Candidates make final push in county supervisor’s race ahead of election day

Participants part of Paloma Aguirre s campaign gathered to canvas neighborhoods around rd avenue ahead of the special ballot Photo by Alexa Vazquez Ahead of Tuesday s special voting process supervisor candidates Paloma Aguirre and John McCann worked Saturday to try persuade last-minute voters who have yet to cast their ballots The electoral process is to fill the vacant District seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors the district serves Chula Vista National City unincorporated areas of South County and parts of the city of San Diego Aguirre the mayor of Imperial Beach held a campaign rally and canvassing event at her Chula Vista headquarters and allowed a Times of San Diego reporter to attend Her opponent McCann the mayor of Chula Vista refused to allow another reporter to join his supporters canvassing efforts Aguirre s campaign rally saw appearances from Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe and San Diego City Councilmember Kent Lee who both endorsed her and gave speeches We re down to the wire Lee explained addressing the helpers setting out to canvas in the locality It takes everyone coming together to reach every single voter Aguirre s key issues include lowering the cost of living and addressing the Tijuana River sewage predicament She also has campaigned on the promise to protect the county from the effects of Trump administration decisions Countless attendees including Volunteer Coordinator Jacob Birbak highlighted Aguirre s ongoing work on cross-border sewage as a key reason for their advocacy Birbak noted that Aguirre secured million in funding for repairs and wastewater recovery following her advocacy in Washington D C This goes to show that she cares about the people Birbak stated This is apparently the the majority vital supervisor electoral process Aguirre asserted her help for federal programs such as Medicare and SNAP following foreseen cuts by the Trump administration She criticized other federal cutbacks as well as the latest increase in immigration enforcement in the South Bay Aguirre frequently highlighted the fact that the current Board of Supervisors though officially a nonpartisan body is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans She and McCann are registered respectively as a Democrat and Republican making Tuesday s electoral contest a tie-breaker They survived the special poll primary in April out-polling five other candidates who had sought to replace Nora Vargas The Democrat left office in January despite having just won re-election two months prior Joaquin Quintero a canvassing volunteer and lifelong Chula Vista resident explained the stakes of this vote reminded him why he first got involved in politics The -year-old disturbed by political rhetoric portraying immigrants as dangerous became politically ongoing in high school after President Donald Trump s first referendum win in Growing up in a migrant area he commented he knew from firsthand experience that this wasn t true He now serves as a society representative for the office of San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava and joined his colleague Kathryn DeGeller also a vocal supporter of Aguirre in canvassing neighborhoods along Third Avenue The two approached the home of an -year-old resident who expressed frustration with local politicians and explained he would not be voting in this voting process Quintero declared he understood the sentiment but felt as though Aguirre was a candidate that will really promotion local communities People are fed up with business as usual Quintero reported I ve never seen an advocate like her for the South Bay so for me it s easy to come out and get excited about it Aguirre s campaign plans to continue canvassing efforts until ballot day The candidate reported that these final efforts are to make sure that people are aware of the upcoming balloting We re a campaign that is people-powered Aguirre noted This is a special voting which tends to skew towards a low voter turnout so we want to excite as multiple people as accomplishable Sharp criticism of Aguirre s budget plans McCann a self-proclaimed finance guy who earned a master s degree in economics at San Diego State revealed during an ABC debate with Aguirre earlier this month that the county s majority pressing issue is its million budget deficit I have as the mayor of the city of Chula Vista balanced our budget he stated in the debate adding that the city did not increase costs dip into reserves lay off staff or reduce services on his watch McCann called Aguirre s plan to use the county s billion in reserve funds unacceptable Acccording to Voice of San Diego the reserves are set aside to fund pensions and housing-related loans If the reserves are diminished the county s services such as law enforcement will be negatively impacted McCann disclosed When I get on the board I m going to make sure we get a healthy budget so we consistently fund the operations and the services for our district long term and make it sustainable McCann explained Aguirre on Saturday mentioned she has experience balancing budgets as mayor of Imperial Beach and as a board member of San Diego Locality Power an alternative to SDG E I want to make sure we can get somebody in the seat that can put people first put area first and put those materials back into the district Aguirre reported How to vote Operational registered voters in District have until p m on Tuesday when the polls close to cast their ballots Ballots went out the week of June and voters have been mailing them in or leaving them in county drop boxes since then At this moment seven voting centers are open daily from a m to p m On Tuesday voting centers will be open from a m to p m Times of San Diego s James Miller contributed to this description