In the race for San Diego mayor, voters must decide whether the city is on the right track to solving its biggest challenges — and if not, whether a police officer who is a political newcomer can get it there.
Incumbent Todd Gloria says he’s making major progress on homelessness, the housing crisis and repairing San Diego’s crumbling infrastructure. And he says those problems can be solved if voters give him four more years.
Challenger Larry Turner, a city police officer and former U.S. Marine, says Gloria has been a failure on homelessness, quality of life and many other issues. And Turner says the mayor is more focused on his next job in politics than actually solving San Diego’s problems.
“The city is, in all respects, worse than it was on the last day Kevin Faulconer was mayor,” said Turner, referring to Gloria’s predecessor. “We would have been better off with a houseplant as mayor for the last four years.”
Gloria says his first term has been marked by progress on many fronts, which he says is noteworthy considering the challenges he faced.
“I’ve led our city through four very difficult years, including a global pandemic, an economic recession and political and social unrest,” he said in a phone interview last week. “I’ve laid a foundation for progress, and I want four more years to make sure this progress continues.”
Gloria, who served eight years on the City Council and four in the state Assembly before becoming mayor, says voters should choose his experience over Turner’s notable lack of it.
“The career politician label means that I have the experience to get the job done,” Gloria said.
“Those who have looked at this race critically and impartially have come to the conclusion that I do have the experience to lead the eighth largest city in this country,” he said. “My opponent not only lacks experience, but he has no solutions to the many problems he identifies. Turning this city over to a novice who has no plans and no vision would be the wrong move.”
Turner, who has never run for office before, doesn’t dispute his own lack of political experience. But he stresses that he had several leadership roles and executive-style positions in the military.
“I’ve got far more executive leadership experience,” said Turner, referring to his time leading combat and humanitarian relief missions for the Marines and working on national security issues in Washington, D.C. He also spent some of his time with the Marines in Korea, helping with military training there and building schools.
Turner has harshly criticized Gloria on homelessness. He contends the mayor hasn’t done enough to solve the problem. But he also criticizes the most prominent efforts the mayor has made, including a crackdown on encampments and a proposal for a nearly 1,000-bed shelter near the airport.
Turner says the encampment ban, which only applies to areas near sensitive sites like schools and parks, didn’t really accomplish anything.
“He didn’t save lives,” Turner said in a phone interview. “He’s treating people like commodities for a phony statistic.”
Turner also criticizes Gloria for using police to handle homelessness, suggesting a team of social workers and mental health workers would make more sense, and for requiring police to homeless campers three times before arresting them.
“They don’t need a warning and then an infraction ticket and then a misdemeanor ticket,” he said, contending that homeless people are well aware of the ban. “There aren’t enough cops to go around and do four warnings.”
Gloria says the ban has reduced the number of homeless tents downtown by 82%, citing it as one of many moves he’s made to address homelessness.
Others include the city’s first coordinated street outreach teams, an increase in shelter beds since he took office and successfully lobbying to reform state mental health laws regarding conservatorships.
“This has been slow, methodical work over the last four years,” Gloria said. “I’m not saying ‘mission accomplished,’ and I won’t be satisfied until everyone is off the streets. But my opponent’s characterization of the homelessness crisis just ignores facts.”
Turner says homelessness is the city’s No. 1 issue, but his list of solutions is relatively short.
Turner says a “regional unified command” is needed and has promised to be more transparent and able than Gloria, including monthly reports on progress in all areas.
A one-page document his campaign released last week, with what it called details of his plan, outlined four tenets of his immediate homelessness strategy. Along with a regional command and monthly reports, the document said Turner would preserve short-term shelter beds and identify locations for services with community input. He did not elaborate on either.
Gloria says Turner has no solutions, only complaints.
“He really has no idea how he would address homelessness,” Gloria said of Turner. “He has to explain why he opposes all of my solutions.”
The candidates also differ on the housing crisis, with Gloria touting how he has loosened dozens of regulations and created new incentives to encourage construction of new housing — and Turner criticizing many of them.
Turner has called Gloria’s strategy “build, baby, build,” contending the policies don’t require enough subsidized housing for low-income people and allow too much development in some places.
Gloria said Turner doesn’t seem to grasp the gravity of the crisis.
“Our lack of affordable housing says to hard-working, middle-class San Diegans that there is not a place for them here,” Gloria said. “So they are taking the talent and the skills that power our economy to some other community that will accommodate them.”
And Gloria said his policies have been carefully crafted.
“It’s not about building anything anywhere, it’s about concentrating new home development in the places that are appropriate — along transit lines, near existing infrastructure and near jobs,” Gloria said.
Gloria has been endorsed by a remarkably broad coalition of business groups, labor unions, environmentalists and organizations like Planned Parenthood.
He says that shows be can bring people together and represent all of San Diego effectively. But Turner said those endorsements should make voters wary.
“I come in with a clean slate and no strings attached,” said Turner, noting that he’s ed as an independent and has vowed to reject campaign contributions from what he calls special interest groups.
Gloria, a ed Democrat who has been endorsed by the county Democratic Party, says it’s suspicious that Turner has declined to reveal his choice in this year’s presidential election.
Turner says it’s a mistake for Gloria to have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and to be campaigning for her.
“I don’t think he’s being very smart, because if you want to be the mayor for the next four years, then you are going to have to work closely with whoever wins,” Turner said. “We need to get the sewage problem fixed, and we need help on fentanyl. There is a lot of stuff that’s going to require the federal government to come to San Diego, and I’ve got to have a good working relationship with whoever is president.”
Fundraising in the race took a major turn last month when Turner got a boost from a local lawyer’s $1 million donation to a pro-business political group that is ing him.
The donation was made to the political arm of the Lincoln Club, which has moved some of the money to a new independent committee ing Turner.
Prior to that donation, Gloria had $366,000 in cash on hand compared to only $23,000 for Turner.
But Gloria’s ers have fought back since the $1 million donation.
A committee called “San Diegans for Fairness ing Todd Gloria for Mayor & Stephen Whitburn for Council 2024” has raised more than $800,000 and allocated $500,000 for television ads for Gloria and Whitburn, a council member running for re-election.
Contributors include business groups, a labor union representing nurses and the California Apartment Association.
At last count, the committee ing Turner had spent roughly $700,000 on ads, signs and social media.
Turner, 54, lives in Ocean Beach. Gloria, 46, lives in Little Italy.
