When polls closed Tuesday night, District 2 incumbent Jen Campbell had the lead with not quite 31% of the vote. Linda Lukas, the Republican dentist, had over 25% with 5300 votes versus Democratic challenger Lori Saldaña with 18% and 3780 votes – a mere 1520 votes apart.
But with 250,000 ballots yet to be counted County-wide, the challenger race was too close to call. The next tally will not be announced until Thursday, June 9, by 5 pm.
Local activist Mandy Havlik came in with 8% and 1700 votes and Joel Day from Clairemont had 13% and 2700 ballots.
Despite an amazing 70% of the voters in D2 voting for someone else, Campbell had this to say last night:
“It’s clear from our strong first-place finish that voters want a council member who builds consensus to move all of San Diego forward, just as I did in forging the landmark compromise to deliver common sense regulations in short-term vacation rentals,” she said.
Any incumbent who cannot even garner 50% in a race cannot say they’ve achieved a “strong first-place finish.” In contrast, in District 4 incumbent Monica Montgomery Steppe had over 70% of the vote with nearly 7800 ballots in her favor, and in District 8 incumbent Vivian Moreno had almost 63% of the vote with 5600 ballots. (There was no incumbent in the District 6 race.)
The Voice of San Diego agreed it was too soon to call the race:
It’s a good-news, bad-news situation for Campbell. She took first place easily, with a nearly 10 point gap over the closest challenger. But as of midnight, the former Council president had just 31 percent of the votes of the constituents she has represented for the last four years, which could indicate vulnerability in November.
Facing her is likely to be Linda Lukacs, a dentist and the lone Republican on the ballot, who has 25.06percent of the vote as of 10 pm Tuesday. Former Assemblywoman Lori Saldana could still catch her, but she’ll need to make up a 6.8-percentage-point gap as the Registrar continues counting votes in the days ahead.
Allies of Campbell had spent in support of Lukacs because they believe she’ll be easier to beat. (That sort of bank shot doesn’t always work.)