Just a year ago, Councilman David Alvarez was a relative unknown.
The soft-spoken San Diego native regularly showed up at events and press conferences without staffers, and usually left without facing a single reporter.
As a councilman, he struggled to push forward even a modest ordinance to create a foreclosure registry amid a tense relationship with former Mayor Jerry Sanders. (It ultimately prevailed.)
But the mayoral race, where he was buoyed by his own compelling personal narrative and millions of dollars from labor groups, has catapulted him to a contender getting attention from the New York Times and President Barack Obama.
Neither was enough to propel him into the mayor’s office. Republican challenger Kevin Faulconer decisively defeated Alvarez Tuesday.
But the groundswell that emerged to support his candidacy – high-profile national Democrats parachuted in for campaign appearances, and more than 600 volunteers gathered the Saturday before the election walking door to door to rally voters on his behalf – marks a sudden transformation in Alvarez’s nascent political career.
It’s a reality even Alvarez himself likely couldn’t have imagined just months ago.
Now as voters prepare to elect Mr. Filner’s successor on Tuesday, the city is engaged in a fierce ideological battle: Will it elect David Alvarez, a Democrat and first-term city councilor who is championing a minimum-wage increase, or Kevin Faulconer, a Republican councilor who argues that the city must keep pensions down and attract new businesses?
Read MoreWhat will David Alvarez bring to the San Diego City Council? We speak to Councilmember Alvarez about his goals for District 8, and we discuss how he thinks the council should go about cutting the city's $73 million budget deficit. "The district is actually, I think, one of the most exciting in the City of San Diego. We've got everything from a border with Mexico from in the southern portion in San Ysidro and Otay, we've got agricultural land in the River Valley area, we've got bayfront both down in the south, and also in the Barrio Logan part of town, we've got historic neighborhood, in Barrio Logan and the northern portion of the district. Then we've got bran new communities in Bay Side and in Ocean View Hills. And so it's a very diverse district. So I'm really, really excited about the opportunities and challenges that that brings."
Read More"I’m the first one of my family to graduate high school, go to college. I’m a native San Diegan, born and raised—San Diego High School, San Diego State University. I’m raising my family now in the community where I grew up here in San Diego. We want to give back. My wife is an educator; we’re all about service to others and I think that’s a value that often times gets overlooked in our leaders. Everybody really wants to do something for the community."
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