Sean Elo-Rivera, the Ninth District candidate who beat labor candidate Kelvin Barrios
The Cinderella story of last year s November San Diego city council runoff is that of Sean Elo-Rivera, the Ninth District candidate who beat labor candidate Kelvin Barrios, forced from the race as campaign finance chargespiled up against him.
Steve Black
Cisterra website
Barrios was flush with cash from the union he is employed by, along with some of the city s biggest developers, including $2100 from two top Cisterra Development employees, records show.
But after the election, Cisterra s cash, in the form of a total $1200 in contributions made by Cisterra chief Steve Black and company principal Jason Wood went to Elo-Rivera on November 13 and 17, respectively.
Community organizer has multi-ethnic background, track record of building trust among colleagues
“The challenge for those of us entering office today is not to return things to normal,” he said. “Normal is not good enough.”
San Diego needs to make unprecedented progress on housing affordability, climate change, transportation, healthy neighborhoods, public safety and justice for all, Elo-Rivera said.
Mayor Gloria offered similar sentiments.
“Let’s be done with saying we are just America’s Finest City,” he said. “It’s time for us to dare to be a truly great city.”
Gloria also noted that he is the city’s first openly gay mayor in addition to being the first mayor of color, which he said reflects San Diego’s changing demographics.
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The first women to hold top elected offices in San Diego County local governments after women in California got the right to vote weren’t chosen at the ballot box.
It was a pattern in the early years. Soon after California gave women the right to vote in 1911 and the 19th Amendment enfranchised women nationally in 1920, many of the groundbreaking women in San Diego County politics got a foothold in the top tiers of government when powerful men chose them to fill seats vacated by incumbents.
One of them was Mildred Greene, the first woman to hold elected office in San Diego County, in 1918.