Early election returns showed Coronado City Councilmember John Duncan leading in the race for mayor, with Mark Fleming and Amy Steward leading for the two open positions on the council Tuesday night.
A win by Duncan could bring a third vacancy to the City Council, since he’s only halfway through his four-year term. If elected, the city would need to determine how to fill his seat, whether through a special election or through council appointment.
The other two men running for mayor, Mike Donovan and Casey Tanaka, are also currently serving on the council, but they both face term limits. Tanaka had the second-most votes Tuesday night, ahead of Donovan.
“I have a very good shot of these results holding,” Duncan said Tuesday night. “I don’t take it for granted, but I’m pretty excited.”
“The community sent me a message of, ‘We want an active mayor who will represent us across the bridge, we want you to go to work on the sewage issue in D.C., we want you to go to Mexico, we want you to fight on SANDAG. We want somebody to fight,’” he added.
Among Coronado’s key issues are its efforts to comply with state housing mandates, its dynamic with the U.S. Navy and other government agencies and the ongoing challenges of the Tijuana River sewage crisis and resulting beach closures.
In the election for two open seats on the City Council, Fleming was ahead of the pack, while Steward and Laura Wilkinson Sinton were neck and neck, with Steward pulling slightly ahead in early returns as of early Wednesday. Three other candidates were further behind: Mark Warner, Christine Mott and Andrew Gade.
“I’m feeling great about the election; I left it all on the field,” Sinton said Tuesday evening.
Fleming said he’s looking forward to keeping Coronado “the special community that it is.”
This year, both mayoral and City Council races have been steeped in partisan politics that some candidates worried has overshadowed local issues.
Although the races are technically nonpartisan, the San Diego County Democratic Party endorsed Sinton and Mott for council, while the local Republican Party endorsed Duncan, Fleming and Warner. Outgoing Mayor Richard Bailey, who is termed out, also endorsed the three.
“I think Coronado is at its best when it doesn’t try to pick its city council and school board just based on a litmus test of ‘Are you a Democrat or Republican?’” Tanaka said.
Coronado has historically had more ed Republican voters, but the city has seen a less pronounced conservative tilt in recent years, leading to more contentious races.
As of the end of October, Coronado had 3,602 ed Democrats, 4,244 ed Republicans and 2,685 who did not state a party preference.
“The issues are the issues, regardless of party,” Sinton said. “We may have differences on some of the methodologies, but … we gotta work together to make it work.”
Staff writer Alexandra Mendoza contributed to this report.
