The residents of Encinitas are eager for their summer lemonades, just as they are ready to shed the dominance of the single-party rule that has controlled the city’s politics for over a decade. New leadership has emerged to fill two open council seats and the mayor’s seat in the upcoming November election.
The new candidates appear to truly represent the Encinitas residents, having emerged directly from local neighborhoods (with one council candidate exception who is not local or from Encinitas). They are well-loved by the residents and voters, as evidenced by the enthusiasm at their recent launch parties and campaign announcements.
Rallying calls for the new candidates — Luke Shaffer for District 1 City Council, Jim O’Hara for District 2, and Bruce Ehlers for Mayor of Encinitas — could be heard as far south as Solana Beach and as far north as Carlsbad.
Residents are clamoring for a fresh direction from local City leadership. According to the majority of residents and taxpayers, Encinitas is grappling with significant issues and charting a dangerous and largely unwanted course.
The new candidates promise to bring a fresh perspective to city hall, unlike the current and appointed council members and soon-to-be-termed-out leaders who are scrambling for ideas and recycling failed policies from other struggling cities.
Residents want to protect their beautiful city, preserve its heritage and community character, protect neighborhoods, safeguard the next generation of Encinitans, and maintain the roads, beaches, and underlying infrastructure.
They are not clamoring for converting precious open space and parkland to housing, building homeless shelters, creating unsafe neighborhoods, increasing sales taxes, or institutionalizing the DEI ideological agendas within the city.
Encinitas is full of lemons, so let’s make fresh lemonade this November with a new cadre of candidates for local City Council and Mayor! It’s time for a change, and change is good!
Elena Thompson
Encinitas
