Daily Business Report-June 25, 2019
Voters without a registered political party can participate in the Democratic Party’s “open” presidential primary—but only if they ask for the right ballot.
A million independent voters
risk being irrelevant in California’s
presidential primary
By Ben Christopher | CALmatters
Presidential challengers hoping to glide to victory through California’s newly relevant primary, a heads-up: Your electoral fate may hinge on convincing enough left-leaning millennials to send postcards over the holiday season.
Welcome to the quirk-filled world of California election law. Here, voters without a registered political party can participate in the Democratic Party’s “open” presidential primary—but only if they ask for the right ballot.
Those who vote the old-fashioned way, in person at the polls, can simply request their presidential ballot of choice on the spot. But for those who vote by mail (now a majority of the state’s electorate), that request takes a remarkably analog form: a postcard signed and sent to the county registrar of voters.
If voters skip that step, the section of their ballot reserved for presidential candidates will be blank.
“Very few independent voters know that they have to do something to get the presidential ballot,” said Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc., which analyzes electoral data for campaigns. He predicts the status quo could disenfranchise a million would-be presidential voters in California.
As political independents and absentee voters make up an increasing share of the California electorate—one disproportionately made up of non-white and young voters—that could leave a large, perhaps determinative, portion of the electorate confused and left out of the process.
Pending legislation by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a Democrat from San Diego, won’t necessarily make the process easier, but it aims to at least ensure that voters get plenty of advance notice.
Her bill AB 681 would require county election officials to send three notifications to registered voters reminding them which party they’re registered with—and if they’re registered with no party preference but want to vote in a party’s presidential primary, that they’ll need to request that party’s ballot. (Assuming their party of choice allows them to; more about that below.)
Currently, county officials are required to send only one notification, a postcard asking independent voters if they want a “crossover” ballot. Given the timing of California’s March 3 primary, that reminder is likely to hit most voters’ mailboxes in November or December—squeezed between all the holiday cards, catalogs and bills.
With Democrats a supermajority in the Legislature, the bill is now in the Senate after sailing through the Assembly, despite almost every Republican voting no.
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San Diego ranks 16th in Top 20
Best Cities for Startups
San Diego ranks 16th in the Top 20 Best U.S. Cities for Startups, according to a report by CommercialCafe, a commercial real estate listings platform. With a score of 48.43 points, San Diego scored its best for startup growth rate, startup density, nonemployer growth, and millennial population growth.
Taking into consideration the current economic shift towards technology, the report attributed points to each city based on 13 metrics that it deemed relevant, including tech employment growth, millennial population growth, and startup survival rate.
San Diego ranked:
- 2nd for Startup Growth Rate. The number of new startups in 2018 was 4.5 percent higher year-over-year.
- 6th for Startup Density. 15.4 percent of startups with up to four emplohees were in their first year of activity in 2018.
- 7th for Nonemployer Growth. 2.7 percent growth in number of one-person tech businesses.
- 9th for Millennial Population Growth. The number of millennial residents increased 12.4 percent.
Three other California cities made the list: San Francisco (No. 5), Sacramento (No. 11), and Oakland (No. 15).
The Top 20, in descending order, are: Austin, Texas; Washington, D.C.; Seattle, Wash.; Denver Colo.; San Francisco; Charlotte, N.C.; Portland, Ore.; Atlanta, Ga.; Kansas City, Mo.; Boston, Mass.; Sacramento; Fort Worth, Texas; Mineapolis, Minn.; Oakland; Dallas, Texas; San Diego; Raleigh, N.C.; Columbus, Ohio; Arlington, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.
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Jean Guerrero is SPJ’s
2019 Journalist of the Year
The San Diego Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is proud to announce our 2019 Journalist of the Year: Jean Guerrero, author and KPBS investigative reporter covering border and immigration.
You name a border story over the past year and Guerrero covered it with persistence and compassion. When the Trump administration announced it would be sending some asylum seekers back to Mexico to wait for their cases to reach a judge, Guerrero was there. When a caravan of Central American migrants arrived in Tijuana seeking to enter the United States, Guerrero was there.
And when the Trump administration began separating migrant parents from their children at the border, Guerrero covered that story, too.
In fact, Guerrero’s first story on family separations at the border came many months before the issue made national headlines. And the people in her stories have names — like Jose Demar Fuentes, an asylum seeker from El Salvador whose one-year-old son, Mateo, was taken from him and sent to a shelter in Texas nearly 1,500 miles away. Jean gave a face to the policy of family separation, earning enough trust from the family to interview the mother, Olivia Caceres, on camera after she got her son Mateo back.
Guerrero’s reporting was frequently featured in national media. Her depth of understanding of the border sets her apart from many of the national reporters who have been parachuted in.
And as if her contributions to our understanding of the U.S.-Mexico border weren’t great enough, last year, Guerrero came out with her own personal story of the border. Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir, tells the moving story of her own family’s history of crossing borders, both physical and metaphysical.
Please join us in celebrating Jean Guerrero and all of this year’s award winners at our annual banquet on July 17 at the Kona Kai Resort and Spa.
Click here to see a full list of award winners and purchase tickets.
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The Madrid Apartments
in San Diego sells for $7 million
The Madrid, an apartment community located at 1530 Chalcedony in San Diego, has been purchased for $7 million.. The seller was the estate of Allen Carl Weiss. The buyer was MR Metro Group LLC with managing member Roberto Walz. Kidder Mathews’ multifamily brokers, Jim Neil, Eric Comer, and Merrick Matricardi represented the seller in the transaction.
The 19-unit apartment building includes a mix of large one-bedroom and two-bedroom, two-bath floor plans. It is located in the North Pacific Beach neighborhood, close to several beaches and surf spots. Built in 1969.
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WD-40 announces director retirement
and executive officer appointments
Garry Ridge, president and chief executive officer of WD-40 Company, has been chosen to become chair of its board of directors, succeeding Linda Lang, who will retire as director and board chair. The transition will occur at the next annual meeting of the board in December.
Ridge announced that Steve Brass has been appointed to the role of president and chief operating officer of the company and Patricia Olsem has been promoted to the role of division president, Americas.
In conjunction with the appointment of Brass, Ridge will no longer serve as president, but he will continue to serve as chief executive officer of the company.
Lang joined the board in 2004 and has served as board chair since 2016. Previously, she served as chair of the board and chief executive officer of Jack in the Box Inc. from 2005 until her retirement in 2014.
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3 new PostalAnnex stores to open
San Diego-based Annex Brands Inc., a franchisor of more than 820 business service centers in the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Japan, has announced the opening of three new PostalAnnex stores in the U.S. They include PostalAnnex outlets in Roseville, Calif., Carson City, Nev. and Concord, N.C. The outlets in Carson City and Concord are scheduled to open by the end of June. PostalAnnex stores offer customized packaging and shipping solutions, along with private mailbox rental, notary public service, copy services and other home office business services. Shipping is available via UPS, FedEx, USPS and DHL, as well as freight companies.
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AFYX Therapeutics closes $13 million
convertible loan financing
AFYX Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company in San Diego developing innovative approaches to treat mucosal diseases, announced the closing of a $13 million USD convertible loan financing. Sofinnova Ventures led the investment, with Novo Seeds and Lundbeckfonden Emerge also participating. Proceeds will be used to support the ongoing Phase 2b study of Rivelin-CLO for the treatment of oral lichen planus, expansion of the Rivelin platform into other mucosal diseases, and operational growth.
“The Rivelin platform has broad potential across a range of diseases affecting wet tissue such as the mouth, where existing topical treatments are ineffective,” said Nishan de Silva, M.D., chief executive officer of AFYX Therapeutic.
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RAF Pacifica Group acquires Carlsbad office building
RAF Pacifica Group, a San Diego-based owner, operator, and developer of commercial real estate, has aquired a 121,541-square-foot office building at 1950 Camino Vida Roble in Carlsbad. RAF Pacifica purchased the property from an institutional investor for $20.2 million.
In addition to adding a new façade, RAF Pacifica plans to rebrand the property, formerly called Axis 1950, into fu•sion, a modern office/industrial building with the largest amenity space in Carlsbad for a product of this type, according to Adam Robinson, President of RAF Pacifica.
Amenities planned for the new space at fu•sion include a full basketball court, volleyball court, an amphitheater, a variety of covered and uncovered outdoor seating and dining areas, a fire pit, barbecue grills, hammock space, a wall mural, and drought-resistant landscaping.
Aric Starck of Cushman & Wakefield will represent RAF as the leasing broker.
