Sherri lightner

Sherri Lightner is the 2008 Democratic candidate for San Diego's City Council District 1.

Lightner was born in Western Pennsylvania and moved to San Diego during elementary school. Lightner then went on to the University of California San Diego where she received her B.A. in Mathematics and Sociology and her M.S. in Applied Mechanics and Engineering. She is licensed by the State of California as a Professional Mechanical Engineer (License No. M20020).

Background

Sherri Lightner is co-owner of Lightner Engineering, a small technology hardware and software consulting firm in San Diego.

Lightner started her professional career as an Engineering Aide at General Atomics (GA), hired by the High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Division after graduation from UCSD. While working full-time at GA, Sherri was certified as an Engineer in Training and took engineering course work at San Diego State University (SDSU) and UCSD. She was quickly promoted to engineer and then earned a M.S. degree from UCSD. Sherri worked as an engineer in the Structural Engineering Department at GA for eight years and GA's Fusion Division for another five.

Lightner then accepted a senior engineering position with the Structural Dynamics group at Rohr Industries to work on high velocity (ballistic) impact analysis. After five years at Rohr, she returned to GA to work on the New Production Reactor (NPR). After another five years at GA working on the NPR and other projects, Lightner retired from the engineering profession to take up new challenges.

Over the last 10 years Lighter has served as a volunteer for different San Diego non-profit organizations. She was the president of the La Jolla Town Council and La Jolla Shores Association and secretary for the La Jolla Community Planning Association.

June 2008 Primaries

Lightner won the primaries in June, gaining 36.5 per cent of the vote compared to her Republican opponents Phil Thalheimer 's 33.8 percent and Marshall Merrifield's 29.5 per cent. During the primaries, the three candidates spent nearly $1 million, a record for city council elections. Lightner spent $94,569 during the primaries compared to Thalheimer's $281,822 and Merrifield's $558,556.

References

* http://voiceofsandiego.com/articles/2008/09/30/news/district1093008.txt ("Courting Coastal Republicans in District 1", Voice of San Diego)
* http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/05/23/election/874distone052208.txt ("It's Raining Money in District 1", Voice of San Diego)
* http://www.netfile.com/agency/csd/ (San Diego City Clerk's "Campaign and Lobbyist Disclosure" Web pages)
* http://www.SherriLightner.Org/ ("Friends of Sherri Lightner" campaign Website)