Stephen Whitburn

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Stephen Whitburn
Image of Stephen Whitburn

Candidate, San Diego City Council District 3

San Diego City Council District 3
Tenure

2020 - Present

Term ends

2024

Years in position

3

Predecessor
Elections and appointments
Last elected

November 3, 2020

Next election

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Contact

Stephen Whitburn is a member of the San Diego City Council in California, representing District 3. He assumed office on December 14, 2020. His current term ends on December 10, 2024.

Whitburn is running for re-election to the San Diego City Council to represent District 3 in California. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024. He advanced from the primary on March 5, 2024.

Whitburn completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Stephen Whitburn's professional experience includes working as the Southern California director of American Cancer Society. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.[1]

Elections

2024

See also: City elections in San Diego, California (2024)

General election

General election for San Diego City Council District 3

Incumbent Stephen Whitburn and Coleen Cusack are running in the general election for San Diego City Council District 3 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
Image of https://s3.amazonaws.com/ballotpedia-api4/files/thumbs/100/100/swhitburn.jpg
Stephen Whitburn (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Coleen Cusack (Nonpartisan)

Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for San Diego City Council District 3

Incumbent Stephen Whitburn and Coleen Cusack defeated Kate Callen and Ellis California Jones in the primary for San Diego City Council District 3 on March 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of https://s3.amazonaws.com/ballotpedia-api4/files/thumbs/100/100/swhitburn.jpg
Stephen Whitburn (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
52.4
 
17,033
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Coleen Cusack (Nonpartisan)
 
20.9
 
6,811
Image of https://s3.amazonaws.com/ballotpedia-api4/files/thumbs/100/100/Kate_Callen.png
Kate Callen (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
16.7
 
5,417
Image of https://s3.amazonaws.com/ballotpedia-api4/files/thumbs/100/100/EllisCaliforniaJones2023.jpeg
Ellis California Jones (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
10.0
 
3,254

Total votes: 32,515
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

2020

See also: City elections in San Diego, California (2020)

General election

General election for San Diego City Council District 3

Stephen Whitburn defeated Toni Duran in the general election for San Diego City Council District 3 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of https://s3.amazonaws.com/ballotpedia-api4/files/thumbs/100/100/swhitburn.jpg
Stephen Whitburn (Nonpartisan)
 
63.0
 
49,119
Image of https://s3.amazonaws.com/ballotpedia-api4/files/thumbs/100/100/tduran3.JPG
Toni Duran (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
37.0
 
28,813

Total votes: 77,932
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Watch the Candidate Conversation for this race!

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for San Diego City Council District 3

Stephen Whitburn and Toni Duran defeated Chris Olsen, Michelle Nguyen, and Adrian Kwiatkowski in the primary for San Diego City Council District 3 on March 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of https://s3.amazonaws.com/ballotpedia-api4/files/thumbs/100/100/swhitburn.jpg
Stephen Whitburn (Nonpartisan)
 
31.1
 
14,844
Image of https://s3.amazonaws.com/ballotpedia-api4/files/thumbs/100/100/tduran3.JPG
Toni Duran (Nonpartisan) Candidate Connection
 
22.7
 
10,836
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Chris Olsen (Nonpartisan)
 
20.3
 
9,705
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Michelle Nguyen (Nonpartisan)
 
17.5
 
8,340
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Adrian Kwiatkowski (Nonpartisan)
 
8.4
 
3,996

Total votes: 47,721
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Stephen Whitburn completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Whitburn's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Stephen Whitburn has lived in our District 3 neighborhoods for 23 years, and in that time he has established a reputation for being a hard-working, common-sense leader with a passion for policy, a heart of gold, and a list of accomplishments.

Before voters elected him to the San Diego City Council in 2020, Stephen was an award-winning nonprofit leader. He supported cancer patients and their families as director of the American Cancer Society in Southern California, he advanced equality for the LGBTQ community as executive director of San Diego Pride, and he helped sick and injured San Diegans at the American Red Cross.

Before that he was a highly-regarded radio news director, journalist, and member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

As a committed community volunteer, Stephen served on a number of advisory panels for the City and County, as a member of the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation Board of Directors, on the Greater San Diego Business Association Advocacy Committee, and as Vice Chair of the North Park Planning Committee.

Stephen is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. He earned his Leadership Certificate from UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management. Stephen is also proficient in Spanish.

As a member of the San Diego City Council, Stephen has been a solutions-oriented thought leader and has been credited with advancing compassionate and necessary initiatives to address homelessness, affordable housing, and public safety.

  • Taking action on homelessness: Encampments on our sidewalks are both a humanitarian tragedy and a neighborhood health and safety concern. To reduce street homelessness, Stephen spearheaded the opening of two Safe Sleeping Sites last year, enabling people to move into safer and healthier spaces. The sites have security, restrooms, showers, laundry, meals and connections to housing. They help people stabilize and get back on their feet. So far, over 500 people have moved off the streets and into these sites. That has contributed to a significant drop in street homelessness in our area.
  • Helping people afford housing: The cost of housing consumes too much of many people’s income, leaving them little for other expenses. To help people afford housing costs, Stephen has approved creating thousands of new affordable housing units citywide with rents capped at 30% of a person’s income. Stephen has also approved rent subsidies to help senior citizens stay in their current apartments. It continues to be a top priority to ensure more people can afford their housing.
  • Improving quality of life: Our neighborhoods deserve modern amenities and quick repairs when problems arise. To improve our neighborhoods, Stephen has prioritized neighborhood infrastructure with increased street paving, streetlight repairs, and traffic calming measures. Stephen has also secured new outdoor spaces for people to enjoy, including new parks and dog parks, pedestrian promenades, and outdoor dining patios.

Homelessness, Housing Affordability, Cost of Living, Public Safety, Neighborhood Infrastructure and Amenities

Integrity, Leadership, Common Sense, Dedication to Service

We live in the best area of San Diego, with vibrant neighborhoods, Balboa Park, San Diego Bay, abundant arts and culture, and more restaurants and small businesses than anywhere else in the city.

We also have challenges like homelessness and high housing costs.

The legacy I would like to leave is for our part of San Diego to be closer to its full potential - to be even better than it is today.

That is why I am working diligently to reduce homelessness and make housing more affordable while at the same time adding amenities like more parks and dog parks to improve our neighborhood quality of life.

We are moving in the right direction, but we have work to do. If we keep moving forward, we will all benefit from these continued improvements.

California Democratic Party
San Diego County Democratic Party
San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council
San Diego Municipal Employees Association
San Diego City Firefighters
San Diego Police Officers Association
Deputy City Attorney's Association
AFSCME 127
National Union of Healthcare Workers
Laborers International Union Local 89
Carpenters Union Local 619
SEIU-UHW
San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce
Downtown San Diego Partnership
California Restaurant Association
Building Industry Association
Greater San Diego Association of Realtors
LGBTQ+ Victory Fund
San Diego LGBTQ Vote
Congressman Scott Peters
Congresswoman Sara Jacobs
Senate President pro tem Toni Atkins
Assemblyman Chris Ward
Mayor Todd Gloria
Supervisor Nora Vargas

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.



2020

Stephen Whitburn did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 5, 2024

Political offices
Preceded by
Christopher Ward
San Diego City Council District 3
2020-Present
Succeeded by
-