SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Councilman Carl DeMaio and Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, will square off in a November runoff as they battle to become the next mayor of San Diego.
With no candidate receiving the more than 50 percent necessary to win the office outright, the conservative Republican and liberal Democrat will face each other Nov. 6.
Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher finished a close third, and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis ran fourth.
The winner in November will succeed Jerry Sanders, who is being termed out.
"Tonight is a great night because San Diegans once again renewed their call for reform at City Hall with tonight's election results," DeMaio told supporters.
The approval not only went to his campaign, but to two city propositions that passed by wide margins, DeMaio said.
He said San Diego was emerging from a "lost decade" and the taxpayers who paid the price for the mistakes of politicians.
"Taxpayers who suffered cuts in their neighborhood services, taxpayers who are paying higher fees and higher water bills, the taxpayers that must endure and commute every morning on roads that are literally falling apart," DeMaio said.
City leaders have accepted mediocrity so they wouldn't ruffle the feathers of downtown insiders, he said.
At "Election Central" at Golden Hall, Filner said it was time to be excited about the city of San Diego again, because it had "incredible potential."
"All we have is ‘we're in a pothole somewhere with Carl DeMaio,'' Filner told reporters. "I want to talk about a vision of the future of what can be a really great city."
Filner said he was looking forward to the runoff and talking about what a great city San Diego can be.
The election results were consistent with recent polling. DeMaio led in all of the public polls taken in the past nine months or so, but never more than a few percentage points over Filner or Fletcher.