State Senator, District 40

Mara Elliott served two terms as San Diego's City Attorney. She was the first woman and first Latina to hold the job. Before that she was a lawyer for local school districts, the region's transit agency and San Diego County. As city attorney, her campaign site says, she trained more than 500 law enforcement agencies statewide. They learned to use restraining orders that take guns from people in crisis. She also opened a center for survivors of domestic violence, later expanded to help survivors of sex trafficking too.

She says she's running because California families are struggling to get by. As the mother of two college kids, she says, she understands how hard it is for San Diego families to make ends meet. She wants to make life safer and more affordable. As city attorney she sued a broker and a developer. She said the broker had collected an undisclosed fee tied to a downtown office building the city had bought. The broker agreed to repay the money, and the city dropped the lawsuits.

She promises to lower costs for families, including housing, health care and education. Her site says she would expand affordable housing and protect reproductive health care access. On public safety, she promises regional hubs to help cities and counties use gun violence restraining orders. She also promises protections for seniors, domestic violence survivors and elder abuse victims, plus more spending on fire prevention and emergency response.

Kristie Bruce-Lane is a businesswoman. She worked her way through college, then built a career in agriculture and health care. She later volunteered on a regional task force that studied the root causes of homelessness. In 2020 she was elected to the Olivenhain Municipal Water District board. There, her campaign site says, she worked on affordable drinking water and drought planning. She also founded and leads the Thumbprint Project Foundation, a nonprofit that helps homeless children who have experienced domestic violence.

She says Sacramento's direction is why she is running. Taxes are too high, she says, homelessness is out of control, and state leaders are driving California off a cliff. In 2021 she sued her son's elementary school and two other families. She said staff did not stop other children from bullying her six-year-old son. The school said it had addressed her complaints over ten months and that she and her husband would not cooperate. Her attorneys said the lawsuit never named a child as a defendant.

She promises to cut taxes and lower the cost of living for local families. Her site lists reducing homelessness and cleaning up neighborhoods, boosting public safety, and restoring what she calls educational excellence. She also promises to fight the fentanyl crisis and supports environmental protection.