By Alberto Garcia
Investigative Reporter

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria benefited from five times more direct campaign funding than his opponent during a hotly contested re-election campaign that ended up being the closest outcome among high-profile competitive races in the county.

Gloria is currently ahead of his opponent, Larry Turner, by 55.3% to 44.6%, although about 140,000 votes still need to be counted throughout the County, with some yet-unknown portion of those expected to be from within the City of San Diego.

Many of the uncounted ballots were provisional votes or ballots with technical issues such as missing or unverified signatures. The County Registrar of Voters has until December 5th to attempt to validate outstanding ballots and certify the final election results.

Official campaign disclosures filed with the San Diego City Clerk show Gloria raised over $930,000 for his personal campaign committee and received nearly $120,000 in direct support from the San Diego County Democratic Party during the election cycle, including campaign mailings, paid door-to-door walkers, and drop literature.

Turner, a retired US Marine Lt. Colonel and current SDPD community relations officer, raised only $193,000 since first opening his campaign committee last year. As a non-partisan candidate, Turner did not receive any support from a political party, leaving Gloria with a direct funding advantage of more than five to one.

Additionally, Gloria benefited from over $1.7 million in expenditures made by three independent committees set up to support his re-election campaign. The committees, named California Progress for All, Big City San Diego, and San Diegans for Fairness paid for billboards, television and digital ads, and direct mailings for Gloria.

Contributions to Gloria and the independent committees included hundreds of thousands of dollars from developers, labor unions, and businesses with direct interests before the City.

Turner benefitted from over $1.5 million in expenditures made by an independent political action committee named Turn San Diego Around, funded primarily by the Lincoln Club of San Diego and local attorney Steven Richter. The PAC paid for digital and television ads, public signs, and direct voter outreach. 

In an exclusive interview with La Prensa San Diego after his contributions, Richter confirmed that he and his family have no business interests before the City. Richter, a semi-retired tax attorney and former Democrat now non-partisan voter, has been a donor to various non-profit organizations but had not given any large amounts to any political campaign before this year's donations.

The total funding advantage from Gloria was over $1.1 million more than the amount that supported Turner. 

The Lincoln Club is a business roundtable group that supports candidates through direct and independent expenditures, including supporting Kevin Faulconer for County Supervisor, Stephen Whitburn for re-election to the San Diego City Council, state Proposition 36, and also opposing both San Diego sales tax measures E and G which failed to pass.

Richter donated $1 million to the Lincoln Club’s general-purpose political action committee in September and later donated $625,000 directly to the Turn San Diego Around PAC in October. 

The current election gap between Gloria and Turner, at 9.7% of the vote, is the closest among the other major campaigns in the county.

In the race to replace retiring San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott, Chief Deputy City Attorney Heather Ferbert currently leads Assemblyman Brian Maienschein by 13.1%.

San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer leads her challenger, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, by more than 13.5%.

San Diego City Councilman Stephen Whitburn outpaced his opponent, Coleen Cusack, by 17%, and Council President Sean Elo-Rivera is ahead of his opponent, Dr. Terry Hoskins, by 21.1%. 

In San Diego County, US Senate candidate Congressman Adam Schiff leads Republican opponent Steve Garvey by 12.9%, and Vice-President Kamala Harris leads former President Donald Trump by 16.6%.

Turner, a lifelong nonpartisan registered voter, had never run for public office before entering the race for Mayor last year. 

Gloria previously served two four-year terms on the San Diego City Council from 2008 to 2016 and was later elected to two two-year terms in the California State Assembly before being elected Mayor in 2020.

In the March Primary Election, Gloria garnered only 49.9% of the vote against four much lesser-known opponents. Turner secured a place in the General Election with 23.1% of the vote.

Gloria will be sworn in to his second four-year term in December.