Seven candidates will appear on the ballot in the April 8 special election to fill the vacant District 1 seat on the county Board of Supervisors, the registrar of voters office confirmed Wednesday.
Since Nora Vargas’ surprise departure just after her re-election, three fellow Democrats — San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno, Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and Chula Vista Councilmember Carolina Chavez — and Republican Chula Vista Mayor John McCann had already said they would seek the seat.
Three more candidates also joined before Tuesday’s filing deadline — Louis Fuentes, Lincoln Pickard and Elizabeth Efird. County officials confirmed Wednesday that all seven had qualified to run.
Of the three late-joining candidates, one has held elected office, and one has repeatedly run unsuccessfully.
Fuentes, a Republican, has held elected office in Imperial County. He was elected to the Calexico City Council in 2006 and served as the city’s mayor in 2008, before then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him the following year to a vacant seat on the Imperial County Board of Supervisors, which he then chaired for a year.
Since 2014, the air conditioning contractor from El Centro has lived in Chula Vista. In 2018, he ran for Congress in the 51st District but didn’t make it past the primary. He says in his candidate statement and website he’s dedicated to fostering growth along the border, economic development and job creation.
Pickard, 83, a Republican, has five times run for state Assembly in the 80th District. He also ran in the 2013 special election for San Diego City Council but lost to Kevin Faulconer in the primary. He says on his campaign website that he opposes gun restrictions, vaccine mandates, abortion and Democratic policies in Sacramento.
Efird, a first-time candidate for elected office, did not submit a candidate statement and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is unclear what party she represents.
All four other candidates currently hold elected city office around South County. Two are from Chula Vista, whose population makes up nearly half of District 1: McCann and Chavez.
McCann had served on the council for more than a decade before voters elected him mayor in 2022, following a contentious race against Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar. Chavez took office in 2022 and was recently elected Chula Vista’s deputy mayor by her council colleagues.
McCann said recently he’s worked to make Chula Vista safer by hiring more police and banning homeless encampments. He wants to do the same at the county; he says he would push for a countywide encampment ban and would vote to reverse the expanded sanctuary policy supervisors approved last month.
Chavez told The San Diego Union-Tribune she aimed to address economic security, public safety, housing and health care in the district and says on her website that she would prioritize improving prosperity, including by championing job creation, supporting small businesses and expanding workforce development programs.
Moreno has served since 2018 on the San Diego City Council representing the South Bay communities of Nestor, Otay Mesa West and San Ysidro in District 8. In her candidate statement, she called county government “broken,” citing its two special elections for supervisor within two years.
She says on her campaign website and statement she will fight to ensure families can afford to live in the region and that District 1 gets equitable resources, prioritizing affordable housing, public transportation, public safety and behavioral health services.
Aguirre was elected Imperial Beach mayor in 2022 after serving a term on the City Council. She says on her campaign website that South County has been ignored for too long, specifically citing the Tijuana River sewage crisis — an issue on which she has been outspoken in her criticism of Vargas.
Aguirre said she would bring that same energy to higher office, where she says she would help restructure the county’s approach to public health and environmental and economic impacts. She also says in her candidate statement that she will prioritize reducing the cost of living, homelessness and crime.
Information pamphlets were being sent this week to the district’s more than 376,000 registered voters, and ballots will go out the week of March 10. Drop boxes open and in-person voting begins that week, too.
If any candidate wins at least 50% of the vote in the April 8 election, they could be sworn in as soon as results are certified. But if nobody wins a majority outright, the top two will advance to a runoff July 1.
