Finally.
Alejandra Sotelo Solis can call herself mayor of National City.
It’s an ambition, she tells people, she has harbored since she was in middle school. While other boys and girls may have been harboring Hollywood dreams, visions of law enforcement and medical rooms, young Alejandra, presumably, was drawing pictures of herself fussing over budget policies and presiding over ribbon cuttings at local businesses before heading off to regional transportation meetings.
In her late 20s, as a sitting councilwoman, she ran for and lost her bid against Ron Morrison to be National City mayor. At the time she was dismissed by some as being too young and inexperienced. One or two full terms on the council might prepare her politically and financially to make a legitimate run at the ring.
She ran a second time and lost. To Morrison. Again.
But the third time was the best time for Sotelo Solis who found herself armed with 10 years of sitting on the National City City Council, a recognizable and relatively bankable political name and, most importantly, a termed-out Morrison.
After serving as mayor since 2006, Morrison had finally reached the end of the line. But not without trying to latch onto a thinly crocheted extension cord in the form of a voter initiative to extend the office of mayor term limits another four years.
Had voters approved the attempt at re-jiggering an unbroken system, Morrison might have been able to run for mayor again and Sotelo Solis might be on the sidelines waiting for her time to come. Again.
But the majority of voters didn’t want National City mayor term limits extended and Morrison found himself invoking a Plan B — running for City Council.
Meanwhile Sotelo Solis — who I once mused should consider dressing as Jersey Shore’s Snooki after being derided as young and brash and not knowing her place — chugged along in a crowded field of would-be successors to Morrison.
(This Halloween the new mayor might want to consider a number of costumes that reflect her indefatigable attitude including The Little Engine That Could and Rosie the Riveter.)
She won. Finally.
And now the recently sworn-in mayor of National City is seated at a desk she has wanted since she was a pre-teen.
Sotelo Solis’s first major test will be to see how she handles the filling of her vacant council seat. Had voters been allowed to choose her council successor it would have cost taxpayers plenty. But now that she’s mayor and her political ally Councilwoman Mona Rios is on the council, they will have to work with Councilmen Jerry Cano and Councilman Ron Morrison — two Republicans with whom she has repeatedly clashed — to get someone on board who will help her accomplish the goals she wanted to tackle decades ago.
