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In the San Diego City Council race in District 8, outside political committees have sent negative mailers attacking both candidates, Antonio Martinez and Gerardo Ramirez. (Courtesy)<\/p>\nNasty mailers, big campaign donations and a battle to be the outsider candidate are spicing up the runoff between two Democrats trying to represent San Diego\u2019s South Bay neighborhoods on the City Council.<\/p>\n
The contest between Antonio Martinez, a San Ysidro schools trustee, and Gerardo Ramirez, chief of staff to outgoing District 8 Councilmember Vivian Moreno, is also dividing workers at City Hall and organized labor at large.<\/p>\n
Martinez, who finished first in the June primary for District 8 and has been endorsed by the county Democratic Party, says he\u2019s the outsider because he\u2019s just a school board member while Ramirez works at City Hall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a bureaucrat,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cHe has spent his whole career working for the city of San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Martinez stresses that Ramirez\u2019s tenure has spanned the city\u2019s adoption of\u00a0paid parking at Balboa Park, an ongoing budget crisis, controversy over trash fees and many other things that have been unpopular with constituents.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants a promotion, but his office doesn\u2019t have a positive record of getting things done and responding to constituents,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n
Ramirez says Martinez\u2019s 14 years on the school board and three City Council runoff elections over the last nine years make him an insider.<\/p>\n
Stressing his own age, Ramirez says he\u2019s essentially an outsider with a fresh perspective \u2014 he is 31, Martinez 41.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a new generation of leadership \u2014 not the status quo,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cDoes change come from electing a failed politician?\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez contends that a win for Ramirez could result in more than two decades straight of District 8 being led by essentially the same allies: After David Alvarez held the council seat for eight years, he was succeeded for another eight years by his former staffer Vivian Moreno, who could now herself be succeeded by her staffer Ramirez.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need fresh ideas \u2014 24 years is a problem,\u201d said Martinez, who lost to Moreno in runoffs in 2018 and 2022.<\/p>\n
Ramirez says the 24-years idea is bogus, contending he has a dramatically different background and perspective than his predecessors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t come up the way I did,\u201d said Ramirez, noting his background as a low-income farm worker.<\/p>\n
The race has also featured some aggressive mailers. They include one from supporters of Ramirez that\u2019s been criticized as focusing on Martinez\u2019s size, and one from supporters of Martinez that uses artificial intelligence to portray Ramirez as tight with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The mailer targeting Martinez features a photo in which he looks especially big, next to three uses of the word \u201cbig\u201d in all capital letters. \u201cBIG disaster. BIG debt. BIG dysfunction,\u201d it says of school district finances.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy opponent is desperate,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n
A separate mailer opposing Ramirez shows an AI-generated image of Trump whispering in Ramirez\u2019s ear with the slogan \u201cRepublicans have their candidates.\u201d The mailer is based partly on Ramirez\u2019s endorsement by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and the right-leaning Lincoln Club Business League.<\/p>\n
Ramirez says Martinez supporters can\u2019t find any genuine negatives about him so they\u2019re resorting to calling him a \u201cmake American great again\u201d Republican. He says voters should be impressed that he has such well-rounded support, including from community leaders, business interests and labor unions.<\/p>\n
In the San Diego City Council race in District 8, outside political committees have sent negative mailers attacking both candidates, Antonio Martinez and Gerardo Ramirez. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n
Martinez says Ramirez is so tight with developers and business groups that he is a \u201cDINO,\u201d as Martinez put it \u2014 a Democrat in name only.<\/p>\n
Ramirez notes that he is a lifelong Democrat who grew up poor in San Ysidro, worked on farms and then applied for a job with Alvarez, a liberal Democrat, when he was a student at San Diego State.<\/p>\n
Another key issue in the race has become a controversial new landfill proposed for Otay Mesa.<\/p>\n