National City political shakeup might not end with mayor’s race

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The race to become National City’s next mayor could bring a new challenge for a city already in financial hardship: a council vacancy. 

With the departure of a longtime politician and threats of a state takeover hanging over the race, Councilmembers Jose Rodriguez and Marcus Bush are running against each other for the mayor’s seat. As the most prominent candidates, either of their victories could set off a special election costing taxpayers at least $350,000, according to the city clerk. Alternatively, the council could save money by appointing someone instead within 60 days of a vacancy.

Bush said he’d prefer a special election, while Rodriguez said he’s focusing on his campaign before considering vacancy options.

This is Rodriguez’s second bid for mayor, and Bush’s first. Whoever wins must wrestle with a nearly $13 million deficit and a budget that has for at least two consecutive years relied on the city’s depleting reserves. 

City Manager Douglas Schulze has warned that if the city is unable to meet its debt obligations, a state receiver or trustee could take over operations. Such a takeover would remove the city manager and strip the locally elected councilmembers of their authority to oversee the budget. 

Those money problems have triggered much finger-pointing within council chambers.

Rodriguez’s pro-development approach includes building more for-sale homes — from which the city can collect development impact fees — and increasing the cost of business licenses within a city that seeks more economic activity. His repeated push for that business license reform has received major pushback from the city’s business community. Bush and other councilmembers voted to postpone a decision to give time for more discussions with the business community.  

Other priorities for Rodriguez include resolving the budget deficit without hurting emergency response times, firefighter funding, the library, parks or city-funded meals for older adults. He also wants to continue connecting immigrants with legal resources and complying with the state’s sanctuary laws.

His campaign has been backed by the city’s firefighters union; labor groups like the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council; the Environmental Health and Justice Campaign; San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre; the local Democratic Party and more.

“We’ve had the same stale leadership for 34 years, and it’s time that we actually deliver for our community,” Rodriguez said.

Bush, who has been on the council since 2020, said he wants to resolve the budget deficit while keeping the city’s library, pool or senior nutrition center open, and without major cuts to police and firefighters — similar to his opponent’s goals. Bush also wants to accelerate permitting for housing, restore a first-time homebuyer program and improve the city’s workplace culture.

Bush said he and Rodriguez, both registered Democrats, agree on many issues, but “I have a more open-minded, local-focused approach to things.”

Among Bush’s supporters: Councilmember and Vice Mayor Luz Molina, state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, Assemblymember LaShae Sharp-Collins — and longtime Mayor Ron Morrison.

Bush said he respects Rodriguez, but began contemplating his own mayoral bid at the beginning of the year. He was still expressing uncertainty during a July interview.

But in a surprise weekend announcement just days before the filing deadline, Morrison said that he would be dropping out of the mayoral race and endorsing Bush.

“This is what I was really waiting to see, because I heard the mayor might do this or might not, and that he’s open to support me. But this moment, I’m still kind of surprised, shocked,” Bush said in an interview that morning.

Morrison also announced his endorsements for District 1 incumbent Molina and Edward Nieto, who is challenging District 3 Councilmember Ditas Yamane.

Morrison, who had led the public to believe he would run for another term, told inewsource the timing was intentional. 

“We had some people (who) didn’t need to get too comfortable, to be honest with you,” he said, chuckling.

The friction between Morrison and Rodriguez, who ran against each other in the last mayoral race, is no secret. Their verbal back-and-forths have played out at council meetings and in news coverage.

Morrison said Rodriguez has pushed for services that the city can’t afford, such as  providing legal help for immigrants. Morrison said he supports providing senior meals, but not spending additional money to feed residents who don’t live in National City. Bush also supports feeding older adults.

The mayor also alleged Rodriguez has misused his $100,000 council district budget. Morrison pointed to what he called “turkeygate” — Rodriguez spending more than $7,000 on Thanksgiving turkeys while Morrison said he already ran turkey giveaways that were covered by local business donations.

Last week, the council voted to move forward with considering the reduction, suspension or elimination of the individual district budgets.

Rodriguez says Morrison, who won his first National City election in 1992, hasn’t taken enough action to help the city’s finances.  

Now, tensions have escalated between Bush and Rodriguez. Earlier this month, Bush called Rodriguez to drop out of the race after La Prensa and other news media reported discrepancies about his college background.  

Rodriguez’s campaign has since said that he did not earn a degree from San Diego State University — he was one assignment short of earning his bachelor’s when he needed to juggle taking care of his children and supporting his extended family after his father’s death.

“It is not acceptable to lie,” Bush later said in an interview, “and if we allow lies coming at the highest level, we’re going to promote a culture like the one we have now where there’s fraud, where there’s lawsuits and a lack of accountability.”

Rodriguez said in response that “oftentimes those that live in glass houses are the first ones that throw stones.”

“Nobody’s perfect, and we all have a lot of things we wish we would go back and do differently,” he said.

Rodriguez said he plans to complete a degree next spring.

Rodriguez has criticized Bush for initially considering a controversial fuel transfer station project that councilmembers later unanimously rejected. Rodriguez’s campaign has also disseminated “MAGA Marcus Bush” ads claiming that Bush’s donors are supporters of President Donald Trump and that Bush “killed funding” for public safety and older adults. 

Bush said he does not have ties with MAGA and denied cutting fire funding. MAGA is short for the 2016 Trump campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

But Rodriguez and Bush agree morale at City Hall has been low — both between councilmembers and city staff. Schulze, the city’s new manager, said the election has put tensions behind closed doors at a “heightened state.” 

“The key is learning how to disagree civilly,” he said in an interview before Morrison dropped out of the race. “There’s times where the council does that very well, and there’s times where it’s been very public that politics have come into play, or personality differences have come into play. 

“I want to be able to help the council navigate through that.”

Despite the tensions, Schulze said decorum is “pretty solid” during council meetings.

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The council is slated for a daylong retreat after the November election. A consultant is being hired to run the retreat and support the city manager and councilmembers establish a “healthy, productive, and professionally grounded” working relationship, according to city records.

Community organizer Jacobb Castrejon is also running for the mayor’s seat and has raised far less money than the councilmembers. Former Councilmember and City Treasurer Ruble “Mitch” Beauchamp dropped out of the race on Friday and chose to endorse Bush.

The last time the council saw a vacancy was in 2018, when then-Councilmember Alejandra Sotelo-Solis was elected mayor. The council ultimately decided against holding a special election and instead appointed someone to the seat.