Todd Gloria
Todd Rex Gloria is an American politician serving as a member of the California State Assembly. Gloria is a Democrat and represents the 78th Assembly District, which encompasses much of San Diego. He is also serving as House Majority Whip.
Prior to his election to the Assembly in 2016, Gloria served as the member of the San Diego City Council representing District 3. He was president of the nine-member council from 2012 through 2014. In his role as council president, Gloria served as interim Mayor of San Diego from the August 2013 resignation of Mayor Bob Filner until the March 2014 inauguration of Mayor Kevin Faulconer.
On January 9, 2019, Gloria announced his candidacy for Mayor of San Diego in the 2020 election. In announcing his campaign, he focused on housing affordability, homelessness, and climate change, and he promised to build a "world class public transportation system."
Early life and education
Gloria is a third generation resident of San Deigo. All four of his grandparents moved to the area because of their involvement with the military. He has described his ethnic background as "asically half Native American, a quarter Filipino, and then a little bit of Dutch and Puerto Rican."Gloria grew up in the Clairemont neighborhood and attended Madison High School. He was interested in politics from childhood. At age 10, he was runner-up in a "mayor for a day" contest. At 14, he volunteered to work for Democratic candidates in the 1992 election.
Gloria graduated summa cum laude from the University of San Diego, with majors in history and political science. While a student at USD, Gloria was active in the effort to add sexual orientation to the campus nondiscrimination policy. He was also a member of Delta Lambda Phi.
Career
U.S. Congresswoman Susan Davis has been Gloria's political mentor since they met in 1993: Davis was the director of the Aaron Price Fellows Program, a leadership program for high school students focused on civic education and cross-cultural understanding, and Gloria was a high school freshman. In 2002, Gloria became Davis's district director, a position he held until his election to the City Council in 2008.Gloria also served as a San Diego Housing Commissioner from 2005 until 2008. Openly gay, he is also a former chairman of the San Diego LGBT Community Center and was a resident panelist on San Diego's Prostitution Impact Panel.
San Diego City Council
Elections
Gloria ran for the District 3 seat vacated by the termed-out Toni Atkins in the 2008 election. He received a plurality of votes in the June 2008 primary, leading to a November run-off election against fellow Democrat Stephen Whitburn, a former journalist, community activist, and ally of then District 6 Councilmember Donna Frye. Gloria defeated Whitburn with 54.3% of the vote.In the 2012 election, Gloria ran for re-election unopposed and was re-elected in the June primary. As of his second term, District 3 included the neighborhoods of Balboa Park, Bankers Hill/Park West, Downtown San Diego, Golden Hill, Hillcrest, Little Italy, Mission Hills, Normal Heights, North Park, Old Town, and University Heights.
Tenure
Gloria was chair of the city's Budget and Finance Committee from 2011 to 2016. Gloria represented San Diego on the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System Board and SANDAG, where he chaired the transportation committee. In December 2012, at its first meeting after new members took office, Gloria was unanimously elected to serve as Council President, replacing retiring President Tony Young.Upon the resignation of Mayor Bob Filner on August 30, 2013, Gloria became the interim mayor of San Diego, with limited powers. This made San Diego the second largest city in the United States to have an openly gay mayor at that time. He served until March 3, 2014, when mayor-elect Kevin Faulconer was sworn in. While serving as interim mayor, he remained the City Councilmember for District 3 and retained the title of City Council President; however, City Council President Pro Tem Sherri Lightner carried out the duties of the Council President. Gloria was considered a possible candidate to replace Filner but chose not to run.
As interim mayor, Gloria reversed several of Filner's actions. In September 2013, he ordered city police and zoning code officers to resume enforcement actions against medical marijuana shops; in one of his first actions as mayor, Filner had ordered city staff to stop such enforcement. He also announced the city would re-hire lobbying firms in Sacramento and Washington that Filner had fired. Gloria ordered that public records be made more quickly and easily available to citizens, in contrast to the cumbersome centralized process established by Filner.
On December 10, 2014, the city council voted 4–5 on a motion of whether to reappoint Gloria as council president for the new term, with Sherri Lightner joining the four council Republicans to defeat the measure. The council then voted 7–2 to appoint Lightner as council president, with Gloria and David Alvarez in opposition.
California State Assembly
On April 7, 2015, Gloria announced that he would run in 2016 for the California State Assembly 78th district seat held by Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, who was termed out. Gloria was immediately endorsed by Atkins and by Sarah Boot, who had previously announced her own candidacy for Atkins's seat but withdrew upon Gloria's announcement. On November 8, 2016, Gloria was easily elected over his relatively unknown Republican opponent with the second-highest margin of victory in San Diego County. He was easily re-elected in 2018 with over 70 percent of the vote in both the primary and the general elections.Shortly after assuming office in 2016, Gloria was chosen by Speaker Anthony Rendon to join democratic leadership in the Assembly as Assistant Majority Whip. In January 2018, he moved up in leadership to the position of Majority Whip.
2020 mayoral campaign
Gloria announced his candidacy for mayor of San Diego in 2020 on January 9, 2019. Gloria's campaign focuses on issues such as the housing crisis, affordability, public transportation, and climate change. Gloria would be the first openly LGBTQ elected mayor of San Diego if he wins the 2020 race.Gloria was endorsed by several politicians including Governor Gavin Newsom, former Governor Jerry Brown, and San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott. On August 20, 2019, Gloria won the San Diego County Democratic Party's endorsement vote by receiving 70% of the votes, exceeding the 60% required to win. Gloria's rival Barbara Bry won 14% of the votes, while the next runner-up Tasha Williamson won 3% of the votes. This endorsement allowed the party to spend money on his behalf in the campaign.
In August 2019, Gloria was accused of collecting funds for his 2020 re-election campaign to the State Assembly before filing his intent to run with the state in violation of state law. Gloria claimed this was a technical oversight and filed the relevant paperwork the next day. In November 2019, Gloria settled the case with the California Fair Political Practices Commission, paying a $200 fine.