page_title: Donna Frye
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Donna Frye / Political career
caption_attribution_description: English: Donna Frye talking to supporters after a debate during the San Diego, California mayoral campaign, September 30, 2005
context_page_description: Donna Frye is an American politician from San Diego. She was born in Pennsylvania and is one of three children. Frye was a member of the San Diego City Council, representing District 6 and a two-time candidate for mayor of San Diego. In July 2013 Frye was among the first to call on then-San Diego Democrat Mayor Bob Filner to resign over accusations of sexual harassment and assault.
context_section_description: Frye first became concerned with coastal water pollution problems when her husband repeatedly became sick after surfing. She soon became an environmental and community leader.  In 2001 she was elected to the San Diego City Council in a special election. She was later elected to full term on the council in the regular 2002 city council elections.
  Frye ran for mayor of San Diego in the November 2004 run-off election between Dick Murphy and Ron Roberts as a write-in candidate, without having run in the primary. A plurality of voters wrote in her name, but a controversy arose when she lost the election because a number of voters did not fill in the bubble next to her written name or misspelled her name (usually spelling her last name "Fry"). If those votes had counted, Frye would have had more votes than either of the moderate Republican candidates officially in the runoff, but still far below a majority vote. Whether Frye would have been allowed to serve as mayor in any case is uncertain, as her write-in candidacy was at odds with the San Diego City Charter.
  Dick Murphy was re-elected as mayor after a series of legal challenges to the election results, but resigned on July 15, 2005, as the city's fiscal crisis and legal woes with regulatory and law enforcement agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Bureau of Investigation worsened and became a matter of increasing public awareness. 
  Frye ran for mayor in the special election that took place on July 26, 2005, with a platform advocating open and honest government and restoring order to the city's financial situation, points found in nearly all of the candidates' platforms.  Frye was endorsed by Mike Aguirre, the city attorney who has confronted the city council over releasing documents.
  Frye placed ahead of ten opponents, including former police chief and runner-up Jerry Sanders (27%), by receiving 43% of the vote. However, a majority was needed to win outright, and so a run-off election was held between Frye and Sanders on November 8, 2005. Frye was defeated in this election, receiving 46.1% of the vote to Sanders' 53.9%.  She did, however, win reelection to her council seat in the 2006 city council elections, retiring in 2010 due to term limits.
caption: Donna Frye speaking to supporters during the 2005 mayoral campaign
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