Residents make case to limit who runs for office

For the first time in the city’s 105-year history, local representative elections will be determined by council districts.

But residents in the southwest Chula Vista region say a City Council candidate is overstepping his boundaries.

About a dozen residents stood in front of City Hall Tuesday during a press conference chastising candidate Eduardo Reyes for carpetbagging — a term commonly used in politics to describe a candidate who moves into an area not familiar to them to run for political office.

Council seats representing District 4 in southwest Chula Vista and District 3 in the southeast are the two up for election in 2016.

Southwest Civic Association president Tino Martinez said he is demanding the City Council and city attorney amend the charter to require candidates who want to run for each district to live in that district as a registered voter for at least four years.

“What we have going on is an injustice as far as a neighbor coming in, wanting to represent a community he knows nothing about,” he said. “We need to protect our back doors so that we do not have people not from that community coming in.”

Martinez has publicly endorsed Reyes’s opponent, former councilman Rudy Ramirez.

Chula Vista’s fire engineer John Hess also voiced his concern not about Reyes but about the process that allows candidates to move around into districts.

“The problem is we can only vote for our candidates in our district,” he said. “So if I can only vote for a candidate in my district and I can have a rotating amount of candidates coming through how fair is that to my vote? You just (took) my vote and (threw) it out the window.”

Reyes, a middle school principal and president of the Chula Vista Elementary School board, is backed by the San Diego County Democratic Party and labor unions. Just last week he received the endorsement of Chula Vista Mayor Mary Casillas Salas.

In a telephone interview Tuesday Reyes defended himself from the carpetbagging claims by calling the attacks “dirty politics.”

Reyes said he is qualified to run in District 4, southwest Chula Vista, because he grew up and worked in the area.

He said he moved back to District 4 nine months ago for personal reasons, not because he wanted to run for City Council. “Moving is not a crime,” he said.

Although he moved into the southwest, Reyes admits he still owns a home in Eastlake, which does not mean he is a carpetbagger.

“I also own a house in other states. I own other property. So does that mean I live in Texas and am going to run for council there? No.”

The city’s election code does not provide a clear definition of the term “resident” nor does it list guidelines or mention how long someone has to live in a neighborhood before running for council.

According to the city’s districting website: “Those running for council member in Districts 3 and 4 will have to live in their respective districts.”

Martinez said that is where the issue comes in, groundrules need to be established to determine residency eligibility.
Ramirez addressed the City Council at Tuesday’s council meeting. He also called on council members to create an ordinance that clearly defines “residency.”

Those calling Reyes a carpetbagger did not raise the same concerns in 2012 when Ramirez moved out of the southwest District into the east side to run for the 79th Assembly District, a race he lost against Assemblywoman Shirley Weber.

Ramirez moved back to the southwest after his defeat.

Ramirez said there are differences between his and Reyes’s move into the district.

He said while Reyes rents a place in southwest Chula Vista, Ramirez was in the process of buying a home in Eastlake.

“I also moved out there for that (Assembly) race but I told everybody about it. I did not lie about it. I did not try to make people believe that I was living in that part of Chula Vista for a very long time.”

Rudy said the Assembly race also covers parts of San Diego.

“This is a completely different thing,” he said. “This is a local municipal race for local government. That (Assembly race) was more like a regional thing.”

“The biggest difference is that I never lied about it. You know something, it did not work out for me either.”

Other candidates running for District 4 include former Escondido firefighter Mike Diaz and Parks and Recreations Commissioner Emmanuel Soto. Residents say they have no issues with those candidates as they both have lived in the community for many years.

District 4 has a population of 60,966 people with 75.6 percent of them Latino.

Northeast Chula Vista, District 1, and northwest Chula Vista, District 2, will hold their elections in 2018.