San Diego, Calif.- California has moved up its 2020 primary election to the beginning of March, three months ahead of when it was held in 2016.
As a result, 2020 mayoral campaigns are already in full swing. The non-partisan primary will be held March 3, 2020. Incumbent Kevin Faulconer is ineligible to run for a third term due to term limits.
The primary move is designed to increase the influence of the country's most populous state in deciding presidential candidates. But it also is impacting San Diego mayor's race, as candidates and their constituents begin vying for donors and media access.
Democrats Barbara Bry, Todd Gloria and No Party Preference candidate Cory Briggs, have all filed and announced their candidacies.
Barbara Bry and Cory Briggs joined IVN Beyond the Headlines to share their views on the most pressing issues San Diego is facing, and the solutions they propose to solve them.
An invitation has also been extended to Todd Gloria.
San Diego Union-Tribune Columnist Michael Smolens joined us on our IVN Podcast to discuss the candidates.
Todd Gloria
"People are very familiar with Todd Gloria, he was on the city council for two terms, served as interim mayor and was widely lauded across the spectrum for how he handled things as interim mayor. I think it also helped that he decided not to run in that special election, that way it sort of took electoral politics out of his duties. He is a very liked person, but particularly among the progressives and democrat party activists, they really like him a lot so that's a pretty good base of support. He's been in politics in San Diego for a long time and is a known entity for voters south of 8. But apart from the issues, you'll see a lot of focus on who Todd Gloria is, his mother was a hotel maid, his father a gardner, so he did not have a silver spoon in his mouth, if elected he would be the first minority mayor of San Diego and the first openly gay mayor."
Barbara Bry
"I think Barbara's chances are very good. She was a successful entrepreneur in the tech world with ProFlowers.com, so she's made a lot of money in that world, she was a journalist before, so that's the kind of sensibility she's bringing. It's interesting because she's been very critical of the Faulconer administration, and I think she would bring a keener sense of management, in addition to the whole innovation economy and city that she is promoting. I think both Todd and Barbara will have very progressive views on social issues, but clearly with her business background, she can parlay that into support from Chamber of Commerce types, as you say there is no name Republican in the race, and we may not see one."
Cory Briggs
"Is Cory just a message candidate? He says no, he wants to win. He is the grassroots candidate funding his campaign on his own. He views himself as the real truth teller, and as he mentioned he got into the race after the mayor's state of the city address talking about all the housing proposals that Cory thinks are outrageous and won't bring down the cost of housing, and only help developers, he's angry about that. Cory knows the city as he once said, he has sued the city over time, and he said you have to know how the gears work to throw a monkey wrench in it. He's made some enemies but also earned the respect for how things work in the city, and he thinks there's a lot of corruption, and not so much elected officials stuffing dollars into their pockets but the deals being made around town and the power structure. You're going to be hearing a lot about that."
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