Democrat David Alvarez was leading the race for the 80th Assembly District with 38.42 percent of the vote when the second round of election returns were released shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday.
Fellow Democrat Georgette Gómez was close behind with 36.98 percent, while Republican Lincoln Pickard followed with 24.6 percent. Those early returns represented mail ballots submitted before Election Day, and included 14 percent of registered voters in the district.
The Registrar of voters stated that its office had counted 34,406 ballots Tuesday night and projected that there were about 6,500 votes left uncounted. The next set of ballots counted would be released Thursday after 5 p.m., the Registrar announced.
Alvarez, a former social worker who held a San Diego City Council seat from 2010 to 2018, and Gómez, an environmental advocate who served on the San Diego City Council from 2016 until 2020, are vying to fill the open seat left by former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez. Pickard, a lesser known Republican opponent, is making his fifth run for the seat.
The special election will fill the vacancy for the remainder of a term that ends in December. If no candidate wins a majority of votes, the two front-runners will go to a runoff held during the June 7 primary election. The numbers released Tuesday show that a June runoff is nearly certain.
A separate primary election will also be held in June for the subsequent term, which starts in 2023.
Early voting has been under way for several weeks, but Tuesday marked the official Election Day and the last chance for the district’s 250,000 registered voters to cast ballots. Special elections typically draw far fewer voters than general elections, and the Registrar of Voters estimated that this race would likely have 15 percent to 20 percent turnout.
Races with low participation can often turn on a small number of votes, so candidates spent Tuesday making final pitches to supporters. Alvarez said he started at 6 a.m. waving signs in Barrio Logan and Chula Vista as commuters left for work, then canvassed neighorhoods with his wife, Xochitl, from about 10 a.m. through the afternoon, checking in with specific voters who had pledged to support him but whose names had not yet shown up on rolls of ballots cast.
“This is what getting out the vote is,” he said. “It really means getting people out to vote.”
Gómez alternated between displaying signs at intersections and calling supporters with election reminders. Tuesday afternoon she stood near a freeway off-ramp at Telegraph Canyon Road in Chula Vista with her campaign team, dancing to J.Lo and holding “Gómez Democrat for Assembly” placards with a leaf motif over the “G” symbolizing her focus on environmental justice.
Candidate Georgette Gómez holds a sign and waves to passing motorists on the corner of Telegraph Canyon Road and Nacion Avenue in Chula Vista in an effort to get votes for the vacant seat in the 80th Assembly District.
(Kristian Carreon/For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“I’m feeling really strong,” she said. “Just the amount of energy and the folks who supported our campaign is what feeds me. It reminds me why I’m doing this.”
The seat opened when Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez resigned Jan. 3 to take a job as chief executive of the California Labor Federation, leaving a major political opening in the district.
Gonzalez had served for nearly a decade in Sacramento, rising to become the influential chairwoman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Known for her quick wit and passion for labor rights, she passed bills that require paid sick leave for part-time employees and double time pay for workers scheduled on Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays.
Late last year, however, California state redistricting changes zoned Gonzalez’s neighborhood of City Heights out of the 80th District. Under the new maps she could not run for re-election in her district without moving to a new home. She had also recently undergone treatment for breast cancer. Around the same time, the Labor Federation voted to offer her its top leadership position, but had not yet negotiated to hire her.
Before Gonzalez announced her decision whether to run for another term, Gómez and Alvarez both laid claims to the seat, announcing on social media their plans to run if she did not seek re-election. Alvarez posted a video on YouTube stating his plans to seek the potentially open seat, while Gómez sought, and eventually received, Gonzalez’s endorsement for the position.
“There are high expectations for those who hold the seat, as there should be, but I’m ready,” Gómez said. “I’ve been fighting these issues for two decades.”
Gómez also received the endorsement of the San Diego Democratic Party. Alvarez was endorsed by the San Diego Union Tribune Editorial Board.
The open Assembly seat is a coveted position for both lifelong San Diegans. Gómez and Alvarez were born and raised in the Barrio Logan area, graduated from San Diego State University and launched their political careers at City Hall.
Both worked in advocacy roles before being elected to office: Gómez with the Environmental Health Coalition and Alvarez as a social worker and staffer for former state Sen. Denise Ducheny.
Alvarez lives in Logan Heights with his wife and two school-aged children, while Gómez and her wife, Raquel Pacheco, live in Barrio Logan.
The candidates express long-held goals of representing their home communities, and cite their desire to right social wrongs they witnessed in childhood, including poverty, crime and pollution. Alvarez said his top priorities include building a university in Chula Vista and improving public safety. Gómez said she would focus on environmental justice, income inequality and streamlining permitting processes for housing construction.
Pickard has run for the seat unsuccessfully four times before. In the 2013 special election he joined the ballot as a write-in independent candidate, and in the 2016, 2018 and 2020 general elections Pickard ran as a Republican.
He said he opposes firearm restrictions, wants to lift remaining COVID-19 restrictions and opposes legal abortion. Pickard said he doesn’t believe human activity has caused climate change and supports increasing oil drilling in California.
 9 (MDAwODM4NDIzMDEzMjM4NzEyMDkwNThkNQ004))
