1-minute voter guide: Lemon Grove
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Three Lemon Grove elected officials are facing off in the city's mayoral race as voters there will also decide whether to raise sales taxes for general services.
State of play: Mayor Racquel Vasquez, a Democrat, is seeking her third term with challenges coming from two council members.
- Councilmember Alysson Snow is a USD law professor, where she leads its housing rights project and Councilmember Liana LeBaron is running, after being critical of the city's approach to homelessness, pledging to shift its focus to "root causes."
- The county Democratic Party has endorsed Snow, after endorsing Vasquez in previous races. The Republican Party has not endorsed anyone.
Catch up quick: LeBaron has been critical, and confrontational, of Vasquez and other council members, with her colleagues in 2022 threatening to censure her.
- She also had an ongoing legal dispute with Councilmember Jennifer Mendoza, who received a restraining order that was later removed, with a judge ordering Mendoza to pay $32,000 in legal fees.
Driving the news: The city has two open council seats, with four candidates sharing a ballot and the top two vote getters winning.
- George Gastil is a sitting council member who represents the city on the MTS board.
- Jessyka Heredia is a small-business owner and activist who live-streams Lemon Grove council meetings herself, since the city doesn't.
- Seth Smith is an architectural designer who sits on the city's planning commission.
- Sitivi Faiai is a football coach at Helix High who has pledged to reopen the Lemon Grove Recreation Center.
- The Democratic Party has endorsed Gastil and Smith.
By the numbers: Lemon Grove is one of 10 jurisdictions in San Diego County with tax measures on the ballot.
- Measure T would raise about $6 million a year by increasing the sales tax charged in the city by 1%.
- Lemon Grove lists homelessness, street repairs, fire protection, and emergency response as potential spending areas from the new revenue.