After a decisive victory in San Diego's mayoral election Tuesday, Jerry Sanders said he plans to begin work right away to get the city back on track, including working with local businesses and using their operating models.

Former police chief Jerry Sanders declared victory Tuesday night over Councilwoman Donna Frye in the race for troubled San Diego's City Hall.

In the daily tracking poll released today by El Cajon-based Datamar Inc., Jerry Sanders retains his lead of 51 percent to 44 percent for Donna Frye.

The most recent polls -- and some local political experts -- are predicting a win for mayoral candidate Jerry Sanders in Tuesday's election, though candidate Donna Frye has closed the gap in recent days.

Both mayoral candidates have declared themselves "the new San Diego" as they go into the final weekend before the Nov. 8 election.

In a poll released Friday by Datamar Inc., Jerry Sanders is retaining his lead of 51 percent to 44 percent for Donna Frye as election day draws closer.

Both camps in the mayoral campaign tried to put their best foot forward at Wednesday night's debate, and some familiar with the race say the candidate who looked the most mayoral has the best chance at snagging undecided votes Nov. 8.

With the mayoral election less than one week away, Jerry Sanders unveiled his plan for the first 90 days of his administration should he win the race.

San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre says he will find a way to work with the city's next mayor -- regardless of who wins the election, and the candidates agree.

Recent local polls have shown mayoral candidate Jerry Sanders leading opposing candidate Donna Frye by as many as 13 points, but a USA Today poll released Monday indicates the race may be much closer than that.

La Jolla has given more money to the local mayoral candidates than any other area of San Diego, leading the pack in donations for both Jerry Sanders and Donna Frye.

Though she lags in both the polls and funding, mayoral candidate Donna Frye said she is confident that her campaign's "heart" will carry her through to City Hall.

Mayoral candidate Jerry Sanders called his opposition's pension benefits into question Wednesday, saying Councilwoman Donna Frye is not being completely honest when it comes to her benefits.

San Diegans think there is a bright future ahead for the city, according to a Datamar poll released Wednesday, and the majority think Jerry Sanders is the candidate to get them there.

Jerry Sanders' mayoral campaign received two endorsements Friday, with the Performance Institute backing his recovery plan and the Association of Builders and Contractors recommending its members vote for him.

Social issues were discussed more prominently than in most campaign stops for San Diego's mayoral candidates when they visited a forum in Hillcrest on Friday.

A survey released Friday shows mayoral candidate Jerry Sanders' lead continues to grow in the race for San Diego's City Hall.

Both mayoral candidates Jerry Sanders and Donna Frye have said their plans for the city will likely result in job cuts, but each has offered a different take on just who will be getting a pink slip.

Though mayoral candidate Jerry Sanders called the race for San Diego's City Hall "nonpartisan" Wednesday and insisted both sides will need to work together to solve the city's problems, both he and opposing candidate Donna Frye amped up their attacks on one another.

With only three weeks left before Election Day, San Diego's mayoral hopefuls are pushing their campaigns into high gear and intensifying their efforts to grab voters' attention.

Telling a group of San Diego State University students that they will be the ones to pay for San Diego's deficits if Jerry Sanders is elected mayor, opposing candidate Donna Frye said that she would use taxes as a last resort but won't unequivocally rule out an increase.

Both the Donna Frye and Jerry Sanders campaigns presented on Wednesday experts who backed their respective plans and pointed out where they felt their opponent's fiscal outlines are flawed.

Mayoral candidate Donna Frye defended her economic recovery plan in a debate Friday, saying the plan's controversial vote for a potential half-cent sales tax hike is more honest than the plan of her opponent Jerry Sanders.

While recent polls indicate Jerry Sanders and Donna Frye nearly tied in their race to be the next mayor of San Diego, Sanders is well ahead of his opponent when it comes to fund raising, campaign finance forms show.

Mayoral candidates Donna Frye and Jerry Sanders took a rare detour from talking about San Diego's pension crisis to discuss a series of other issues, including housing, the environment and the possibility of a library downtown, at a question and answer session Tuesday.

It has been so long since the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce endorsed a mayoral candidate, that some of its longest serving members don't even remember.

The city's largest business organization, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, endorsed mayoral candidate Jerry Sanders, citing his track record of leadership, a positive plan and a good set of advisers.

Mayoral candidate Jerry Sanders released a complete financial plan Wednesday that takes a long-term, incremental approach to solving the city's mounting financial problems.

Democratic mayoral candidate Donna Frye took her financial recovery plan on the road Wednesday, stressing how it will bring the public into the city's deficit discussions through referendums.

Mayoral candidate Donna Frye released her financial plan for San Diego at City Hall on Friday, dubbing it her "AAA Plan" in hopes of calling to mind both emergency roadside service and the highest credit rating a city can have.

In a campaign that has been slow-going since Labor Day, mayoral candidates Jerry Sanders and Donna Frye traded jabs Monday at a dual speaking engagement that turned into more of a debate.

San Diego Councilwoman Donna Frye and former Police Chief Jerry Sanders will square off in two-hour debate hosted by the University of California, San Diego September 30, the school announced Thursday.

A citizens group charged with helping oversee the city of San Diego's transition to a strong mayor form of government is critical of the city's progress, but city officials are confident it will get done in time.

Mayoral candidate Jerry Sanders took the first step in reheating the campaign for the Nov. 8 mayoral election by notifying 300 municipal management staff that their letters of resignation will be expected if he's elected.

An evaluation of Councilwoman Donna Frye's voting record on discussion items brought before the San Diego City Council since 2002 has found that she and other council members voted with former Mayor Dick Murphy more than 75 percent of the time.

The Donna Frye for Mayor campaign has hired nationally recognized campaign strategist Paul Worlie to lead the fight into the Nov. 8 mayoral election.

With the special mayoral run-off election less than three months away, a political organization is suing the city of San Diego over what it deems to be unconstitutional campaign contribution laws.

The list of statewide propositions that will appear on the San Diego mayoral ballot likely will pull large campaign donations from liberal statewide organizations looking to draw voters to the polls, which some expect will help Donna Frye.

Mayoral candidate Jerry Sanders has assembled a 15-member "City Hall Reorganization and Recovery Group" to assist in designing solutions for the city's growing financial and political woes.

On the first day of campaigning for the Nov. 8 run-off election between Councilwoman Donna Frye and former Police Chief Jerry Sanders, both candidates came out swinging, touting their past accomplishments and dubbing each other the "politics as usual" candidate.

Councilwoman Donna Frye and former police chief Jerry Sanders will face each other in a runoff on Nov. 8 after Tuesday's special election.

The City Council nominated and approved Councilwoman Toni Atkins to the deputy mayor position, solidifying a temporary leader until a new executive is elected.

With just days left before voters head to the ballots to choose San Diego's next mayor, campaining has taken an ugly turn with the ariring of television attack ads and increaslingy bitter dialouge between candidates.

San Diego City Councilman Ralph Inzunza submitted his letter of resignation Thursday morning after being convicted of nine felony offenses earlier this week.

The Westgate Hotel, located nearly a quarter-mile from Golden Hall, will break the hall's 26-year-long tradition of hosting Election Central on July 26.

For about one-fourth of residents in this city of 1.3 million, there's no one to call about that nasty pothole or unsightly graffiti.

San Diego's acting mayor has been convicted of taking illegal campaign cash, leaving the nation's seventh-biggest city rudderless at one of the most troubled points in its history.

Hours after a federal court convicted San Diego's new acting mayor and a city councilman of multiple charges, the remaining six council members convened for a brief meeting and elected Council member Toni Atkins as mayor pro tem for the remainder of this week.

Mayor Dick Murphy packed his belongings and bid farewell to his staff Friday, ending a 4 1/2 year tenure that was cut short when he resigned amid a wave of scandal.

Mayor Dick Murphy's impressive accomplishments in politics and life were based on his most visible principles of patience and persistence, which proved to be the same characteristics that paved the road to his untimely political demise. The tale is fraught with enough irony to make Sophocles jealous.

Two commonly touted solutions to reduce the city's pension deficit used by mayoral candidates are to challenge the legality of some retirement benefits or reopen negotiations with city labor unions.

In its last act before the legislative recess, the San Diego City Council unanimously passed an ordinance consolidating a potential runoff election for mayor with the special statewide election on Nov. 8.

Councilwoman Donna Frye and former police chief Jerry Sanders have a solid lead over the rest of the candidates for mayor of San Diego, according to the latest poll published by Datamar. The survey also found that Sanders leads Frye in a head-to-head match up.

Poll results released Tuesday show Donna Frye and Jerry Sanders leading San Diego’s mayoral election with 37 percent of the votes and 29 percent of the votes, respectively.

A traditional stand-alone election is not an option for a possible mayoral run-off election, according to the Registrar of Voters for San Diego County.

City Clerk Charles Abdelnour sent out a letter recently urging City Council to adopt an ordinance combining a potential run-off election for mayor with the special statewide election in November.

Five candidates vying to succeed Mayor Dick Murphy in the July 26 election faced off Thursday in a sometimes contentious but mainly predictable debate that focused on differing visions to solve the city's financial crisis.

The disinformation game is afoot. Start with the real "amount" of the city's pension deficit. Try $6.2 billion. The politicians are now "comfortable" with the oft-cited $1.3 billion deficit number. These are the same politicians who earnestly told us just two years that there was no deficit. The latest number is just as goofy.

Mayoral candidates Donna Frye and Jerry Sanders hold a commanding a double-digit lead over the rest of the field in the campaign for the July 26 mayoral election, according to a new poll released by Datamar Inc.

The campaign trail continued to heat up Friday as two of San Diego's mayoral candidates outlined their plan to assure the city's financial recovery. Both used dramatic backdrops for their news conference -- one supposedly representing the current crisis with the other trying to illustrate a promising future.

Mayoral candidate Jerry Sanders is willing to consider a tax increase or a bankruptcy filing in order to solve the city's mounting financial troubles, but only as a last resort.

Mayoral candidate Pat Shea stood in front of the city-owned Torrey Pines Golf Course last week and said the only way to save the city from a slow financial collapse was to bring it through a corporate reorganization, also called bankruptcy.

Over the past several years, San Diegans have watched the financial condition of the city's employee pension fund deteriorate. The city's credit rating has been downgraded by Wall Street rating agencies, local and federal investigations have been launched, and the national media has made San Diego the poster child for widespread problems with public employee pension funds.

The first debate in what is being billed as the city's most important mayoral election might go down as one of the biggest spoofs in local political campaign history. The event was as much "Saturday Night Live" as it was serious discussion.

Mayoral candidates running in the July 26 primary election sought to brand their campaigns Wednesday by providing plans to dig out of the city's estimated $1.37 billion pension deficit.

The San Diego City Council declined to conduct the July 26 mayoral election by using a mail-only ballot voting methodology that hasn't been used here since 1981.

The field of candidates for the July 26 mayoral election was expanded Thursday with an announcement from local businessman Steve Francis that could be classified as unusual.

The small but committed group of San Diegans who have fought to keep the Mount Soledad Cross where it is may end up playing a big role in the election of San Diego's next mayor.

With the field of candidates starting to take shape for the upcoming July 26 mayoral primary election, two candidates have taken bold stances on attacking the city's $1.37 billion pension shortfall -- a rollback of retiree benefits.

The field of candidates running for mayor got smaller when Ron Roberts announced he will not take a fourth shot at the post.

City Council approved holding a primary election on July 26 despite concerns that an election this year to replace Mayor Dick Murphy could distract city officials from dealing with looming financial problems.

In addressing legal questions Friday about the impending mayoral vacancy, City Attorney Michael Aguirre was adamant that the selection process be completed quickly.

With City Attorney Michael Aguirre pushing for a July 26 primary in the election to fill Mayor Dick Murphy's post, concerns are surfacing that a campaign process during the city's budget deliberation could lead to bad decisions.

he resignation of Mayor Dick Murphy on Monday took many colleagues by surprise. There may, however, be consternation brewing on the City Council about how and when his successor will be chosen.