All openly gay candidates in San Diego County lost their election bids in the Tuesday midterm election.

In the 52nd Congressional District, Republican incumbent Duncan Hunter, who recently announced his intention to run for president in 2008, rolled past openly gay Democrat John Rinaldi. Hunter earned 64 percent of the vote, while Rinaldi took 31 percent.

“We are immediately moving forward to re-run the race in ’08 or [wait for] his indictment, whichever comes first,” Rinaldi said.

Rinaldi noted Hunter’s ties to former San Diego Congressmember Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who is currently serving an eight-year sentence in federal prison for accepting bribes from defense contractors. Hunter worked in concert with Cunningham to secure lucrative government contracts for Brent Wilkes, one of two defense contractors alleged to have given Cunningham $2.4 million in cash and other perks.

“Our polling showed before [Hunter] declared his presidential bid that we were making a very huge inroad…” Rinaldi said. “He was losing his base because of all his scandal and corruption, and we were definitely capitalizing on that.”

Although Rinaldi lost by a large percentage, he said he may have a much better chance of prevailing in 2008.

“If there’s an open seat and we’re fighting a non-incumbent, it’s an entirely different game at that point,” Rinaldi said. “We continually see the trend of declining Republican registration in this district and increasing Democratic and Independent registration. I think that trend will continue.”

Rinaldi said his campaign drove more Democrats to the polls despite his loss in the traditionally conservative East County congressional district.

“We definitely drove more Democratic voters…. We definitely moved this district, it’s just his presidential bid moved his side too,” he said.

In the race for Chula Vista mayor, Republican challenger Cheryl Cox unseated openly gay incumbent and Democrat Steve Padilla. Cox earned 55 percent of the vote, while Padilla received 44 percent.

“It’s really frustrating. We were outspent and I think we certainly could have had a better campaign there early on,” San Diego County Democratic Party chair Jess Durfee said of Padilla’s campaign Tuesday night at election central. “I think toward the end, things were going well, but the early campaign was slow to get started.”

Durfee said he was also very disappointed with the Registrar of Voters because a large percentage of votes were still being counted late due to machine malfunctions across the county, and all provisional and absentee ballots may take a few days to tally.

Openly gay candidate Frank Tierney did not win re-election to the Coronado City Council.

In the 50th Congressional District race, the same district Cunningham resigned from, Republican Brian Bilbray captured 53 percent to retain the seat. He previously won the seat in a special election in June. Democratic challenger Francine Busby earned 43 percent of the vote.

“We’ve always known that was going to be a difficult district,” Durfee said. “A 14-point registration advantage is always going to be difficult to overcome even with the national sweep; they were not districts with that sort of registration variance that Democrats were picking up.”

Speaking with the Gay & Lesbian Times following the election, Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese said party affiliation in congressional districts this year did not have as much to do with the outcome of races as they traditionally do.

“I think it was a year when a Democratic candidate like Francine Busby was very likely to outperform what would be a traditionally expected Democratic performance in a district like that,” he said. “That has as much to do with voters’ discontent with the party in power, with Republicans in Congress, with the war in Iraq and everything else.”

Solmonese said the HRC did not choose to endorse Rinaldi for various reasons.

When HRC makes an endorsement … one of the things that we factor into that decision-making process is liability,” he said. “John Rinaldi was a great candidate and obviously would be an outspoken advocate on our issues, but whether or not any candidate can win or unseat Duncan Hunter in that district is the other side of the equation there…. It’s a very difficult decision and a very difficult process that we go through.”

Openly gay Republican candidate Ralph Denney lost to Democrat incumbent Assemblymember Lori Saldaña in the 76th Assembly district. Denney took 35 percent of the vote, while Saldaña received 64 percent.

“Our campaign went great. We had good field support,” Saldaña said at Golden Hall on Nov. 7. “A lot of people helped going door to door, and we generated a lot of great support from the community.”

Denney thought he fared well despite his loss.

“I knew it would be a difficult race,” he said. “I think I had the better ideas, but it was just very difficult to get those ideas out. It didn’t help that I was being attacked from both sides.”

On the issue of abortion, Denney said the religious right accused him of being staunchly pro-choice while the GLBT community accused him of being staunchly pro-life, but said although he is uncomfortable with abortion, he does not agree with government interference on women’s health issues.

“Certainly the attacks didn’t help from both sides because it kept people who normally would have supported me away, because they didn’t want to become involved,” he said. “I also think it would have been much different if Saldaña had accepted even a single debate. In spite of what others had said, she had accepted at least two of the debates and backed out on both of them.”

Democrat Bob Filner had no problems winning his re-election in the 51st Congressional District, earning 66 percent of the vote to Republican challenger Blake Miles’ 30 percent.

Senator Dianne Feinstein also won easily in her re-election bid, defeating Republican challenger Richard Mountjoy. She earned 59 percent of the vote, while Mountjoy received 34 percent.

Incumbent Democrat Susan Davis defeated Republican challenger John Woodrum 67 to 30 percent in the 53rd Congressional District.

In the Republican-heavy 49th Congressional District, incumbent Darrell Issa held on to his seat for another two years, capturing 63 percent of the vote. Democrat Jeeni Criscenzo earned 33 percent.

In state Assembly District 77, Republican Joel Anderson beat Democrat Chris Larkin 60 to 35 percent.

In state Assembly District 78, Republican Shirley Horton defeated Democrat Maxine Sherard 51 to 45 percent.

Democrat Mary Salas won over Republican Jean Roesch in state Assembly District 79 with 61 to 39 percent.

In state Assembly District 44, Democrat Anthony Portantino, brother of Gay & Lesbian Times publisher Michael Portantino, won with 58 percent of the vote compared to Republican challenger Scott Carwile, who received 33 percent.

Two of three local propositions passed. Proposition A would have approved the perusal of adopting Miramar Marine Corps Air Station as a possible replacement for Lindberg Field, but it did not pass: 62 percent of San Diego County voted “no.”

Proposition B, which gives voters the right to approve proposed increases to the pension benefits city employees and elected officials receive, passed with 70 percent approving the measure. Proposition C, which will allow private companies to bid on city-run services, passed with 61 percent.

Statewide Propositions 1A through 1E all passed, as well as Propositions 83 (sex offender reform) and 84 (water quality/flood control).

Statewide Proposition 85 (abortion parental notification) was defeated 55 to 45 percent. Propositions 86 (cigarette tax) through 90 also did not pass.

Republican incumbent Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger easily defeated State Treasurer Phil Angelides in the race for governor. Schwarzenegger captured 55 percent of the vote, while Angelides received 39 percent.

Democrats won in other state executive office seats. Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi won the lieutenant governor seat over Tom McClintock by a margin of 49 to 44 percent. Democrat Debra Bowen defeated incumbent Republican Bruce McPherson 48 to 44 percent for secretary of state. John Chiang beat Republican Tony Strickland 50 to 40 percent for state controller. Jerry Brown defeated Republican Chuck Poochigian in the race for attorney general 56 to 37 percent. Democrat Bill Lockyer won state treasurer over Republican Claude Parrish 54 to 37 percent.

Steve Poizner beat out Democrat Cruz Bustamante and five other candidates, capturing 50 percent of the vote in the race for insurance commissioner. Bustamante received 38 percent.