Written by Sasha Reva
The report on Saldaña’s run was originally published in the Times of San Diego
Lori Saldaña is getting ready for her fourth run for public office since 2012. The former Assemblymember from the 76th district has been slowly introducing her candidacy for San Diego City Council in District 2. She would challenge Democrat incumbent Jennifer Campbell who was elected in 2018. This will be Saldaña’s fourth race since 2012. She ran for Congress as a Democrat for the 52nd Congressional seat but lost the Democrat nomination to Scott Peters. She ran for mayor as an independent against incumbent Republican Kevin Faulconer and former Councilman for District 2 Ed Harris. Most recently, she ran as a Democrat for the Board of Supervisors but lost the nomination to Nathan Fletcher.
“I opened my campaign account last week,” she said to the Times of San Diego. “I met with my treasurer. We started the process of soliciting contributions and filing the declarations.” She also emailed her Candidate Intention Statement to the City Clerk’s Office. Feb. 9 is the first day to pull nomination papers in the race. Deadline to file papers is March 10 for the June 7 primary. In the interview, Saldaña said she’s been a little behind because of her duties in the San Diego County Democratic Party Central Committee. On Twitter, she has been giving hints regarding her candidacy for weeks and she also noted her endorsement by the San Diego Democrats for Environmental Action.
She added, “I’ve seen from the inside how these candidacies are being evaluated and how many people are putting their thumb on the scale” for District 6 and Assembly District 80. “There’s a lot of people concerned that I may …. know where the bodies are buried,” she said. “They don’t like it when I start talking about running for office. It shifts the dynamics of a lot of other races.” Due to concerns of the omicron variant she is considering her announcement via Zoom. “Traditionally, you get all your volunteers and supporters and you go to a park and take a big photo op,” she said. “With Omicron, there’s a lot of my supporters who say: I’m staying home. I won’t go out with a group of people I don’t know.”
Saldaña joins Joel Day, Mandy Havlik, Loxie T. Grant, Linda Lukacs and Leslie Michelle Codling-DiChet in running against Jennifer Campbell. Campbell has been losing popularity over the last few months. She lost her position as Council President this year and just recently the San Diego Metro West Area Democrats delayed the consideration of a “friendly incumbent endorsement”. The delay was in a meeting over zoom that was attended by Congressman Scott Peters and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins.
Photo Cred: KUSI
