While the local races for San Diego have been getting plenty of publicity and press, the race for Escondido's city council seats have been proceeding almost unnoticed.

Unlike San Diego with designated city council districts, Escondido elects four members at large (two every two years), and those four people together with the elected mayor comprise the five-member city council.

Two incumbents, Ed Gallo and Sam Abed are reportedly running to retain their seats. They were the top vote-getters and won their seats in November 2004 with 33 percent and 23 percent of the vote respectively. I was unable to locate a Web site for either incumbent. 

The only candidate I found campaigning to unseat them, Olga Diaz, founder of the popular Blue Mug Coffee & Tea does have a Web site though. Filing deadlines have not yet passed, and more candidates could certainly enter the race.

This is Diaz's second race for the position, having come in third with 16 percent of the vote in the 2006 election.

Having lived in Escondido for nearly two years now, I really hope that the local race gets lively and doesn't just get dwarfed by the larger and better funded races in San Diego and nationally.

Escondido has some infrastructure issues, starting with the broken pedestrian signal at the intersection closest to our condo and the failure of the highly touted Reverse 911 to call during last autumn's firestorm evacuations. Additionally, there are some financial issues that have led to a reduction in police support for local public events, as recently detailed by the North County Times. 

Even a superficial look at the businesses and restaurants downtown suggests to this voter that the economic downturn in the private sector hasn't bypassed Escondido either. Evidence of the damage caused by the housing crisis is as evident here as it is to Trina living over in Carlsbad.

With nearly 142,000 people now living in this North County community, how this city decides to maintain its infrastructure and manage its growth will have broad influence. And hopefully the candidates will all step up and make certain that Escondido's voters are as informed on Escondido's issues as they certainly will be on San Diego's.

-Citizen Voices blogger Chuck Hartley is an attorney who lives in Escondido.