Dear Colleagues,
In addition to the critically important re-election of President Obama, it was a night full of election victories for us locally and statewide! With 100% of local precincts reporting (but 475,000 provisional countywide ballots still waiting to be counted), it appears as though we have emerged victorious in every major race we participated in!
• At the top of the list, Proposition 30 is leading with a 54.0% YES vote! (94.8% of statewide precincts reporting)
• Fortunately Proposition 32 went down to defeat with a 56.2% NO vote! (94.8% of statewide precincts reporting)
• Locally, we helped elect the first progressive mayor in the history of San Diego by electing Bob Filner with 51.53% of the vote!
• We elected SD Unified Chief of Staff and SDSU Instructor Bernie Rhinerson to the seat being vacated by Bill Schwandt on the SDCCD Board of Trustees by a nearly 2-1 margin over his opponent!
• We elected City College Professor Bill Stewart to a vacant seat on the Southwestern Community College Board with 60.16% of the vote! We also helped elect incumbent Humberto Peraza to the second seat on the SWCCD board with 56.58% of the vote!
• We helped our classified colleagues in the Poway Unified School District replace one of their anti-classified incumbent Board Members with challenger Kimberley Beatty.
• We were successful in electing Grossmont College Professor Gregg Robinson to the County Board of Education, defeating long term incumbent John Witt by a 10% margin.
• We helped elect SDCCD Continuing Education faculty member Marne Foster to the San Diego Unified School District Board with a whopping 69.56% of the vote!
• We also helped re-elect SD Unified Board President John Evans by a 6% margin over his opponent.
• Last, but certainly not least, we helped elect Miramar College Counselor Rick Cassar to the Cardiff School District Board.
That brings the Guild’s overall record in school board elections which we have fully directed to 35-0!
In addition to the above, we assisted in the SD Unified Prop Z bond campaign (passed with 60.25% of the vote), the GCCCD Prop V bond campaign (passed with 56.51% of the vote), the Lemon Grove City Council race, re-electing Grossmont College Adjunct faculty member George Gastil and his running mate Racquel Vasquez.
And if that wasn’t enough good news for one night, it appears as though the California State Assembly and State Senate may have reached the 2/3 Democratic Supermajority needed to pass revenue increases!
On behalf of the Guild, I would like to thank all of you who volunteered, who phone banked, who walked precincts, who contributed to COPE, who forwarded our recommendations to your social networks, and for your numerous conversations with students, friends, and family members about the importance of these races, especially Propositions 30 and 32, to the future of education.
Working together, we did make a difference!
In Unity,
Jim
Jim Mahler, President
AFT Guild, Local 1931
San Diego & Grossmont-Cuyamaca
Community Colleges