Who’s the Real Westsider?

In this new paradigm of district elections, issues tend to distill down to the hyper-local. During the last District 3 election, in 2015, candidates promised to clean up abandoned mattresses being dumped on city streets. This year, each of the four contenders has vowed to improve nighttime lighting. That’s not to say their attention doesn’t stretch beyond the Westside. Housing, State Street, the drought, the budget, and the challenge of representing a working-class and often disenfranchised neighborhood are topics for discussion and debate for them all.

Whoever is chosen during the June 5 special election will fill the seat left vacant by Cathy Murillo when she ascended to the mayor’s throne in January. The winner will serve an 18-month term before the position goes up for grabs once again. That means he or she will hit the ground running with little time to settle in before the next campaign season begins, a challenge even for City Hall veterans, and especially so for these political greenhorns.

The race is significant in a number of ways. It has attracted the candidacies of three Mexican-American residents, suggesting that the idea behind district elections — to increase minority representation on the council — is working. It will also restore a critical seventh, swing vote to the council, which has limped along since January with only six members who often deadlock 3-3. And District 3 is a tricky jurisdiction to engage. It is highly dense, heavily residential, and home to a large population of immigrant and Spanish-speaking residents. Voter turnout is typically low — in 2015, 1,506 of the 4,927 registered voters cast ballots. Murillo won with just 941 votes in a three-way race.