San Diego, CA

Coronado Council Race Turns Bitter as City Politics Shift Left

Published

1 year ago

October 21, 2024

Coronado Council Race Turns Bitter as City Politics Shift Left

The city of Coronado, a carefully tended enclave of Americana tucked between naval bases at the northern tip of San Diego Bay, is so beloved by residents, one is running for city council on a platform of keeping the town exactly as it is.

“My motivation for running for city council is to maintain Coronado as that little slice of paradise for future generations to enjoy,” council candidate Mark Fleming wrote on his campaign website.

But Coronado is changing anyway. And one major change—a rapid rise in the number of registered Democrats—has raised the stakes in local politics and ushered in a new era of partisanship and sharp-elbowed campaigning.

The latest example: Earlier this month, Christine Mott, a Democratic city council candidate, filed complaints with the county district attorney and the state Fair Political Practices Commission alleging that Republican Mayor Richard Bailey was unfairly—and illegally—maligning her and a fellow Democratic candidate in an election recommendation email designed to look like an official government document. 

The complaints come amid a campaign marked by back-and-forth attacks in local news publications, accusations of underhanded tactics unbecoming of a proudly patriotic city and complaints of partisan bias in local community groups on social media.

“This campaign cycle has been less friendly than recent campaigns,” said Fleming, a first-time city council candidate whose campaign centers on his promise to maintain Coronado “as that little slice of paradise.”

“Frankly, I’ve been a target of some of it myself,” Fleming said. “There’s a lot of partisan politics that has weighed into our local community.”

A decade ago, voter registration in Coronado was roughly two to one in favor of Republicans. Since then, the number of Republicans has declined and Democrats have almost pulled even.

Control of both the mayor’s office and the city council is at stake. Both parties have endorsed candidates, and several issues—especially affordable housing, the environment and support for local schools—have become the subject of intense debate.

Mott’s FPPC complaint stems from an Oct. 6 email sent by Bailey to recipients of his newsletter. The email, headlined “Mayor Bailey’s Election Recommendations,” includes endorsements in local and statewide races, along with a red-letter “City Council Warning” urging readers not to vote for Mott or fellow Democrat Laura Wilkinson Sinton.

The email slams Mott for being politically inexperienced and “profiting off the backs of Coronado taxpayers,” a reference to a lawsuit Mott helped to file last year that stopped the city from chopping down five pine trees near a lawn bowling court.

The email calls Wilkinson “off-putting,” ignorant about important local issues and dishonest about her leadership role in local nonprofits and her work as a cannabis entrepreneur.

At the top of the email is a letterhead image that features an image of a crown surrounded by the words “51st Mayor Coronado CA.”

Mott’s complaint claims that the letterhead image, which resembles the city seal of Coronado, illegally misleads voters by giving them the impression that Bailey’s personal election preferences are endorsed by the city government.

“Your average Joe who receives this email might think this is a legitimate email from the city endorsing three Republican candidates and trashing and defaming two female Democratic candidates,” Mott said. “These are the kind of terrible political tricks Laura and I are dealing with.”

Bailey called Mott’s accusation “frivolous.” He said he created the letterhead image years ago using a free online graphics app called Canva. “Every elected official at local, state and federal office endorses candidates, and this is no different,” he said. “I suspect they’re upset I shared their record and experience with voters.” 

Bailey said it is Democrats, not Republicans, who are lowering the tone of Coronado’s election. “When they can’t campaign on their record or experience, they tend to resort to silly accusations,” he said.

Republicans in the race pointed to recent Democratic attempts to tie them to a controversial San Diego megachurch that drew protesters when it started a satellite congregation in Coronado earlier this year.

A political organization affiliated with the church recently issued a guide to voters that includes endorsements of several Republican candidates in Coronado races. Left-leaning contributors to local social media groups were quick to trumpet the guide as evidence of right-wing extremism in local Republican politics. “The administrators on those Facebook sites jumped right on that,” Fleming said.

All four endorsed candidates told local news organizations they never sought the church’s endorsement and weren’t contacted by its representatives. Several condemned the church’s message and asked it to withdraw its support.

Republicans also complained that Democratic candidates are allowed to comment freely on local social media groups and even post advertisements, while Republicans are sometimes blocked or face insulting backlash from commenters.

Democrats countered that Republicans have used deceptive online tactics such as a recent so-called “push poll” that asked participants in a local social media group their opinions about local races using questions that were worded to favor Republicans and provide unflattering information about their rivals.

“We have found ourselves time and time again facing attacks from conservative groups and their many-armed octopus branches,” Mott said. “I’m running to bring respect and dignity back to Coronado.”

Thad Kousser, a political scientist at University of California, San Diego, said elections often become more partisan, intense and bitter when communities experience rapid change, including changes in political preference. “When the stakes for control for a city get high, both sides get motivated and mobilized,” he said.

Kousser said Coronado is the last remaining majority-Republican city in coastal San Diego County. Like many affluent coastal constituencies, it began trending blue following the election of Donald Trump. “Trump’s elevation as the voice of the Republican party really flipped many moderate voters,” he said.

If current trends continue, Kousser said Coronado could become majority Democratic in just a few years. “It’s part of the long-term trend that we’ve seen in California,” he said.

Whatever the electoral future holds, it’s not inevitable that Coronado will split along partisan lines. For all their rancor toward one another, candidates in this year’s officially non-partisan election mostly agree on key issues. All vow to tackle the Tijuana River sewage crisis, shore up the city’s stormwater infrastructure and seek a balance between growth and preserving the city’s small-town character.

Candidates in both parties also pointed to Coronado’s longstanding ties to the military as an inspiration to keep the tone civil.

“This is a Navy town. Honor matters,” Wilkinson Sinton said.

“Coronado is a very special place,” Fleming said. “You can’t go many places in the U.S. where you feel the level of patriotism you see in Coronado. It crosses party lines.”

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San Diego, CA

Escondido officials need to enforce rules on illegal fireworks

Published

5 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Press Room

Escondido officials need to enforce rules on illegal fireworks

Dec. 30 marked the one-year anniversary of our Facebook community group, Escondido Fights Illegal Fireworks: Coco’s Crusade. While awareness has increased, illegal fireworks continue unchecked. On Christmas Eve, our neighborhood was again bombarded. Our dog was shaking uncontrollably and had to be sedated — no family should have to medicate a pet to survive a holiday. This is not a minor inconvenience. Across the city, parents struggled to get children to sleep, residents with PTSD experienced severe distress and workers were left exhausted. These are deliberate, illegal acts that disrupt entire neighborhoods.

Other cities have taken decisive action by using drones and deploying officers on key nights. While Escondido’s mayor and council say they are listening, current measures lack urgency and enforcement. Families are fleeing town or sitting in cars for hours simply to find peace. Illegal fireworks violate noise ordinances and can constitute animal cruelty. Strong, immediate enforcement is required.

— Heather Middleton, Escondido

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San Diego, CA

As shelter requests fail, San Diego leaders weigh changing who gets a bed

Published

17 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Press Room

As shelter requests fail, San Diego leaders weigh changing who gets a bed

For years, asking for shelter in the city of San Diego has often been a first-come, first-serve process.

Everyone deserves a safe place to sleep, the thinking goes, so anyone living outside should have a shot.

But as the region’s overwhelmed shelter system continues to reject staggering numbers of requests, some leaders are considering overhauling that approach by creating a priority list based on vulnerability.

“Do we need to look at how we prioritize differently?” Lisa Jones, president and CEO of the San Diego Housing Commission, asked during a board meeting in December. “Maybe we have to look at our most vulnerable that are on our streets and think about it from that perspective.”

Local city-funded shelters have long been at or near capacity, with the pressure becoming particularly intense in recent months.

In November, San Diego received 2,442 requests for a bed, according to Casey Snell, a senior vice president at the housing commission. Only 199 of those led to someone getting a spot. That’s a success rate of around 8%.

The main reasons most requests failed were familiar ones: There just weren’t spots available.

The bigger picture is not much better. Since July, people have asked for shelter 12,275 times. A little more than 1,200 succeeded, meaning about 9 out of every 10 requests failed. “What happens with credibility and effectiveness when people repeatedly get a negative answer?” Housing Commissioner Ryan Clumpner asked during the same meeting. “Do they keep requesting, or do people, the more times they hear ‘no,’ begin becoming more resistant?”

Some residents are certainly asking more than once. November’s 2,442 beds requests were collectively made by 868 separate households, officials said. That’s an average of about 3 asks per individual.

‘It makes sense to me’

The idea of trying to rank those requests appears to have at least some supporters within both the service world and the homeless population.

Bob McElroy, CEO of the nonprofit Alpha Project, said in an interview that using vulnerability lists would be a return to how shelters operated decades ago. “I’ve been irritated all these years when they turned away from it,” he noted. Disabled residents, older adults, those who’ve been outside the longest — McElroy believes it’s only fair to give them first dibs.

That’s roughly the process already in place at Father Joe’s Villages, at least when it comes to beds relying on private, not government, funding. The stricter criteria applies to hundreds of spots in the nonprofit’s family, sober-living and recuperative care programs.

“We look at, for instance, is a person pregnant?” said Deacon Jim Vargas, Father Joe’s president and CEO. “If they have very small children, or if they’ve given birth recently, they’re considered more vulnerable.”

Gustavo Prado, a 52-year-old who’s been homeless for the last two years, agreed with the general concept. “It makes sense to me,” he said while standing on a downtown San Diego sidewalk.

Prado added that he’d been unable to get into a local shelter program. Speaking a few days before Christmas, he was trying to plan for the coming rain. “I gotta get a tarp or something.”

Shelters do sometimes focus on specific populations. There’s a program downtown, for example, for women and children, and another for young adults. But guidelines known as the Continuum of Care Community Standards, which help dictate who’s allowed in, don’t have prioritization criteria.

In response to a request for comment about changing the status quo, city spokesperson Matt Hoffman wrote in an email that “staff are always open to evaluating new tools to better serve those in need.”

Leaders will likely discuss the possibility of creating a priority list at another public meeting before a specific proposal is drawn up.

More requests

One factor potentially driving the surge in demand is San Diego’s decision to expand encampment sweeps.

In July, the city signed an agreement with the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, to get access to land that would normally be under state jurisdiction. Since then, many areas near freeways have been cleared of tents and dozens of individuals did receive some form of shelter. A few even made it into a permanent housing.

Yet they appear to be in the minority.

Housing commission officials have so far declined to blame the Caltrans agreement for the increase in requests, saying mainly that they’ll continue studying this trend. They did, however, note a few other factors at play.

For one, the city may be getting better at fielding requests for shelter. On the same day local crews got access to Caltrans property, San Diego opened a homelessness resource center in the downtown library. That office, known as The Hub, coordinates with the help line 211 to make it easier for people to ask for aid. “It’s actually streamlining our referral process, which is another reason you see a big jump,” added Snell, the vice president.

In addition, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office continues to roll out a phone app that lets outreach workers look for shelter beds in the same way a tourist might search for hotel rooms. While it used to take hours to determine whether facilities had any openings, officials have said this program can flag vacancies within minutes.

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San Diego, CA

11 from Point Loma High get All-CIF sports honors

Published

1 day ago

January 3, 2026

Press Room

11 from Point Loma High get All-CIF sports honors

Eleven members of Point Loma High School sports are among the All-CIF honorees announced recently in the San Diego Section, including a Coach of the Year.

Here are the Pointers selected:

Football

First team

Romeo Carter, wide receiver, senior

Mateo Correa, linebacker, senior

Second team

Brandon Bartocci, defensive line, senior

Owen Ice, defensive back, senior

Teams are based on a vote of media members and the Coaches Advisory Committee.

Girls cross country

Coach of the Year

Keith DeLong

DeLong guided Point Loma’s girls team to its best finish in school history this past season, placing second at the CIF Division III State Championships after winning the San Diego Section Division III title.

First team

Isabella Ramos, senior

Second team

Kelly McIntire, junior

Nicole Witt, senior

Sara Geiszler, senior

Teams are based on finishes at the San Diego Section championships.