SAN DIEGO COUNTY ELECTIONS : Voters in San Marcos Cast Confusing Vote on Growth

SAN MARCOS —  Voters here have sent a confusing message to City Hall. They supported a “slow growth” advisory measure but elected only one member of the three-candidate slate that campaigned on that slow-growth platform.

None of the incumbents lost in Tuesday’s voting; neither Mayor Lionel Burton nor Councilman Jim Simmons sought reelection.

In the race for mayor--a two-year term--current Councilman Lee Thibadeau, a regional sales executive for an asphalt manufacturer, got 3,441 votes, or 57.6%, to beat his only opponent, Peggy Rutherford, who won 2,530 votes, or 42.4%. Interest in the mayor’s race was created when Rutherford moved into the city for the sole purpose of running against Thibadeau, who until that time was unopposed for the mayor’s job and had won Burton’s endorsement.

Thibadeau’s victory creates a vacancy on the City Council for the second half of his four-year term, and indications Wednesday were the council would appoint a successor rather than call a special election.

Councilwoman Pia Harris, a schoolteacher, topped the field of six candidates for two other council seats; the second one, vacated by Simmons’ voluntary departure from the council, went to Mark Loscher, a businessman who was narrowly defeated in his own mayoral bid two years ago and decided this time to seek a four-year council seat.

Harris was one-third of a slate that included Rutherford and Jonathan Wiltshire, who also placed out of the running. Harris said the voters’ attitude in wanting to stop growth was evident by the 2-to-1 margin of victory for a non-binding advisory measure calling for future citywide votes before the general plan is amended to allow increased density.

She said she was reelected because of her name identification while Rutherford and Wiltshire were unsuccessful in attaching themselves more clearly to the slow-growth measure. “We just didn’t articulate our stands well enough,” she said of the slate’s overall defeat.

Thibadeau said that, as mayor, he will initiate a public education campaign to better explain to residents how the city plans to deal with continued growth, including amending the city’s general plan and following recommendations to be made by a new growth management task force that already has been established by the City Council.

Thibadeau said he was not yet ready to take the advice of the advisory measure calling for citywide votes on general plan amendments that would increase density. “Let’s first see what the task force comes up with,” he said.