Incumbent Horn endorses Desmond for board

REGION — Incumbent Fifth District County Supervisor Bill Horn has endorsed San Marcos Mayor Jim Desmond as his successor on the board.

The endorsement comes nearly nine months before the primary election, when Horn will not run due to term limits.

The office of county supervisor is seen as a non-partisan position. However, in recent years the battles for county supervisor have become more and more partisan. With land use development authority over the county unincorporated area, labor and pension issues and a huge multi-billion dollar budget, much is at stake.

Horn’s district is largely unincorporated and covers nearly 1,800 square miles bounded roughly by Fallbrook to the north, Rancho Santa Fe to the south, Oceanside and Carlsbad to the west and Borrego Springs to the east and the cities of Vista and San Marcos.

Cities within the district administer land use authority within their individual city limits.

Horn and Desmond are both Republicans.

Desmond is running against Oceanside Councilman Jerry Kern, also a Republican, and Oceanside Councilwoman Esther Sanchez, a Democrat.

“Mayor Jim Desmond shares my view that the supervisors must maintain the fiscally conservative policies that have made San Diego County one of the best managed and financially secure local governments in the nation,” Horn said. “Protecting the taxpayers will be his first priority.”

Horn mentioned in a news release that addressing traffic, expanding the county’s library system and supporting the region’s agriculture industry are important to him.

He also said Desmond “will address the particular concerns of the backcountry, one of the most critical roles of this office.”

Horn was first elected to the county board in 1995 and was elected to a sixth four-year term in 2014. He and fellow supervisors Ron Roberts and Greg Cox are termed out of office in 2018.