Mayor Counted: 98.2%
Donna Frye 43.26%
Jerry Sanders 27.02%
Steve Francis 23.53%
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20050726-2249-election.htmlFrye holds comfortable lead but appears headed to runoff
SAN DIEGO – With 41.6 percent of the precincts counted, Mayoral candidate Donna Frye appeared headed to a November runoff with Jerry Sanders in the race to be the next San Diego mayor.
Including absentees, Frye had 42.6 percent of the votes to Sanders' 27 percent and Steve Francis' 23.8 percent.
"I'm thrilled. I'm excited. Thank you San Diego," Frye told reporters at a rally outside of a downtown bar and restaurant.
"However the numbers play out I'm ready for it," she said.
Myke Shelby jokes: "I appreciate the people who voted for me, I'm going to find both of them and thank them personally."
Frye needed 50 percent-plus-1 to win the mayor's race outright, but said she wouldn't be disappointed if that didn't happen.
"Obviously, you always hope that we could get this done tonight," Frye said. "But, hey, I am thrilled."
Early polls had indicated that Sanders and Francis were locked in a tight race for second place, but as the night wore on, things looked better and better for former San Diego Police Chief Sanders.
"I still think it's pretty tight," Sanders said. "I am excited about the trend so far, but it's still early and we've got to look at a lot more numbers," Sanders said.
He also pointed out the differences he has with Frye.
"There are definitely differences between the two of us," he said. "We have very clear differences in how we have experience in working in large organizations."
The second-place finisher will face Frye on the Nov. 8 ballot, assuming a runoff is necessary.
In terms of actual numbers, those percentages meant Frye had 63,591 votes, Sanders 40,359 and businessman Francis 35,477. The other candidates in the race had far less support.
The votes represent 300 of the 721 precincts. Counting of the ballots cast during Tuesday's election may be finished before midnight, according to elections officials.
"We're cautiously optimistic," Sanders said at his campaign headquarters after seeing early returns. "We'll be patient and wait until the results come in."
Francis, who has a room near "Election Central" at the Westgate Hotel, said earlier that he wasn't counting on absentee balloting which were the first numbers released. That was before returns from the precincts began coming in.
"A lot of our campaign started after absentee ballots were already sent in," Francis said.
"So, for where we're at right now, I feel pretty good," he said before precinct returns started rolling in.
Earlier in the day, Frye expressed optimism.
"We've worked hard," Frye said as she voted in Clairemont Tuesday morning. "We've had people out today and all morning actually, going out, just talking to voters, and dropping off reminders to vote, get out the vote. We've got thousands of volunteers on the street and I feel ... good."
Frye also held a rally in North Park.
Francis spent the day by holding a rally downtown and meeting voters at Broadway and Second Avenue. He cast his ballot at the San Diego County Registrar of Voters office Monday.
Sanders voted Tuesday morning with his wife and two daughters at his side.
Eleven candidates ran in the special election to replace Dick Murphy, a former Superior Court judge who stepped down earlier this month to end a rocky tenure.
Hundreds of supporters of many of the candidates tonight jammed "Election Central" in the Versailles Room of the Westgate Hotel. The room is significantly smaller than cavernous Golden Hall, which had hosted election night festivities since 1978.
The room was so full after 8 p.m. that movement was difficult.
The front-runners' campaigns have centered primarily on addressing a $1.7 billion shortfall in the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System.
A decade of underfunding of the pension system has triggered federal investigations and led to the suspension of San Diego's credit rating – essentially crippling the city's ability to borrow money.
Frye's plan calls for changing the management of the pension fund by placing the fund under receivership. A court-ordered receiver could then be directed to waive the system's attorney-client privilege.
That would allow investigators to acquire sought-after documents related to the underfunding of the pension system. Audits of the city's 2003 and 2004 financial statements have been on hold pending the waiver.
"Without audited financial reports, the city cannot restore its credit ratings nor raise money to pay for much-needed city services and projects," Frye stated in campaign materials.
Frye, 53, has been on the City Council since 2001. She owns a surf shop in Clairemont with her husband, legendary surfer Skip Frye.
In a write-in campaign, she narrowly lost to Murphy in the election last November. She would have won if 5,551 disputed ballots – on which voters failed to fill in a required write-in "bubble" next to her name – had been counted.
Francis, founder of Carmel Valley-based AMN Healthcare, has proposed rolling back certain pension benefits that he maintains were granted illegally in 1996 and 2002 and contributed to the pension debt.
"The city government will collapse under the weight of such an outrageous, unfair and illegal burden," Francis stated in a campaign letter.
Francis, 50, a former Nevada legislator, has pledged to resolve San Diego's financial problems without increasing taxes or filing for bankruptcy.
Sanders, 54, was with the San Diego Police Department for 26 years. Following that, he was credited with turning around the local chapters of the American Red Cross and United Way.
He has called for a full accounting of the pension system problems and proposed renegotiating labor agreements.
"It's in everybody's best interest to have a solid pension plan that will fund pensions well into the future," he said last month.
Among the others running in the special election were bankruptcy attorney Pat Shea, motorcycle shop owner Myke Shelby, taxpayer advocate Richard Rider, environmentalist Jim Bell and businessman Jeremy Ledford.
Shelby said he was hoping for better and that he is done with politics.
"I'm not happy," Shelby said. "I didn't run a very good campaign."
Rider said he will continue to keep an eye on City Hall.
"We formed a good organization," Rider said. "We plan to monitor the runoff and whatever the next mayor does."
"One-hundred-eighty days later there's always a recall," he said.
Poll
