Larry Turner Inches Closer to Todd Gloria in San Diego Mayoral Race

In the past few weeks, support has begun to swing more and more in favor of police officer Larry Turner (I) over incumbent Mayor Todd Gloria (D) in the San Diego Mayoral race.

Back in 2020, Gloria, then an Assemblymember and briefly the Mayor of San Diego from 2013-2014, received 56% of the vote total over City Councilwoman Barbara Bry. However, after becoming Mayor, Gloria has received a mixed reaction. While he pushed many homeless initiatives, the city actually wound up with more tents and homeless people, and even less shelter space than before, something that even cities like Los Angeles have been more successful at. Even a ban on tents on public property and homeless encampment crackdowns couldn’t improve the situation.

Attempts at more housing and a proposed sales tax hike even further incensed residents, with the latter coming just this year. Despite all this, Gloria remained the most popular candidate at the beginning of the year. In the March primary, Gloria received 50% of the vote with Turner, the next closest candidate, only getting 23%. A survey in May even had Gloria off to a big lead for the general, 40% to Turner’s 32%, with 28% undecided. But then came the summer.

Gloria began slipping in the polls. His record on issues like homelessness, housing, public safety and infrastructure began to take a toll, especially with worsening homelessness statistics. His support for the tax hike, Measure E, has put him at odds with many, as Gloria wants the money to go to infrastructure repairs, while many San Diegans said that they just cannot afford it and that the Mayor doesn’t care about their predicament. Gloria’s push for bike lanes and the trolley system has also worried many in San Diego who rely on cars to travel.

Turner managed to step in on many issues, including taking a middle of the way approach on bike lanes without jeopardizing car traffic. He also blasted the trolley system, saying that even fewer people were using it than before the COVID-19 lockdowns. Those policies, including a more ground-up approach to fighting homelessness in the city, began to win many over. By mid-September, a poll found that support for Gloria had dropped to 37%, support for Turner went up to 33% and that undecided voters were even more numerous as well – now 30%. Turner was now at the margin of error.

🚨BREAKING: "Poll indicates tight race for San Diego's mayoral seat; 37% support Gloria, 33% voting for Turner"

San Diegans deserve real leadership. It's time. #LarryTurnerforMayorhttps://t.co/lrEiv1YLSU

— LT4SD (@LarryTurner4SD) September 17, 2024

And this week, Turner got even closer. Turner went after Gloria in the second mayoral debate. While Gloria weakly gave arguments like “Turner is someone who is good at pointing out problems, but does not know how to solve them.”, Turner went right after the numbers and facts. He even alleged that Gloria was corrupt over matters like giving a developer a contract after he donated money to his campaign.

“Why did you purchase 101 Ash Street? Perhaps it was when the lawsuit was coming out, where you were going to have to be deposed and you were going to be providing testimony and emails to talk about the backroom deals,” shot back Turner.

On Friday, preliminary polling found that Turner had won the debate, giving another worry to Gloria that the ‘protest candidate‘ may actually defeat him. And there is still a month to go before the election on November 5th.

“At the beginning of this race, Gloria was the powerful incumbent, who everyone saw as a shoo-in,” explained Rachel Lewis, a San Diego County pollster, to the Globe on Friday. “But Gloria’s record started to really suffer as this year went by. I mean, look at that turnaround since the primary. Gloria had 50% in March over multiple candidates. He should have been in a comfortable lead now. But now, he’s at 37%, with Turner gaining on him and more people growing undecided.

“San Diego’s issues are pretty much a microcosm for California as a whole, as they go through wildfires, homelessness, housing issues, and so much more. And Turner might just pull it off now. Gloria doesn’t have the advantage Breed has in San Francisco where her last ditch to win projects are starting to work, or with Bass, who is getting a lot of goodwill thanks to incoming big events keeping her in the national spotlight. Gloria just has his record and what he wants to do for San Diego in the next four years, and most of it seems to be fixing what happened in the past four years.

“That’s what we have seen in polls, and the election is now very close because of it.”