Well, the time is here … again. The final stage of the race for mayor of San Diego comes to an unexciting close. Today, we will find out who the winner is. Could it be Kevin Faulconer, the older,  Caucasian conservative who has been running on his experience? Or could it be David Alvarez, the young Latino progressive who has big dreams of changing the status quo of this city?

I’ve got to say, out of all the elections I’ve watched, on the local, state and national levels, the election that I’ve been the least impressed with is this one. I say this with a heavy heart since I consider politics a passion of mine, but it’s true. Since the moment it became a race between Alvarez and Faulconer, both campaigns have come off as petty, repetitive and uninspiring, to say the least.

For starters, why do the candidates keep accusing each other of the same faults? Faulconer says Alvarez’s only interests are in the labor unions, and Alvarez says Faulconer’s interests lie in “downtown big business.” So what? All this tells San Diegans is that neither one of them can think of creative attacks against the other, and neither one of them can be trusted.  And instead of the constant negative ads that I get in the mail, I’d much rather see why I should vote for that person, not why I should vote against the other. I admit, politics can be a childish game at times, but after all the drama with Filner and his perverted ways,  no one benefits from these schoolyard antics. I know there are clear differences between the two campaigns, but Alvarez and Faulconer haven’t done a stellar job of demonstrating how different they are from each other.

I think the reason why I’m not passionate about them is because I feel they aren’t particularly passionate about me as a college student. One of the biggest disappointments I’ve had with these campaigns was the total disregard of  the youth vote.  Neither of them did nearly enough sway in any direction. They didn’t make themselves visible to us, and that will surely come back to bite them. Most people I know didn’t even realize the election was still going on, and the ones that did had no idea what the candidates’ positions were on key city issues. It’s important for our generation to know the political dynamics of  the area, especially in a city like San Diego. We act as if we don’t care about political “issues,” but the moment we aren’t able to find a job, we start to care. The moment funding is cut from our favorite charities and organizations, we start to care. The moment something in San Diego goes wrong, and we look to see whom to blame, we start to care. My guess is that the candidates didn’t want to waste time trying to get our vote, since we aren’t big on voting unless it’s a national election. That shouldn’t matter. We are a key part of this community both now and when we enter the workforce. It would have been smart of them to acknowledge that, and trust us with the information we need in order to make an educated decision on Feb. 11.

And the winner is…

Faulconer. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m rooting for him to win. I’m not even really rooting for Alvarez. Like I said, for once I’m completely impartial to the outcome of an election. The reason I think Faulconer will win is based on the science of it all. It’s a widely known fact in the political world that special elections tend to generate a lower voter turnout than general election cycles. The voter turnout is particularly low among the groups that tend to vote Democrat, which are minorities and young people. As a result, this gives Faulconer and the Republicans a heavy advantage at the polls on election day.

[quote]There are so many flaws I could point out about each candidate, such as Alvarez’s lack of experience or Faulconer’s blandness, but at this point, it doesn’t matter.[/quote]  Both candidates are worlds better than the embarrassment we just had, but I won’t go as far as to say which one is better than the other one. What I will do, however, is encourage you to do a bit of your own research, and get out and vote.  The role of mayor is one of the biggest parts of every city. We can’t afford to be left out of this decision.