McColl Loses; Struiksma Lags in S.D. Election

In a dramatic upset marking the city’s first district-only elections since early this century, San Diego City Councilwoman Gloria McColl was defeated by longtime North Park activist John Hartley in Tuesday’s primary.

Demonstrating the added competitiveness produced by district elections, two other council members--Abbe Wolfsheimer and Ed Struiksma--were forced into November runoffs by their challengers’ strong showings.

With final, unofficial returns in, Hartley narrowly surpassed the 50% margin needed to avoid a November runoff in the 3rd District, finishing well ahead of McColl and long-shot Charles Ulmschneider. However, nearly 1,000 absentee ballots that were dropped off at polls citywide Tuesday and will not be counted until today could determine whether Hartley’s majority victory holds up or whether that contest, too, will go into a runoff.

Struiksma Finish an Upset

Struiksma’s second-place finish behind former City Hall aide and land-use planner Linda Bernhardt in the 5th District also rates as at least a mild upset--particularly in light of the fact that Struiksma spent more than his four opponents’ combined total.

In the 1st District, Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer finished first, but fell far short of the 50% threshold in a race in which her two opponents--former county supervisorial aide Bob Trettin and retired Navy Capt. Harry Mathis--also drew sizable percentages of the vote. Trettin narrowly edged Mathis for an apparent spot in the runoff, but the final absentee vote totals in that race also could change that outcome. Of the incumbents, only Councilwoman Judy McCarty, who faced token opposition in her bid for a second four-year term in the 7th District, was able to capitalize on a new provision in the city’s election law that makes outright victory possible for those candidates who draw majority votes in the primary.

Better Turnout Than Expected

With heavy rain Tuesday morning yielding to warm, sunny weather by early afternoon, the turnout in the primary was 28%, higher than most pre-election projections. Noting the lack of any other measures on the ballot, the candidates and their strategists had predicted that the turnout might be as low as 15%.

In the 5th District, Struiksma and Bernhardt were trailed by former Councilman Floyd Morrow and two other candidates, while McCarty easily dismissed the modest challenge posed by retired firefighter Kenneth Key in the 7th District.

The stage for Tuesday’s primary was set last November when San Diego voters narrowly approved a ballot proposition replacing the city’s two-tiered election system--district primaries followed by citywide runoffs between the top two vote-getters--with district-only contests.

In transforming the way that the San Diego City Council had been elected for the past half century, the move to district races prompted candidates to rethink traditional strategies, added weight to neighborhood-oriented issues, affected fund raising and left other indelible marks on the campaigns for the four council seats at stake.

Beyond allowing candidates to win election outright in the primary, the other major structural change imposed by passage of Proposition E is that runoffs, if necessary, also will be confined to districts. By virtue of the runoffs’ smaller geographic area, dogged door-to-door politicking and grass-roots organization--while perhaps not the equal of big campaign contributions--at least enable candidates to be competitive with well-heeled opponents.

That, at least, was the fervent hope of this year’s challengers, each of whom was heavily outspent by the incumbents in the council’s four odd-numbered districts. Though the shift to district races was expected to reduce campaign costs by largely eliminating the need for the expensive TV and radio ads necessary to reach a citywide audience, the primary’s price tag will approach $1.2 million, with nearly 70% of that being spent by the four incumbents.

In the 1st District, which covers the city’s northern tier, Wolfsheimer found both her four-year record and often abrasive personality under attack from Mathis and Trettin.

While the 50-year-old Wolfsheimer portrayed herself as an outspoken critic of development, her opponents, whom she derisively dismissed as “the Bulldozer Boys,” argued that her strained working relationship with some of her colleagues seriously undermined her effectiveness. In the later stages of the race, however, the two challengers, recognizing the probability that only one of them would survive to the runoff, spent as much time criticizing each other as they did Wolfsheimer.

Throughout the campaign, Trettin, 34, trumpeted his resume--seven years on the staff of former Councilman Bill Mitchell, whom Wolfsheimer defeated in 1985, and subsequent three years working for county Supervisor Susan Golding--as evidence of his “decade of first-hand” experience with critical 1st District issues. Seeking to carve out a niche between Wolfsheimer and Trettin, the 56-year-old Mathis tried to position himself as a solid, if decidely unflashy, team player.

3rd District a Case Study

The 3rd District contest was widely regarded as a case study of the political impact of the change to district elections.

Running for reelection for the third time since being appointed in 1983, the 58-year-old McColl benefited from the considerable name-recognition and fund-raising advantages that come with incumbency, which was reflected in a 3-to-1 spending edge over Hartley.

Mindful of the changed political realities of district races, Hartley, a 46-year-old longtime community activist who ran a distant third to McColl in 1983, sought to overcome that formidable obstacle by blending an aggressive 6-month grass-roots campaign with simmering neighborhood discontent over crime and other issues.

Long-shot Ulmschneider, meanwhile, was essentially a political footnote whose potential impact was limited to perhaps forcing a runoff by siphoning off votes from the two front-runners.

In the 5th District, Struiksma drew four opponents--more than any other incumbent--in his bid for a third four-year term. Though that splintered the opposition, his challengers argued that the relatively large field reflected strong dissatisfaction with Struiksma, in particular, with the consistently pro-development voting record of the 42-year-old former police officer.

Battle for Runoff Spot

With even Struiksma recognizing that a 50%-plus primary victory was statistically, if not politically, unlikely in a five-candidate race, much of the attention focused on the Morrow-Bernhardt battle for the second slot in an anticipated November showdown with the incumbent.

Morrow, a 56-year-old lawyer and longtime Democratic leader, sought to parlay his populist style of campaigning and relatively high name recognition from his long political career into a place in the November runoff for the seat that he held from 1965-1977. Former City Hall aide Bernhardt, 30, hammered away at Struiksma’s “Bulldozer Ed” image, frequently citing the Sierra Club’s description of him as the council’s “most dangerous” member.

The two other 5th District candidates--lawyer Mike Eckmann and marketing consultant Bob Switzer--conceded that their slim hopes for an upset hinged on a badly divided vote.

Arguably the most politically secure of the four incumbents, McCarty faced only token opposition from retired firefighter Key, 52, in the 7th District, which covers most of northeastern San Diego. Viewing overconfidence as her major obstacle, McCarty, 49, waged an aggressive $120,000 campaign--20 times more than Key--designed to produce the landslide victory widely expected of her.

Election Results

1st Council District

140 of 140 Precincts Reporting

Votes % Abbe Wolfsheimer, i 11,119 43.2 Bob Trettin 7,382 28.7 Harry Mathis 7,247 28.1

3rd Council District

102 of 102 Precincts Reporting

Votes % John Hartley 7,822 50.5 Gloria McColl, i 6,347 40.9 Charles Ulmschneider 1,332 8.6

5th Council District

103 of 103 Precincts Reporting

Votes % Linda Bernhardt 7,116 38.8 Ed Struiksma, i 6,015 32.8 Floyd L. Morrow 3,703 20.2 Mike Eckmann 1,101 6.0 Bob Switzer 386 2.1

7th Council District

105 of 105 Precincts Reporting

Votes % Judy McCarty, i 9,008 65.3 Kenneth R. Key 4,780 34.7