There’s literally so much going on, it’s nearly impossible to know where to start. Nearly…
Unhand me, or I’ll send out a Press Release… The news resulting in the biggest political buzz over the last several days was an "incident" in the 40th Senate District Democratic primary race between Assemblymember Mary Salas and former Assemblyman Juan Vargas, with a cameo by Congressman Bob Filner.
Filner has been known to get a laugh in recent years when he walks on stage donning boxing gloves at the annual Congressional Delegation Luncheon put on by the San Diego Chamber. So, when he attended Friday morning’s press conference with Senate candidate Salas so the two could jointly castigate their agreed-upon nemesis Vargas, someone should have told him to bring a couple of pairs for the campaign workers.
Apparent attempts by Vargas staffers to noisily gain a ringside seat to the presser resulted in a bit of a scuffle, it seems. A couple of hours later, Salas shot out a press release accusing the Vargas campaign of assault, as well as landing one of her people in the hospital. By day’s end, Vargas was counter-punching with his own release.
I won’t provide a blow by blow. Here’s Dave Maass’ take on the donnybrook and the two campaigns’ versions (along with great background), posted at SD City Beat’s Last Blog on Earth.
TKO or not, on Saturday morning Voice of San Diego’s Randy Dotinga noted Vargas’ and Salas’ "lame" use of words like "henchmen," "goons" and "thugs" in their respective accusatory press releases.
Surprise, I thought it was only Republicans that used such words to describe labor unions. But, for the record, I didn’t see the use of "jack-booted" once in either release.
Maybe Don King is available as a campaign consultant.
Is She your Mother or your Stepmother?… Loose references to Jake Gittes aside, taking a close second to the Salas/Vargas brawl — from a buzz standpoint — has to be the Bill Gore for Sheriff campaign successfully getting a letter to the editor in the Union-Trib on Friday. Not just any letter, mind you. This one, supporting the appointed Sheriff for election, is actually signed by a relative of Jim Duffy, one of Gore’s opponents.
Striking most political watchers is that the letter supporting Gore is signed by the wife of the late Sheriff John Duffy, uhhh…current candidate Jim Duffy’s dad.
In a word, ouch. So, of course, the natural question literally buzzing thru the local political world on Friday: Is this candidate Jim Duffy’s mom supporting her own son’s opponent?
No, it’s only Duffy’s step-mom willing to sign on publicly in support of Gore. The key word being "only."
Forget it, Jim. It’s San Diego.
Speaking of the Sheriff Race… In response to a recent KGTV Channel 10 poll showing Gore leading in the race, with Jay La Suer trailing by about ten points and Duffy just behind that, San Diego Rostra’s Greg Larkin provides some thoughts. Some excerpts:
* 10News calls this lead by Gore “substantial.” Ten points with margins of error and nearly forty percent undecided is substantial? Funny.
* The determination that Duffy can’t use a law enforcement ballot designation (he will use chief of staff) is extremely significant now, especially considering the Deputy Sheriffs Association won’t be spending money to benefit his effort.
* This spells the real possibility of an upset, with La Suer making it into a runoff with Gore.
* Watch for the undecideds to slide towards those with a law enforcement background listed on the ballot, meaning Gore and La Suer.
* The poll has Bruce Ruff at four percent…why the heck are they polling a name not in the race? (Question, not a thought — same guys doing the poll that call the lead “substantial”?)
Read the full SD Rostra post.
Let me count the Waste… San Diego City Councilmember Carl DeMaio has come up with a creative way to show how much in potential cost savings he claims have been lost, while implementation of managed competition reform — as approved by city voters — continues to be held up. Click on the link to see the "Managed Competition Clock"…
http://reformsandiego.com/money-clock/
Here’s also a YouTube link of a press conference held last week by DeMaio on the unveiling of the clock. No henchmen tried to scuttle the event, apparently.
The Poway Recall… Former GOPer Betty Rexford’s likely recall from the Poway City Council in June has resulted in quite a field of potential replacement candidates, eight to be exact. One time Assembly Republican nominee Roger Covalt, a longtime Poway resident (and perhaps a candidate for city council himself someday), provides his learned take on the line up in a post at SD Rostra. Read it here.
Libertarian icon Richard Rider wants to specifically know where the Poway candidates stand on a Wal-Mart expansion proposal in the community, causing a nice discussion on the blog.
I point this out, further, to note that only two of the eight, Pete Babich and Steve Vaus, have even bothered to answer the question, even though all the candidates having email addresses on their websites were contacted to let them know of the opportunity. It’s not too late for the others.
Speaking of Poway, the "Politics 101 of the Week"… An additional side note of advice to all candidates and consultants, based especially on the Poway experience noted above: If you have a website, great, you should. Yet, if you have a website, but you don’t list any contact information like a campaign or personal email address and phone number, that’s lame. Absolutely lame.
As longtime newsman Howard Owens noted the other day, it’s as if a candidate is saying, "I want you to know me, but I don’t want to know you."
That also goes for the proverbial website "forms" for volunteers to sign up, request a yard sign, and/or join the campaign email distribution. The forms are fine, but should never substitute for providing voters and the media (bloggers included in that) the ability to make more direct and immediate contact with the campaign or candidate.
Quote of the Week… During an outstanding Friday morning San Diego County Taxpayers Association forum on AB 32, California’s controversial global warming law, panelist and local businessman Bryan Bloom, in response to the contention that mandates by the Air Resources Board are providing opportunities:
"That’s like saying if you go out and kill everyone on the street, it provides opportunities for morticians."
Have a great week!
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May 2nd, 2010 at 12:00 am
I like running on Barry’s coat tails;)))