Our last poll established that party affiliation in a local Encinitas election matters. Now we're giving engaged Encinitas residents a chance to register their own preference for a slate and find out what the rest of the community thinks. 

Do you support the Republican slate or Democratic slate?

The Democratic slate is Catherine Blakespear for Mayor (currently serving on the City Council), Tony Kranz for City Council (running for re-election), and Tasha Boerner Horvath for City Council (she's currently serving as a Planning Commissioner). 

The Republican slate is Paul Gaspar for Mayor (a new face), Mark Muir for City Council (running for re-election), and Phil Graham for City Council (another new face).

Will you vote for a slate or do you plan to mix and match? Take our anonymous poll.

LINK:  ENCINITAS POLLS

Encinitas residents who are engaged enough to participate in our poll definitely care about political parties and party affiliation in local elections. Even though the Mayor and City Council are technically nonpartisan, city residents are sophisticated enough to understand that parties have a big influence and that a candidate's party affiliation matters. Nearly 80% of poll respondents acknowledged that party affiliation is important to them.

For those new to local politics, the partisan nature of the Mayoral and City Council races doesn't match the ideal of a nonpartisan process where candidates are selected purely based on qualifications and their positions on local issues that matter to Encinitas. However, there are often highly partisan fights around appointed or elected nonpartisan officials at all levels of government. As an extreme example, think of the US Supreme Court, the ultimate nonpartisan body. While the Justices are supposed to be nonpartisan, selection of a new Supreme Court Justice is a seriously partisan affair and everyone knows it. Parties want candidates that reflect their political philosophies, approaches to solving problems, and values, even in nonpartisan positions.

At a local level, party affiliation is important in several dimensions, not the least of which is representation on SANDAG (the San Diego Regional Association of Governments) and other inter-governmental bodies. 

The third article about the Cardiff Candidate Forum on September 12 showed up in the Encinitas Advocate at the end of the week (a newspaper which seems to have recently - and somewhat weirdly - become a section of the Del Mar Times). Link below.

We posted about the Cardiff Candidate Forum a day too early. We came across another article on the forum, this time from The Coast News. This piece has some color that was missing from the U-T article we posted  before. Link below.

The first public election forum for the Mayoral and City Council candidates was held on September 12. Hosted by the Cardiff-by-the-Sea Town Council and The League of Women Voters, the forum had strict rules limiting candidate and audience engagement. In past forums, members of the audience could ask questions directly to the candidates. The new format put someone from The League of Women Voters into a moderator role, asking questions submitted by the audience.

We've held off on posting about the forum because we were hoping to offer up a wealth of links to articles, editorials, and other press coverage. Unfortunately, there was only one article of substance (that we could find) after nearly a week had passed. Below is a link to the Union Tribune coverage of the Cardiff meeting.

Do the political affiliations of your candidates in local elections matter? The Mayor and City Council positions are supposed to be non-partisan, but most 2016 candidates belong to a political party, are endorsed by that party, and tend to band together with other members of the same party during the campaign and then again while they are in office. Do you care? Take the anonymous poll and then see what others think. This poll is open through September 18.

​LINK: ENCINITAS POLLS

With a little under 250 votes in, the poll results are clear. 54% of those who participated are against Measure T, the Encinitas Housing Element Update. 32% do support it. Another 14% don't know enough about it or are undecided.

This online poll doesn't tell you how Encinitas will vote on November 8 because people who participate are self selecting (those who are passionate about the issue may be more apt to click on a link that takes them to the poll while a large quiet majority may not be engaged enough to vote in the poll). However, the results do tell you that among people who are engaged with the issue, opponents outvoted supporters by almost 2:1.

The City of Encinitas has some work to do if the most engaged residents are to be persuaded that Measure T is worthy of support.

What is it? Why is it on the ballot? What are the arguments pro and con? Read a balanced introduction of the issue at the link below.  Measure T is an attempt by the City Council to comply with California State law requiring that cities build affordable housing. Measure T up-zones some parts of Encinitas so that high density housing can be built. It's a controversial issue because some residents feel that Measure T won't achieve its objective of creating affordable housing since developers will just build large numbers of expensive condos in tall, bulky buildings - harming the character of the city and stressing its infrastructure. A full treatment of the issue with links to articles and dedicated web sites in favor and against can be found here:

LINK: 2016 BALLOT MEASURES

Welcome to ENCINITAS FORWARD, a web site and associated Facebook page dedicated to surfacing local issues and politics, engaging residents and voters, encouraging intelligent discussion, and taking the pulse of the community. 

The web site includes a blog with commentary on news and issues, an objective guide to candidates and ballot measures in upcoming elections, and a list of online resources for anyone interested in local politics.

​We'll also run surveys and polls on key issues to take the pulse of the community - and serve up the results to everyone.

The Facebook page will have a subset of the blog commentary and links to the most recent polls.

We hope that you find the site and the page helpful and informative. Enjoy.