SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Three incumbent San Diego City Council members easily advanced to a November runoff election in their bids to retain their seats, while two candidates will vie for an open seat in the District 6 race.
In District 2, incumbent Jen Campbell will face dentist/professor Linda Lukacs in the November. They outpaced former Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña, who placed third, and three other candidates.
A physician, Campbell received key endorsements from Mayor Todd Gloria and the majority of the county's local and congressional representatives. City Council races, like all municipal races in California, are ostensibly nonpartisan. However, District 2 -- which encompasses Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, Point Loma and Clairemont neighborhoods -- leans heavily Democrat.
Campbell has in recent months led an effort to regulate and reduce the number of short-term vacation rentals with the intent of freeing up hundreds of residences for the strained housing market in San Diego. Additionally, she successfully pushed for regulations on sidewalk and pushcart vendors.
She has also joined efforts to ban flavored tobacco products and declare San Diego a safe city for reproductive freedoms and access to abortion.
Campbell survived a recall effort in 2021, led by residents opposed to her push to regulate short-term vacation rentals.
In District 4, meanwhile, incumbent Monica Montgomery Steppe will face off in November against Gloria Evangelista
District 8 Councilwoman Vivian Moreno had only one challenger in the race, Antonio Martinea, and both will advance to the November general election.
In the District 6 race, nonprofit director Kent Lee and Tommy Hough will advance in their bids to replace termed-out Councilman Chris Cate.
Hough serves as a county planning commissioner and has been actively campaigning for the position for several years. His priorities include hyperlocal focus on fixing roads and improving parks and libraries in the district.
He was endorsed by the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters and San Diego Progressive Democratic Club.
Lee is a first-generation immigrant who studied at UC San Diego. He is the executive director of Pacific Arts Movement, a media arts organization focusing on Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander cinema and which hosts the annual San Diego Asian Film Festival.
His priorities include improving neighborhood services, COVID-19 economic recovery, increasing housing access across all affordability levels and investing in the future of the Convoy Pan Asian Cultural and Business Innovation District.
Lee was endorsed by the San Diego County Democratic Party, the San Diego Regional Chamber, Mayor Todd Gloria and Council President Sean Elo-Rivera.
