Sierra Club Backs 2 in Same Supervisor’s Race
In an unusual political decision, the local chapter of the Sierra Club on Wednesday endorsed two candidates in the 3rd District race for county supervisor.
The club backed county Planning Commissioner David Kreitzer and Encinitas City Councilwoman Pam Slater, saying that both deserved environmentalists’ votes. Four other candidates, including San Diego City Councilwoman Judy McCarty, have filed to run in the race to succeed Supervisor Susan Golding.
Michael Shames, chairman of the Sierra Club’s political committee, acknowledged there is a danger that the pair will split the environmental vote in the sprawling district, which stretches from La Costa south to Mission Beach and east as far as Rancho Bernardo and San Carlos.
But Shames said both candidates deserve “the green seal of approval.” Kreitzer has led a variety of environmental causes as chairman of San Diegans for Managed Growth, he said. Slater has taken a stand for slow growth, worked to protect lagoons and supported recycling in Encinitas.
The endorsement is an important environmental credential that gives candidates access to Sierra Club volunteers and its 17,000 members in San Diego and Imperial counties.
The Sierra Club will issue no endorsement in the 1st or 2nd supervisorial districts, Shames said. It has endorsed growth-management advocate Peter Navarro in the San Diego mayor’s race.
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