The San Diego City Clerk announced the 11 official candidates who will be on the ballot for the Nov. 19 San Diego mayor election last Tuesday. Among the candidates who successfully gathered the necessary signatures to support their candidacies is San Diego State’s management of information systems and political science senior Michael Kemmer.
Kemmer began his mayoral campaign just a few weeks ago, advocating innovation and sustainability with his campaign acronym: SUSTAIN.
“Everyone loves an underdog,” Kemmer said about the support he has received from the San Diego community. “Before it was a matter of seeing if I could get on the ballot and get people excited about this, and now it’s a matter of where I stand compared to my opponents and why I’m ultimately a better choice than they are.”
Leading mayoral candidates also on the ballot include Nathan Fletcher, David Alvarez, Mike Aguirre and Kevin Faulconer. Kemmer said his role as the “outsider looking in,” and having a fresh-faced approach that eliminates political ties and focuses more on a campaign for citizens, by a citizen is what sets him apart from his opponents.
Kemmer said he identifies with the ideas of Gavin Newsom—one of the youngest mayors of San Francisco—in relation to his campaign.
“In this modern day and age, it should be a two-way street with our city government,” Kemmer said. “Citizens should be interacting and helping solve the issues that the city faces. It’s a one-way conversation with people like Nathan Fletcher, Kevin Faulconer, and David Alvarez. They’ve given solutions instead of asking what people think.”
Kemmer said his campaign will be built around an idea of give-and-take between citizens and their government, in addition to being focused on ways to create an environment open to innovative technology, diverse businesses and a more sustainable economy for the younger generation.
“Some of the things we’ve been looking at are what other cities have done to modernize themselves,” Kemmer said. “We’ve been looking at how to use technology to measure and analyze the effectiveness of the city’s services to make it more user-friendly for everyone.”
