He says his priorities are housing attainability and making sure that the city is transparent and communicating effectively with residents. He also wants to make sure that city services are getting to people in an efficient way.
"I think about a lot of the disinvestment within our communities, especially when we look at things like infrastructure potholes, street repairs and street lights, but even updates to parks and libraries that we have that are part of sort of the basic city services that we provide," Lee said.
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Republican candidate Jane Glasson is a special education assistant and ran for City Council in 2014. She says she's against vaccination mandates and wants to focus on the district's roads and parks.
"People are concerned about the roads, like Mira Mesa Boulevard is beaten up and Parkdale and Gold Coast and Jade Coast, they’re beaten up and they should be repaved," she said.
District 6 was recently redrawn after the last census. The eastern part of the Clairemont neighborhood was replaced by University City and political analysts say that likely will make the district a little bit more left-leaning. It also now has a larger Asian population, going from 33% Asian previously to almost 41% now.
The top two vote-getters will advance to the general election in November.
