2014
Having run unsuccessfully in 2002,Salas made her second attempt at the mayoralty of Chula Vista in the 2014 election. This was the first mayoral election to take place in Chula Vista following the passage of a 2012 proposition which amended the city charter to require mandatory candidate runoffs,meaning that,even if a candidate obtains more than 50% of the vote in the primary,a second round of the election would be held between the top-two finishers. [25] Municipal elections in California are officially non-partisan.
The election was an open-race,since incumbent mayor Cheryl Cox was term-limited. [26] [27] There were two other candidates running. One was Jerry Rindone,who had been a member of the Chula Vista City Council from 1990 through 1998 and again from 2000 through 2008,as well as the vice chairman of Metropolitan Transit System,a member of the San Diego County Board of Education from 2008 through 2012,and president of Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce in 2013. [15] The other was Pamela Bensoussan,who had been a member of the Chula Vista City Council since 2008. [28]
In the first round,Salas placed first and Rindone second,thus the two advanced to the second round. [1]
In the second round,Salas carried the endorsements of the San Diego County Democratic Party,Chula Vista Democratic Club,Eastlake-Bonita Democratic Club,Chula Vista Police Officers Association,and Chula Vista Firefighters Local 2180. [15] Rindone carried the endorsements of the San Diego County Republican Party,Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce,Chula Vista Bonita Republican Women Federated,Latino American Political Association of San Diego,and U-T San Diego. [15]
Salas won the November 4 general election. [1]
2018
Salas ran for reelection in 2018.
Salas' pledge for a second term as mayor was that she would work to bring a four-year university to Chula Vista,complete the multi-billion dollar Bayfront development,address infrastructure concerns,and hire more police officers and firefighters. [29] [30]
Salas had three opponents. One was Hector Gastelum,a Republican serving as a member of the Otay Water District and working as a realtor with the firm Big Block Realty. [29] [31] The other two were Chula Vista Parks Supervisor Daniel Schreck and educator Arthur Kende. [32] [31]
Schreck,who had worked in Chula Vista's government for twenty-five years and was currently the Chula Vista Parks Supervisor,was the only challenger with municipal government experience. [30] He positioned himself as a government insider but a political outsider. [30] Arthur Kende,who had taught at San Diego Jobs Corps for the previous eight years,was the youngest candidate,at age 36,and the only one without government experience. [30] Kende campaigned as a candidate who wanted cut through bureaucratic "red tape". [30]
Castelum campaigned as a conservative opposed to "big government" and "political correctness",and an enemy of the organization Planned Parenthood. [29] [31] Gastelum also campaigned against the city's status as a sanctuary city. [33] Anti-Muslim tweets by Gastelum from 2017,which he refused to apologize for,attracted attention. [32] The tweet in question read,"Let's pressure our legislature to create a list of so-called #MuslimBan to prevent #SubHuman #Scum from #USA to #MAGA". [34] Of those challenging Salas,Gastelum had the strongest name recognition,largely due to the controversy that this 2017 tweet had generated. [30]
An issue in the race was the city's growing pension costs. [30]
Salas' opponents all criticized the economic problems of the city. [30] Chula Vista generated the second-lowest per capita tax revenues in San Diego County due to population growth having occurred faster than revenue growth. [30] Consequentially,city services had not kept in pace with demand. [30]
Salas went into the first-round of the election having vastly out-fundraised her opponents. [30]
Having,respectively,placed first and second in the first-round of the election,held June 5,Salas and Castelum advanced to the second round. Salas had received 62.48% of the first-round vote and Gastelum had received 16.98%. Both Schreck and Kende were eliminated. [1]
In the second-round of the election,Salas bore the endorsement of the San Diego County Democratic Party, [35] as well as the endorsement of San Diego Democrats for Equality. [36]
Salas won the second-round of the election by a landslide,receiving 71.86% of the vote to Gastelum's 28.14%. [1]
