Steve Padilla

Early life His father was Mexican and his mother was Portuguese.

Shortly after Padilla was born, his father joined the United States Marine Corps, and was deployed to serve in the Vietnam War. Shortly after Padilla's father returned home from this tour of duty, he was killed in an automobile accident.

City council Padilla was elected to the Chula Vista City Council in 1994. He was also leading figure in city finance reforms, including a move to planning the city's budget on two-year cycles.

With both Padilla and Salas running, the election marked the first-time that two incumbent Chula Vista City Council members had run for mayor. The election was also historic in that all three candidates running (Salas, Padilla, and Petra Barajas) were Hispanic, guaranteeing that the city would elect its first Hispanic mayor.

To address the increased traffic congestion stemming from the city rapid growth, Padilla proposed ensuring that developers pay for roads and public services prior to receiving approval for their developments.

A tense race from its inception, in the closing days of the general election, things became particularly hostile as both candidates assailed each other's records. Padilla defended his own words, claiming Burgess misunderstood his statement and wrongfully quoted him.

While mayor, he held numerous local, regional, state-wide and national posts during his term as mayor and since including; the board of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), At that time, Chula Vista became the largest city in the United States with an openly gay mayor. He was the first openly-gay elected city official in Chula Vista's history.

Cox's campaign against Padilla focused on the drop in City reserves from $40 million to $10 million while Padilla served as Mayor and largely on the fact the city had hired security for Padilla in the wake of anonymous threats.

Padilla stated that his top priorities for a second term would have been continuing to reduce traffic/congestion through smart growth, continuing to improve parks and education, and continuing to make investments in public safety.

Padilla was endorsed by the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce, Chula Vista Firefighter's Association, Chula Vista Police Officer's Association, and the League of Conservation Voters.

Post-mayoral career Padilla's tenure on the California Coastal Commission, which he had been appointed to in 2005, ended in 2007.

In early 2011, Chula Vista's city council failed to appoint Padilla to a full 4-year term in his own right in a 3–2 vote, just hours after he was sworn in as vice chairman at the commission's annual luncheon.

In 2014 Padilla sought to re-enter elective office and sought a seat on the Chula Vista City Council. In what became the closest election in city history, his campaign received broad organizational and political support, but lost the bid by only 2 votes out of nearly 39,000 cast. McCann, a Republican, had, in fact, originally succeeded Padilla as the officeholder for seat 2 on the City Council in 2002, and had, as councilman-elect in 2002, endorsed Padilla in the second-round of his first mayoral race.

Return to City Council and Coastal Commission After his extraordinarily narrow defeat in the 2014 city council election, Padilla opted to seek a different seat on the Chula Vista City Council in 2016, and was elected. This election was the first time that an openly-gay man had won an election to city office in Chula Vista.

Padilla was reelected to the Chula Vista City Council in 2020. Labor unions have also expressed that the often high-emotion focus on land uses connected to AI puts jobs for working people at risk.

Personal life

While now openly-gay, Padilla was previously married to a woman.

Padilla came out privately to his family in 1999, and separated from his wife around this time.

1998 Chula Vista City Council seat 2 election CandidateVotes% Steve Padilla (incumbent) 19,359 56.32 Henry A. Martinez II 15,016 43.68

Mayor of Chula Vista