Frye to Face Sanders in San Diego

SAN DIEGO —  Voters Tuesday determined that Councilwoman Donna Frye, a Democrat, environmental activist and surf shop owner, will face former Police Chief Jerry Sanders in a mayoral runoff election this fall.

With all the votes counted in the special election, Frye had 43% of the votes, and Sanders was second with 27%, ahead of business owner Steve Francis with 24%.

Because she received less than 50% of the votes, Frye must now face Sanders in a Nov. 8 runoff.

Frye, wearing a Hawaiian lei, met supporters at a hamburger restaurant near City Hall, eschewing the San Diego political tradition of renting a ballroom on election night.

She said she had hoped to win outright but was not disappointed. “Obviously, you always hope we can get this thing done tonight, but I’m thrilled,” she said, adding that she was ready for a runoff “totally.”

Sanders, addressing a crowd of cheering supporters, noted that unlike Frye, he had never run for office.

“Eleven weeks ago we had no organization, no money, I had never run, many of you had never worked in a campaign, and look what we accomplished,” he said.

Voting appeared light throughout the city despite a drumbeat of media coverage in recent weeks that the city desperately needs a mayor to replace Dick Murphy, who resigned July 15. The city faces the biggest financial, legal and political problems in its history.

The election came amid political turmoil and a financial debacle, as well as public scorn for government unparalleled in the city’s history.

Murphy resigned after months of acrimony with City Atty. Michael Aguirre and continued controversy over the mayor’s alleged slowness in realizing the enormity of a pension deficit and its threat to city services.

The city attorney, district attorney and U.S. attorney launched separate investigations into possible conflicts of interest involving pension board members. The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing the city’s failure to disclose the deficit to Wall Street before bond sales.

Adding to the disarray at City Hall was the conviction last week of Deputy Mayor Michael Zucchet and Councilman Ralph Inzunza on corruption charges.

Zucchet was slated to become acting mayor after Murphy’s resignation. But he was convicted before he could preside over his first council meeting. Zucchet and Inzunza resigned within days of their convictions and the council must now schedule an election to fill those vacancies. The two face three to four years in prison when sentenced Nov. 9.

Meanwhile, City Council members have tried to persuade the public that, despite its problems, the city is not out of control. “We’re not sitting around down there. We’re all trying to make things better,” Councilman Tony Young said.

During the campaign, all mayoral candidates stressed that the election was a step toward salvaging the city’s battered reputation.

The candidates included a bankruptcy attorney, a Libertarian who wants to outsource government jobs and a Harley-Davidson dealer nicknamed New York Myke.

But of the 11 names on the ballot to succeed Murphy, only Frye, Francis and Sanders were true contenders, according to polls.

Although the mayor’s office is nonpartisan, the top candidates’ party loyalties were known.

Asked to name their mayoral role model, Frye said she liked the energy of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Sanders picked former San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson, and Francis cited former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Frye’s campaign continued the themes she established last fall when, as a write-in, she polled more votes than either Murphy or San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts. Her election bid was thwarted when a judge ruled that several thousand votes for Frye were not properly filled out, voiding them and naming Murphy the winner.

Frye, 51, co-owner of a surf shop with her husband, surfer Skip Frye, got involved in politics as an advocate of tougher clean-water standards after her husband and other surfers were sickened by polluted water. She became a familiar figure at City Council meetings and was popular with the media.

Elected to represent one of the city’s beachfront districts, she established herself as a maverick, unafraid to be the lone vote on the nine-member City Council. She opposed the 2002 pension benefit increase that led to the spiraling deficit and she loudly criticized the council for closed-door meetings.

Francis, 50, a former Nevada state legislator, has lived in the San Diego area for nearly two decades, but this was his first attempt at elected office. He owns a business that supplies nurses to hospitals and has made his business success a cornerstone of his campaign.

He derided Frye and Sanders as City Hall “insiders.” Backed by a $2-million TV advertising campaign, Francis rose from virtual obscurity to a deadlock with Sanders for second place behind Frye.

Sanders, 55, was on the San Diego Police Department for 26 years, the last six as chief. After leaving the chief’s job, he headed the local United Way and helped to restore its financial health and public image.

Low-key and detail-oriented, he has offered several reports on his plans to trim city government and persuade labor unions to accept a rollback of pension benefits. But he was snared in controversy late in the campaign when Francis accused him of secretly supporting increased taxes -- an allegation Sanders denied. None of the three major candidates supports a tax increase.

Pollsters said that despite Frye’s large lead, she would face a tough runoff contest with either Sanders or Francis, when Republicans can rally around a single candidate. Frye was the only Democrat and the only woman in the race.

Also on the Tuesday ballot was a measure asking voters to transfer the land beneath the cross atop Mt. Soledad to the federal government. Early returns indicated that more than 75% of the voters supported Proposition A. The federal courts have ordered the cross removed from public land.

Supporters have promised that the ballot measure will “save” the cross.

The issue has been in the courts for more than a decade and there have been two previous ballot measures that have sought to prevent the removal of the cross.

But the lawyer for a client who believes that the cross violates the constitutional separation of church and state has vowed more litigation if Proposition A wins.

On Monday, the council named Councilwoman Toni Atkins as deputy mayor, in effect, making her acting mayor until Murphy’s successor is selected. Atkins, a Democrat whose political base is the gay-lesbian community, represents a mid-city district and is an ally of Frye.