Republican Rebecca Jones leads open North County supervisor seat; Montgomery Steppe holds wide lead

San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones, a Republican who campaigned against the countywide sales tax increase, held a 32,553-vote lead for the open District 5 seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in the Registrar of Voters' Nov. 6 unofficial update.

Jones had 96,485 votes, or 60.15%, to 63,932, or 39.85%, for Democrat Kyle Krahel, a former county Democratic Party chair and deputy chief of staff to Rep. Mike Levin.

In District 4, Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, a Democrat, led former La Mesa City Council member Kristine Alessio, a Republican, 97,070 votes, or 65.45%, to 51,231, or 34.55%.

The figures come from the update the registrar posted at 5:46 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6. The registrar projected about 390,000 ballots were still outstanding countywide, roughly 31% of the expected total, and scheduled its next update for Nov. 9 by 6 p.m. The results are unofficial, and the registrar has not certified either race. With that share of ballots left, Krahel would need close to three of every four remaining votes in the district to catch up.

District 5 is open because Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican, is termed out after two terms under the county's two-term limit. Desmond ran for the 48th Congressional District seat. In the San Diego County portion of that district, Democrat Marni von Wilpert led him 60,310 votes, or 59.63%, to 40,828, or 40.37%, in the same update.

If the leads hold, the board's partisan balance would not change. Supervisors run in nonpartisan races, but the board has split 3-2 on major votes, with Democrats Terra Lawson-Remer, Paloma Aguirre and Montgomery Steppe in the majority and Republicans Joel Anderson and Desmond in the minority. That split placed the county charter rewrite, Measure A, on the ballot and certified the sales tax initiative, Measure B. Jones would take Desmond's place in the minority.

Jones has been San Marcos mayor since December 2018 and served 11 years on the City Council before that. She told City News Service before the election that as a supervisor she "would demand measurable performance, cut waste and stop treating higher spending as the default solution," according to NBC 7 San Diego.

She opposed both countywide measures. Of Measure B, the half-cent sales tax, she said, "This $400 million tax increase is the wrong answer at the wrong time," and argued that 5% in county budget savings "would free up more money than this tax is projected to generate." She called Measure A, which would let supervisors serve three terms instead of two, "pure self-serving politics, after voters already set very clear two, four-year term limits in 2010."

Both measures led with about 52% of the vote in the Nov. 6 update.

District 5 is the county's largest district by area. It covers Oceanside, Escondido, San Marcos and Vista, Camp Pendleton, unincorporated communities such as Fallbrook, Valley Center and Borrego Springs, and several tribal reservations.

In District 4, Montgomery Steppe, a former San Diego City Council member, won the seat in a 2023 special election after Nathan Fletcher resigned.

If Measure A passes, sitting supervisors could seek a third term, with prior service counting toward the 12-year limit, according to the County Counsel's impartial analysis.

Newsline did not find post-election statements from Jones, Krahel, Montgomery Steppe or Alessio on the registrar's results as of the Nov. 6 update.