Write-In Candidate Leads a Tight Mayoral Race, But No Winner Yet

The races for San Diego mayor and city attorney were too close to declare winners Wednesday as election workers began counting 121,000 absentee and provisional ballots and checking the validity of a similar number of write-in votes.

In the mayor’s race, Councilwoman Donna Frye, a write-in candidate with 35% of the vote, held a narrow lead over Mayor Dick Murphy (34%) and county Supervisor Ron Roberts (31%).

Michael Aquirre, a former federal prosecutor and activist litigator, maintained a wafer-thin lead -- 50.25% to 49.75% -- over Executive City Atty. Leslie Devaney in the race to succeed City Atty. Casey Gwinn, who was blocked from running because of term limits.

Bob Glaser, a political consultant unaligned with any of the candidates, said the two races show that San Diego voters want “a change of culture at City Hall” after the city’s worst financial debacle.

County Registrar of Voters Sally McPherson said the final tally might not be finished until next week.

In other results from Tuesday’s election, a measure to boost the power of the San Diego mayor was leading. But one to authorize the sale of land beneath the 43-foot cross atop Mt. Soledad in La Jolla was trailing by a wide margin.

The sale was meant as a way to maintain the cross and yet satisfy a federal court ruling that public ownership of the land beneath the cross violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

With the defeat of the measure, a veterans group has offered to move the cross to nearby church property.

Countywide, voters overwhelmingly endorsed an advisory measure calling for the area’s many backcountry fire districts to be merged. The county’s patchwork system of fire protection became an issue after last year’s disastrous Cedar and Paradise fires.

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob said she would immediately put the issue of consolidating fire districts on the agenda of the Local Agency Formation Commission, a state-authorized agency dealing with governmental efficiency.

Mayoral hopeful Frye, a co-owner of a surfboard shop, declared her candidacy in late September after saying neither Murphy nor Roberts had a plan to deal with the city’s $2-billion pension deficit. “It just seemed like the same old, same old,” she said.

She was helped by a change in voting procedures. For the first time in decades, voters were given paper ballots and a marking pen, making it easier for a write-in candidate.

Frye told voters that the city’s financial health was worse than Murphy or Roberts would admit.

“I told the truth,” she said. “It’s a novel idea.”

Murphy, formerly a city councilman and Superior Court judge, had initially said he would not seek a second term. But he was persuaded last spring by supporters to change his mind.

Even as Frye pushed ahead, Murphy was open to the possibility of defeat. “If I lose, I’ll be disappointed, but heartbroken is too strong,” he said.

For Roberts, an architect, this would be his third failed run for mayor. He was defeated by Murphy in the 2000 runoff and beaten in the primary in 1992.

“Sometimes you have to let go of a dream,” Roberts said Wednesday.

The mayoral winner could become the first in city history to enjoy increased authority. The measure to give the mayor veto power over council actions and greater control of the city budget and staff was leading.

Murphy and Roberts backed the “strong mayor” measure. Frye did not.

“I already feel strong,” she joked Wednesday.