This year, the first openly lesbian district attorney, Bonnie Dumanis, is running for mayor. Many core issues of her campaign focus on students, particularly those at San Diego State where increasing debt and cost to attend classes has become the norm.
Dumanis has been a substitute professor at SDSU and an instructor at many other schools, including University of San Diego. She has also been a local lawyer and judge, and is now the city’s district attorney.
She said reaching out to students is one of the most important things she could do as mayor.
“Students should know that I am going to represent all of San Diego,” Dumanis said. “I am going to fight for them and make sure we reach out to them, so we know what is important.”
Recently, the CSU system increased tuition. Students can expect to pay approximately $7,000 in tuition next year. With this in mind, Dumanis said she knows and understands a college education is not as easy to pay for as it once was.
“Student loans now are more than credit card debt and it is a huge problem,” she said. “What I can do as mayor is leverage my contacts in the federal and state areas, and work in the local government to try and get more scholarship money, like with the SDSU Alumni Association.”
Dumanis wants students to get an education because with that, she said, comes additional job opportunities. Dumanis said she believes San Diego will become more economically stable with an increasing job market.
She said she is also dedicated to helping small business owners, so businesses can once again prosper and hire new employees. Currently, about 90 percent of small businesses in San Diego need help recovering from the unstable economy.
Dumanis said she wants to bring in more jobs, or least secure the ones that currently exist in San Diego by shaking things up and fixing areas needing improvement. If she can help secure jobs, she said that could help graduating students by encouraging more internships, which showcase the skills they have and could possibly lead to more opportunities.
She used this strategy at the district attorney’s office to make improvements. Dumanis said she plans to do this again if elected.
Dumanis said it is her priority to be a role model to students, not only as a woman and a politician, but also as a lesbian.
“It means a lot to me when people come up to me and talk to me about being openly gay because they felt like they were being heard,” Dumanis said. “We need people who are role models that reflect the rich diversity we live in. We need to take advantage of the opportunities that are thrown our way and to keep going up the ladder.”
Although she differs from the other candidates for many reasons, Dumanis said her previous life experiences make her stand out. According to Dumanis, these experiences have taught her how to run large organizations of people.
Dumanis said she has lived in the San Diego community for more than 38 years, which contributes to her ability to relate to the people who live here.
According to Dumanis, a mayor must know how San Diego has grown throughout the years in order to run it, and the most important thing students can do is to make their voices heard.
To find out more information about Dumanis’ campaign, visit her website at bonnieforsandiego.com.
