Vowing to run her campaign “like a start-up,” tech entrepreneur and Council President pro tem Barbara Bry became the first person to announce her candidacy to replace termed-out mayor Kevin Faulconer in 2020.
\n“I\u2019m probably the underdog in the race, and I will need time to have the residents in the city get to know me,” said Bry about her early mayoral bid, which she announced Jan. 2. “We plan to run a grassroots campaign similar to what I did for the City Council, having hundreds of volunteers and neighborhood coffees throughout the city.”
\nBry, a Democrat who represents District 1, which includes La Jolla, is likely to face a crowded field of competitors. Her opposition could include Democratic Assemblyman Todd Gloria and Congressman Scott Peters. Current Republican council members Mark Kersey and Chris Cate are also rumored to be potential candidates, as is retired San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman, an undeclared independent.
\nSan Diego Mayor is technically a non-partisan position.
\nA former journalist and entrepreneur, who ran for City Council in 2016, Bry has served as the president pro tem since 2017.
\nShe was one of the first elected officials in the city to endorse the SDSU West plan to redevelop SDCCU Stadium in Mission Valley.
\nBry touted her business background, having founded companies such as\u00a0ProFlowers.com\u00a0and Athena San Diego, which helps women in science technology and math (STEM) industries, as qualifications to lead the nation\u2019s eighth-largest city.
\n“I know what it takes to run a good campaign,” Bry said. “Most importantly, I will run my campaign like a start-up, which means being responsible in listening to your customers about what their issues are.”
\nBry\u2019s strategy in running for mayor will be the same as it was running for City Council.\u00a0
\n“My focus is to keep our city safe, clean and prosperous,” she said. “Safe is enhancing police recruitment and fire preparedness, which is now a year-round concern. Clean involves adopting community choice energy and protecting our beaches, bays and canyons. Prosperous is creating jobs in the innovation economy.”
\nAddressing homelessness, Bry said the key “is to build more support housing.” Bry added her vision for the city “comes out of my 30 years in the tech world, and my long-term support for the arts, and it\u2019s full-steam ahead.”
\nUndeterred by a long and difficult political campaign, Bry described her successful run for City Council as “the best experience of my life.”
\n“I even enjoyed campaigning,” she said noting she knocked on 6,000 doors during her city council run. “People are happy that you are there and you want to hear from them,” Bry added.
\nConcerning his potential candidacy, Mary Anne Pintar, district chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Scott Peters (D-52), said, “We have formed an exploratory committee and will make a decision within the next few weeks.”
\nBry considers herself an outsider in the 2020 mayoral race.
\n“I\u2019m not a career politician,” she said. “I\u2019ve been an entrepreneur and a journalist. I think it\u2019s time to get past the revolving door of political insiders. I want to make real change at city hall. And I\u2019ve demonstrated that I\u2019m willing to make tough decisions.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vowing to run her campaign “like a start-up,” tech entrepreneur and Council President pro tem Barbara Bry became the first person to announce her candidacy to replace termed-out mayor Kevin Faulconer in 2020. “I\u2019m probably the underdog in the race, and I will need time to have the residents in the city get to know […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":272281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"District 1 Councilmember Barbara Bry will run for San Diego mayor","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}