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University of San Diego Digital USD Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1993 District Elections, Redistricting and Recall: A Study of the Fifth District of the City of San Diego, 1988-1991 Linell Blair Fromm EdD University of San Diego Follow this and additional works at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/dissertations Part of the Leadership Studies Commons Digital USD Citation Fromm, Linell Blair EdD, "District Elections, Redistricting and Recall: A Study of the Fifth District of the City of San Diego, 1988-1991" (1993). Dissertations. 581. https://digital.sandiego.edu/dissertations/581 This Dissertation: Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Digital USD. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital USD. For more information, please contact [email protected]. District Elections, Redistricting and Recall A Study of the Fifth District of the City of San Diego, 1988-1991 by Linell Blair Fromm A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor o f Education University of San Diego 1993 Dissertation Committee Mary Woods Scherr, Ph.D., Director Edward Kujawa, Jr., Ph.D. Teresa Jean Odendahl, Ph.D. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT District Elections, Redistricting and Recall: A Study of the Fifth District of the City of San Diego, 1988-1991 FROMM, LINELL, Ed.D., University of San Diego, 1993, 319 pp. Director: Mary Woods Scherr, Ph.D. In 1988, voters in San Diego approved a switch from an at-large to a district-only election system. In 1989, Linda Bernhardt, a 30-year-old political neophyte, ran an anti-developer, grassroots campaign in San Diego’s Fifth Council District. She unseated well-financed, two-term, pro-development incumbent Ed Struiksma. Within 17 months, Bernhardt was recalled from office. It was the first successful recall election in the City of San Diego in the twentieth century. This study documented significant events that bore on Bernhardt’s recall to gain an understanding and appreciation of how events necessitated the recall. The researcher analyzed contributing factors, using an historical case-study approach. She interviewed more than 60 individuals and reviewed records from governmental and private sources. Linda Bernhardt was recalled from office because voters felt she had betrayed them by (1) breaking her pledge not to accept developer campaign contributions, and (2) through redistricting, abandoning a community known for activism. The recall also broke up the progressive Council alliance and restored the previous status quo. Bernhardt was ambitious and outspoken; she became the focus for those dissatisfied with the changes that had resulted from a powerful new majority voting bloc. At the time, the Council lacked mayoral leadership, shared vision, amity and cohesiveness. When Bernhardt was removed from office, the Council majority lost its Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. power and ability to move its agenda forward. A new, more conservative Council majority then revoked the previous redistricting map and approved one that restored many of the previous district boundaries. It also returned the Council to a traditional voting pattern. The researcher also found that district elections: (1) enormously increase the ability of communities to initiate a successful recall; (2) provide greater scrutiny on politicians; (3) render politicians who cut their base of constituent support without immediately replacing it with a new one extremely vulnerable to recall; and (4) cause Council members to be perceived as unresponsive to constituents unless they devote substantial time and attention to constituent concerns. 2 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright 1993 by Linell B. Fromm All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. For S — Who struggled through this dissertation with me and made sure I laughed every day. i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It was a long and arduous task to research and write this study, but made less daunting through the good will and support of a num­ ber of individuals including Ron Arden; Marilyn Daniel; L.C. Miccio-Fonseca, Ph.D.; Amy Gillen; Mark Loscher; Donald F. McIntyre; Barbara Morton; Gilberto Munoz, M.D.; Michael Ott; Erika Shatz; and John Ward. I thank each of them and value their efforts on my behalf. I lovingly thank my father, Dr. Stanley Fromm and my mother, Mariel Fromm, for believing in my abilities and fostering my feelings of competence. My brother, Dr. Mallory Fromm, and sister-in-law, Therese Baxter, helped to take the edge off my seriousness by reminding me there was more to life. Special thanks to Glen Sparrow, Ph.D., at San Diego State University, School of Public Administration and Urban Studies and Steven Erie, Ph.D, U.C. San Diego, Department of Political Sci­ ence, for their expertise, insights and helpful suggestions. A warm and sincere thank you to Catherine Strohlein and her husband, Al, for their significant guidance and contribution to this work. My debt to them is extremely large. Finally, credit for the observations revealed in this study must go to the individuals who participated in my research. They unself­ ishly gave hours and hours of time by telling me their stories and the lessons they learned. They loaned me historical records from which I quoted extensively. This study results from their willing­ ness to disclose crucial information for understanding how San Diego’s district elections, redistricting and recall were intertwined. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Ackowledgements .................................................................................................................ii List of Appendices ........................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 Statement of the I s s u e ........................................................................................ 3 Definition of Terms ........................................................................................... 4 Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................... 8 Research Questions .............................................................................................. 8 Limitations of the Research................................................................................ 8 Implications for Leaders ..................................................................................... 9 Dissertation Organization .................................................................................. 10 CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............................................................................. 14 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 14 At-Large and District-Only Municipal Election Systems ............................. 14 At-Large Elections ................................................................................ 15 District Elections .................................................................................. 16 Summation: At-Large and District Elections .................................. 20 Municipal Redistricting ..................................................................................... 21 Sum m ation: .............................................................................................. 23 The Initiative Process and Recall .................................................................... 24 Early History ........................................................................................... 24 Recent history ........................................................................................ 26 Recall ...................................................................................................... 27 Summation: Initiative Process and R ecall ........................................... 30 Role of the Media in Government and the Political A ren a .......................... 31 Summation: Role of the Media in Government and the Political A re n a ........................................................................................... 34 Local Government Organization Change and Power and Influence in San Diego ...................................................................................................... 34 Summation: Local Government Organization Change; Power and Influence in San Diego ............................................................ 36 Political Science Case Study Research and Learning from Politicians . 37 Summation: Political Science Case Study R esearch .......................... 39 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

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