Nader Leads in Chula Vista Mayor’s Race

Councilman Tim Nader took an early lead Tuesday night in the election for mayor of Chula Vista.

Ten candidates competed in the special election to fill the unexpired term of Gayle McCandliss, who died of cancer in January, shortly after being sworn in as mayor of San Diego County’s second-largest city.

Trailing Nader in the balloting was former Councilman Frank Scott. Chris Chase and Nick Aguilar were in third and fourth place.

The top vote-getter will serve until 1994 in the full-time post, at a $41,460 annual salary.

Turnout was expected to be very light, between 15% and 25% of the city’s 58,000 registered voters, meaning that as few as 2,000 votes could be enough for the winner if the final balloting is tight, given the large number of candidates.

The leading candidates were Nader, a state criminal prosecutor and councilman; Scott, the former city councilman and stockbroker; Aguilar, an attorney and Sweetwater school district board member; and Chase, the South Bay Family YMCA executive director.

Other candidates were Bob Beyerle,Joe Albert, David Campbell, Fred Drew, G.L. (Jerry) Forbes, and Robert Piantedosi. Mark Boltz was on the ballot but had bowed out of the race.

Issues of growth were a major focus of candidate forums, given the rapid residential growth occuring in the eastern part of the sprawling city, with those who accepted developer contributions routinely attacked by opponents.

Nader, whom many observers picked as the man to beat, shocked many last month when he contributed $30,000 to his own campaign. Nader, who is employed by the California attorney general’s office, said he acted to silence critics who charged that he was beholden to special interests.

“I wanted to put to rest any rumors that I was being bought by special interest money. I put up to shut them up,” said the 33-year-old Nader.

Nader described himself as a controlled-growth candidate, saying he had voted “against half of the developments since I’ve been on the council” and criticized planning that emphasized more use of autos to go to and from businesses and residential areas.

The 40-year-old Chase was endorsed by popular former Mayor Greg Cox but was also labeled as the “developers’ candidate,” especially by Scott. Scott, 57, said he himself favored a “rational growth plan” to keep up with population pressure but to protect canyons and environmentally sensitive areas.

Chase defended his own views, saying that “growth is here for Chula Vista . . . this area is growing. The regional growth around is growing, and we can’t control that.”

Aguilar, 44, said he wanted to stop the division of Chula Vista into an affluent east side, with open space and low density, and the older, more established west side, which is marked by more multi-residential units.