Voter Turnout Expected to Be Unusually Light

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the four San Diego City Council districts holding primary elections today.

The primary to determine the two finalists in each district who will run in a citywide contest Nov. 5 for council seats has attracted little interest, and Registrar of Voters Ray Ortiz predicted Monday that only 18.2% of the almost 270,000 people registered in districts 1, 3, 5 and 7 will vote today.

One race, for the District 7 seat vacant since Dick Murphy left the council to accept a municipal judgeship, has attracted a modicum of attention citywide, with three longtime local political aides--Evonne Schulze, Jeanette Roache and Judy McCarty--front-runners for the two openings on the general election ballot.

Don Parker, a photographer; William McKinley, a real estate counselor, and James McNelly, a management consultant, also are on the ballot. The 7th District stretches from Interstate 15 to the city’s eastern border, extending from University Avenue on the south to the northern reaches of Tierrasanta.

Schulze, a Democrat and member of Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s staff, is making a third bid to be elected to this seat. She was defeated by Jim Ellis in 1977 and by Larry Stirling in 1979.

McCarty, a Republican, resigned recently from her job as a district representative for Stirling (now a state assemblyman) to make the race.

Roache, also a Republican, worked on the staffs of both Murphy and former Councilman Fred Schnaubelt before taking her current position as an aide to Assemblywoman Sonny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas).

The remaining races feature incumbents--Bill Mitchell, seeking a third council term in District 1; Ed Struiksma, seeking a second term in District 5, and Gloria McColl, hoping to win her first full term in District 3.

Mitchell is opposed by law Prof. Abbe Wolfsheimer, regarded as a strong favorite to advance with Mitchell to the general election, and Mary O’Rourke, a La Jolla housewife. They are running in the northernmost district in the city, encompassing the communities of La Jolla, Rancho Bernardo and Rancho Penasquitos.

McColl faces only one opponent on today’s ballot, Arthur Salzberg, a doctoral candidate at United States International University. David Jackson and Lynda Tracee Vogelman have mounted write-in campaigns in the race. District 3 includes much of eastern San Diego, including Kensington, Normal Heights and North Park.

Struiksma and Robert Switzer, a computer software firm vice president, are assured of advancing to the November election because they are the only two candidates in District 5, which includes the communities of Linda Vista, Kearny Mesa, Mira Mesa and Scripps Ranch.