National City mayoral race analysis
As we head into the last two weeks before November's election, here at KUSI we want you to be as informed as possible, and for tonight's Decision 2010 report KUSI's Steve Bosh breaks down the National City Mayor's race.
National City is not a charter city so it has no primary election, whoever gets the highest number of votes in November is the winner. Out of the four people running for the position it seems two of the challengers have little chance of winning making it basically a two person race.
National City was founded 142 years ago along the waterfront sandwiched between San Diego and Chula Vista. Its 63-thousand residents are largely minority, 63-percent are Hispanic, 20-percent are Filipino and 8-percent African American. Twenty percent of the incomes in National City are below the poverty level but this is a City on the move.
The current National City Mayor Ron Morrison wants a shot at another term. In an exclusive interview, Steve Bosh met Morrison along National City Boulevard to go over the accomplishments he has already implemented.
Morrison has created many infrastructure improvements throughout the city. Plaza Bonita just did a 134-million dollar expansion, a new shopping center is about to break ground and National City is no longer a step child to other cities that make up the port district.
Ron Morrison's only serious challenger is Alejandra Sotelo-Solis, a council member with political ambitions. She is the front runner against Morrison because she is backed by the labor unions.
Alejandra wants to become the city's first Latina Mayor, and she wants to improve National City's image, “I want National City to have a Mayor they can be proud of, somebody who will not be in the newspaper for all the negative issues but will be in the newspaper for positive contributions for the city.”
As a one term council member, some say she doesn't have the experience to run the city but her priorities are no different than other candidates: the budget, public safety, city services and the public's opinion.
The two other candidates are Darrly Gorham, a perennial candidate and Mitchel Beauchamp, an environmental consultant.
National city has just over 16-thousand registered voters. A candidate can get elected with about 25% of the vote or about 4-thousand ballots.
