LA MESALA MESA — Laura Lothian, a real estate agent, has the lead over five other candidates looking to replace Akilah Weber on the La Mesa City Council, according to unofficial results.
The by-mail election offered people the opportunity to leave their ballots at three different spots around the city from early October through Tuesday. The San Diego County Registrar of Voters, which also accepted people’s ballots on Tuesday, will be tallying votes through Nov. 9 and is expected to share final results on or before Nov. 18.
Tuesday’s results from the San Diego County Registrar of Voters showed Lothian, a ed Republican, with 3,102 votes.
Two ed Democrats, Patricia Dillard and Mejgan Afshan, were behind Lothian with 1,651 and 1,499 votes respectively.
La Mesa, which has a population of nearly 60,000, has roughly 40,000 ed voters. The Registrar said Tuesday there were just under 8,000 voters who turned out and that there are still about 2,000 more ballots that need to be processed.
Lothian, 60, said she has received hundreds of calls and text messages congratulating her for what ostensibly looks like a victory.
If her lead holds, she will Mayor Mark Arapostathis and council Bill Baber, Colin Parent and Jack Shu on the City Council.
Lothian first ran for office in 2010, taking on former Mayor Art Madrid. Though she failed to unseat the longtime politician, she said the election showed that Madrid could be beaten. She got 6,109 votes to Madrid’s 6,833.
Four years later, Arapostathis claimed victory over Madrid, who had been the city’s mayor for 24 years and had been a member of the city council for 10 years prior.
Louisiana native Lothian, who has lived in La Mesa for 18 years, ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2012 and 2020. She lived in Coronado for some of the years in between her runs for the council.
Lothian said she ran on four major principles: cleaning up the streets, sidewalks, parks and on- and off-ramps in the city; stopping the vehicle mileage tax; ing small businesses; and showing appreciation for the city’s police.
