San Diego

Ending a semantic dispute in the San Diego City Council 6th District race, city officials on Tuesday rejected candidate Bob Ottilie’s request that his opponent, Bruce Henderson, be forced to alter his sample ballot statement for the November general election.

In asking the city clerk’s office to amend Henderson’s ballot statement, Ottilie accused Henderson of misrepresenting his occupation and primary victory in an attempt to mislead voters in the Nov. 3 election.

Ottilie objected to Henderson’s description of his 4.7-percentage-point victory in the Sept. 15 primary as a “landslide,” as well as his description of himself as a “community leader” in the sample ballot statement, which will be mailed to all registered voters. Henderson and Ottilie, both lawyers, finished first and second in the five-candidate primary with 29.4% and 24.7% of the vote, respectively.

The city, however, traditionally has given candidates wide latitude in their ballot statements--an approach that the clerk’s office and city attorneys adhered to Tuesday in refusing to order Henderson to change his ballot statement.

“We’re pleased that we’ve been vindicated and delighted that our opponent raised this issue, because it reminded voters that Bruce’s victory truly was a landslide,” said Hannah Edelstein, Henderson’s campaign consultant. “Now we’d like to move on to real issues.”