San Diego, once a bastion of the right, is trending ever-more Democrat in recent years in a sign that California is becoming less and less welcoming to the GOP. The LA Times' Tony Perry reports in an article entitled "Close Race Reflects a Party Shift":

How did a last-minute write-in candidacy by a Democrat who owns a surf shop come within a few thousand votes of dethroning a Republican mayor in Republican-dominated San Diego?

Answer: This is not your grandfather's San Diego. Maybe it never was.

[...]

[C]onsider these facts: Five of eight members of the City Council are Democrats. That number will soon be six of nine when a vacancy is filled by a special election between two Democrats.

Democrats lead Republicans in voter registration by 39% to 34%. Twenty-two percent of voters decline to state a party affiliation, although many political operatives believe their views on environmental protection make them Democrats in all but name.

City voters backed John Kerry this month, Al Gore in 2000 and Bill Clinton in 1996.

Labor unions have grown in power in recent years, and several council members owe their elections to contributions and campaign manpower provided by union members.

This is positive news, even given the fact that the Democrats don't really need any more votes in California (save for in Congressional races, but even those are gerrymandered to the point that their elections don't even matter).