San Diego Politics & Media Mashup

Cross posted at San Diego Rostra

At a fundraiser for Carl DeMaio on Wednesday I heard the mayoral candidate make some points I hadn’t heard him make before.

Speaking to members of the San Diego County Apartment Association, for whom I am privileged to do some work, Councilman DeMaio said someday he would like to write a book about how he helped turn San Diego around, and the positive affect government reform has had on local neighborhoods. He said he wants to tour the world to discuss his book.

He said he would not have a Chief Operating Officer as mayor. Instead, he said, he would appoint a handful of deputy mayors. The Republican councilman and fiscal hawk also said there would be some Democrats at high levels in his administration.

The latest polling shows he and Congressman Bob Filner in a statistical dead heat, DeMaio said. It also shows, he said, that if he’s able to share his primary messages with… Read More

San Diego Politics & Media Mashup

I’m not sure what’s worse: suggesting the Republican Party is racist or calling someone a criminal while offering no evidence to support the claim.

Congressman Bob Filner, running for mayor in San Diego, did both of those things in a span of a few days.

Adding fuel to the fire was local labor Lorena Gonzalez. More on her in a minute. First, Filner.

At a mayoral debate Thursday, Filner played the race card while refuting a point by City Councilman and mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio.

“They (the Republican Party) are a party that does not believe that the people of color in this nation deserve an equal chance, they do not believe that Mexico is worthy of respect as a nation,” Filner said, according to KPBS.

Monday on KOGO, host LaDona Harvey noted that Filner basically accused her and a whole bunch of other people of being racist without offering any proof.

Within the hour, Filner was doing the same thing —… Read More

The rumors about Democrat Bob Filner signing Republican political consultant Tom Shepard to run his San Diego mayoral campaign became reality on Wednesday.

The U-T San Diego posted astoryabout the move last night. A blog post went up on San Diego Rostra about the same time. And there was Tony Krvaric’s email blast. The chair of local GOP didn’t mince words. His subject line: “BREAKING: Tom Shepard betrays our reform effort and signs on with Bob Filner!”

Krvaric closed by saying: “PS. The Republican Party of San Diego County will not do business with him ever again as long as I remain chairman. Elephants don’t forget – and principles matter.”

Shepard is a friend and a mentor. We’ve worked together. I admire and respect him. He took the loss in the June primary hard — he represented Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, who finished third behind DeMaio… Read More

San Diego Politics & Media Mashup

Republican Carl DeMaio has hired a Democrat and Democrat Bob Filner is on board with pension reform.

Who spiked the water in San Diego?

Relax. There’s no need to panic. The water is clean…I mean drinkable. So why are we seeing New Carl and New Bob popping up in stories?

Here’s the thing — election season is nearly in full swing and DeMaio and Filner, the two men running to become San Diego’s next mayor, have to figure out how to appeal to the middle in order to come out on top in November. In San Diego, 40 percent of registered voters are Democrats and 28 percent are registered Republican.

Math is leading both candidates to stray from their core philosophies and make decisions they never would have made leading up to the June… Read More

The Californian initiative process pains me.

Great idea on paper, but in reality – we’ve allowed idle lawmakers to relinquish responsibilities to the public, which supposedly hired them for the job.

Yet, even when voters “decide” (measure proponents love to say that), it’s rarely the end of the discussion.

Days, weeks or months later, a psuedo-lamaker legislates from the bench and we’re back where we started with just a dash more bitterness.

It’s a wonder voters show up at all anymore.

In good old San Diego, there’s an epic battle playing out over an initiative that’s got all the makings of a daytime drama.

The initiative proposes reforming the City’s guaranteed pension system and replacing it with a 401(k)-style plan for “most” new hires.

Basically, the so-called “comprehensive pension reform” eliminates pensions in favor of 401(k)s for all new hires but police officers (one of the proponents, Mayor Jerry Sanders, is a former police chief) and proposes a five-year hold on current employee salaries used to calculate future pensions.

A… Read More

Camp Carl DeMaio must be doing a jig.

Earlier this week, the councilman signed highly-respected pollster John Nienstedt of Competitive Edge Research & Communication.

So far, the polling for the San Diego mayoral race ain’t been what most of us race watchers would consider legit.

This move signifies a tipping point in the race that will no doubt lead to some substantive research providing supporters, donors and voters alike a clearer view of the field.

The most recent poll, conducted by SurveyUSA from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3 for KGTV, Channel 10, showed DeMaio in the top spot with 25 percent of the vote followed closely by long-time Democrat Congressman Bob Filner with 24 percent.

Trailing behind the pair were Republicans, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis with 14 percent and state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher at 13… Read More

The 2012 San Diego mayor’s race began like other love affairs – lots of hope and promise for the future. Then, the sparkle and shine of courtship faded quickly into the same old dull routine.

No more flowers. No more moonlight and love songs.

Seems I’m not the only one who noticed our romance is fading.

Even the candidates can’t muster the enthusiasm. Both Councilman Carl DeMaio and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis skipped a second, high-profile debate last week and the fall out has been notable.

One Rostra blogger called the no-show candidates “disappointing” while a San Diego Union-Tribune columnist floated the sweat-inducing idea of forcing all the candidates to participate in at least one debate.

[I witnessed what came close … Read More

Let’s begin with praise. The online news folks at Voice of San Diego deserve big props for diving in head first with a great concept – a political festival centered around the first San Diego 2012 mayoral debate or as they called it Politifest 2011.

However, due to no filtering of candidates, it felt more freak show than what they dubbed a “Lincoln – Douglas” style county fair debate.

Though top-tier candidates, Rep. Bob Filner and Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, participated – they were not “the talk” of the debate.

The “It” kid of the event, Rob Harter, called himself “Girly Girly.”

He opened up with a diatribe about how men are evil, ruining the world with war and guns. Oh, did I happen to mention this event took place on the grounds of the old Naval Training Center, where sailors like my father, attended boot camp?

Yes, clearly the Lincoln candidate.

Meaning wacky retired teacher and magician Loch David… Read More