The five members of San Diego County’s congressional delegation have crucial jobs at a crucial time. There are major regional issues to address, from border wait times to border pollution, from nuclear waste storage to health care for one of the largest veteran populations in the nation, from breaking infrastructure to a broken immigration system.
San Diegans are currently deciding which of the five to re-elect to the House of Representatives for two more years. In offering recommendations, The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board will continue its tradition of judging candidates more through a prism of accomplishments, know-how and character than a partisan lens. But to be clear, we consider equivocation on the climate emergency and attempts to explain away the Jan. 6 insurrection as dangerous — not partisan.
The top two vote-getters in the June 7 election will advance to a Nov. 8 runoff. Officeholders have an edge in almost every race, but being likely to win isn’t the same as being someone who should, especially when future U.S. elections are at stake.
In the other districts, we support the Democrats now in office. In the 49th District, which spans southern Orange County and northwestern San Diego County, national GOP strategists have long seen Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, as vulnerable, given the history of major House losses for the party of a first-term president in the next midterm election. Republican Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett and Brian Maryott, a former GOP mayor of San Juan Capistrano, have strong supporters.
But Levin’s success in helping advance solutions for the Tijuana River pollution flooding nightmare, in keeping the spotlight on the need to remove nuclear waste from San Onofre and in advancing veterans causes is an unusually impressive collection of achievements for two initial terms.
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