Rare News Squared -- A GOP Big-City Mayor ... in California

UT San Diego reports on a GOP victory (albeit in a nominally nonpartisan election):

Republican City Councilman Kevin Faulconer won a decisive victory over Democratic Councilman David Alvarez in the San Diego mayor’s race Tuesday, signaling a new chapter for the city after the scandal-plagued tenure of former Mayor Bob Filner.

Faulconer had 54.5 percent compared to Alvarez’s 45.5 percent of the vote with all precincts reporting.

A Faulconer victory breathes new life into the local Republican Party by restoring its control of the Mayor’s Office that its candidates have occupied for much of the past four decades.

Faulconer also becomes the only Republican mayor of a top 10 U.S. city, making him one of the party’s highest-profile leaders in the state.

The results dashed the hopes of Alvarez to become San Diego’s first Latino mayor and its youngest in nearly 120 years. It also blunted a push by Democrats to have a like-minded mayor join the party’s 5-4 majority on the City Council to shepherd a new era of progressive politics for America’s Finest City.