ENCINITAS — After the latest batch of election results, Jim O’Hara now holds an insurmountable lead in the race for the District 2 seat on the Encinitas City Council, defeating challenger Destiny Preston, who trails by more votes than ballots remaining to be counted.
As of Nov. 13, O’Hara leads with 55.42% of the vote to Destiny Preston’s 44.58%, according to the latest count. O’Hara leads by 764 votes with 8,092 ballots cast and an estimated 436 still outstanding.
Preston did not respond to requests for comment on the latest results, which have effectively eliminated her from contention. The Democrat-backed candidate previously told The Coast News she would “wait until all votes are counted and the final results are certified before making any statements.”
O’Hara, owner of the event management company Race San Diego LLC, built his campaign on public safety, infrastructure and fiscal responsibility. He has advocated for prioritizing essential community needs, such as road repairs and law enforcement, over large development projects.
“I am grateful for the incredible number of hours and hard work that my campaign team and volunteers put in during this election. I also want to thank my opponent and her team on a very well-contested election campaign,” O’Hara told The Coast News. “I am humbled to have earned the privilege of representing the residents of Encinitas on our City Council. There’s a lot of work ahead. City Council has a full plate, and our city needs to begin healing itself.
“So, the celebration will be short, and I’ll be getting right back to work,” O’Hara continued. “I want to invite all Encinitas to stay involved past this election. Bring your voice and your ideas to City Hall. Encinitas’ greatest resource is the amazing people who reside here. When you come to City Hall, we will be listening.”
Preston, a small-business owner with a background in environmental policy and city planning, centered her platform on climate resilience, infrastructure safety and responsible development.
Despite endorsements from high-profile Democrats, including Congressman Mike Levin and state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, and raising nearly twice as much in campaign contributions as O’Hara, Preston, a new figure to Encinitas politics, was criticized by opponents over her residency status and the amount of outside donors contributing to her campaign.
At the time of publication, Preston’s candidate and business Facebook accounts are no longer active, but her Instagram profiles remain online. The Coast News has attempted to reach Preston at her residence and business, Radiate Metta Wellness, but those efforts have so far been unsuccessful. The Coast News also contacted her campaign manager, Jared Sclar, but did not receive a response to requests for comment.
In a written statement provided on Nov. 14 to the Voice of San Diego, Preston responded to some questions regarding the election process and some of the more pressing issues facing Encinitas residents, such as affordable housing.
“Many residents have described this year’s election as the most toxic and divisive election in recent history,” Preston wrote. “Misrepresentations and complete fabrications about opposing candidates and their policy positions robbed the electorate of making decisions based on facts.”
“Change is hard, but if we don’t take the housing crisis seriously, Encinitas will turn into a community of millionaires and aging individuals holding on for dear life to a mythic perception of the past that if we just refuse to follow the law, we can ‘Make Encinitas Great Again,'” Preston continued. “…I hope that the incoming Council will recognize that there are many renters in the city, especially in District 2. I hope that they recognize that working-class and middle-class people contribute significantly to our community character… We need housing for all income levels, and this will require smart growth. The ‘no-growth’ approach is not only illegal, but it will also ultimately destroy the community character they claim to want to protect.”
The election of Bruce Ehlers, Luke Shaffer and O’Hara flips the council majority away from Democrat-supported leadership for the first time in years. In Encinitas, there are 19,856 registered Democrats, 11,395 Republicans and 10,395 voters who declined to state their party preference, according to the Registrar of Voters.
UPDATE: This article has been updated to include a Facebook post by Destiny Preston regarding the election. Campaign manager Jared Sclar informed The Coast News that Preston has since issued a statement to the San Diego Union-Tribune. However, despite multiple requests, neither Sclar nor Preston have provided a statement to The Coast News.
8 comments
I am appalled by the slanderous, cruel comments made about Destiny Preston. Yes, she participated in Emerge which provided her the tools to run as a candidate. Unfortunately, only 25% of the U.S. Senate are women, and 29% of the House of Reps are women. Women’s voices continue to be excluded. Emerge’s goal is to empower women to run for office.
Interesting that the 3 winners for city council are all men.
How despicable to call Destiny a carpetbagger. Those who resort to this immature name-calling do not even know the definition of a carpetbagger, a term created by Southerners who lost the Civil War. A carpetbagger is a political candidate who seeks election in an area where they have no local conditions. Destiny grew up in this region and her immediate family is within a 100-mile radius of Encinitas. She was born in L.A. and raised in L.A. AND North County. Being a student at UC Berkeley and UCLA kind of limited her ability to live in Encinitas (a long commute, to say the least).
Mr. Ingram, in your recent article “O’Hara’s Lead…” you also bring up criticism by her opponents, specifically about Destiny’s “residency status” and her donors. Jim 0’Hara moved to Encinitas in the 1990s. Why the bias? Where did Mr. O’Hara’s donations come from?
I do believe that the lies created about Destiny Preston had an influence on the vote. We are in a precarious time where lies are rampant and truth is ignored.
Making wholly unnecessary comments about Preston’s discontinued campaign platforms and failure to immediately respond to workday cold calls, the author quotes O’Hara, saying “the celebration will be short…” The celebration may be short, but the gloating is unrestrained and unprofessional for a community publication that purports to serve the ENTIRE community. It’s fully expected that the regulars in the grievance chorus are crowing – let them. It’s another thing for a “news” source to publish personal snark as news.
None of the local results can be considered a landslide. Thousand of voters supported the losing candidates, and those voters still live here. It would behoove this publication to remember that it is supposed to be serving all Encinitas residents.
Congratulations to Jim! This campaign win was truly a grassroots mission to beat the machine. Jim’s vision to provide for constituent and business representation is sincere. Thank you Jim for stepping up to hear and act on community concerns. So glad true local representation prevailed.
It’s exciting that D2 and all of Leucadia will finally have resident focused representation going forward. Congratulations Jim!
I concur, Cindy, but you already knew that. Interesting that Preston has not only refused to concede (very much like our once-and-future president), but has quietly folded her tent. Meanwhile, Blakespear is evidently reassessing her unbridled enthusiasm for stack-and-pack high density development in her newfound opposition to the Towering Inferno planned for Pacific Beach. She is the one who has been leading the charge to invalidate CEQA and the Coastal Commission in the coastal zone, but maybe she is finally realize this does not play with long-term residents such as us. Jim O’Hara not only has his heart in the right place, but he is not afraid of hard work, and willing to take on a challenge as he teams with Ehlers and Shaffer.
Great news!
No carpetbaggers for Encinitas and Blakespear needs to butt out.
Hopefully people see her for what she is and she never wins another election.
Kranz and Blakespear and their appointed puppets, Kellie Hinze, Joe Mosca and Blackwell have done so much damage to Encinitas it will take years to correct.
It’s about time we have people who care more about Encinitas than about furthering their political career.
On KUSI last night Blakespear came out against a huge tower in PB because it only had 10% affordable. The real reason is that it is out of place and would ruin the neighborhood, just like projects she approved in her own City.
She also refused to increase the number of affordable units to 20% like Bruce Ehlers and the Planning Commission proposed because her developer handlers objected.
State Control over Local Housing is a gentrifying scam, and Catherine Blakespear couldn’t wait to join the club right after Toni Atkins offered her support for Blakespear’s State Senate run.
California is worse off for it, but Encinitas is far better off with new blood in our Government. Congrats to Bruce, Luke and Jim.
Destiny Preston, an Emerge Female only candidate mill graduate, can find another City to run in.
Looks like plenty of Democrats switched their preference away from the Dem candidate to No Party Preference (NPP) independent Jim O’Hara. His campaign was one of specifics and a demonstration of broad knowledge of the issues while Preston’s was one of high-level recitations and platitudes, and the voters saw through that.
I hope they change their official registration to NPP. There are lots of us Steelers Wheel folks, with “clowns to the left of me, jokers on the right, stuck in the middle with you.” Declare your independence from political parties and assert your freedom. Join me as well in the open primaries movement, to prevent us from being disenfranchised in the closed partisan primary elections to which most Americans are subject. The two-party system has become completely dysfunctional, and we moderate swing voters, independents, RINOs, and DINOs are the only glue available to hold our fragile democracy together — “A republic, if you can keep it,” as Ben Franklin stated.
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