Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Democrats Have Their Say Last Night

Last night's Democratic Party Central Committee turned out to be the contentious meeting that many were expecting. The big item on the agenda of course was the endorsement for city attorney. As reported elsewhere, incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre failed to receive the endorsement from the party last night. Besides Mike Aguirre, both Scott Peters and Amy Lepine were in attendance to seek the party's endorsement too. The process quickly boiled down to the Aguirre v. Peters match that everyone had expected it to be.

During the candidate discussion period Aguirre continued to play the role of martyr. That he was the victim of backroom deals being orchestrated between corrupt politicians, labor bosses and the downtown establishment. For many of the central committee members, Aguirre's manichean view of city politics played to their sympathies. Agurrie also took several jabs at Peters, arguing that he was responsible for the financial mess in the city.

Scott Peters, on the other hand touted his Democratic bona fides that fell on a deaf ear for many of members in the audience. Peters additionally argued that unlike Aguirre, he has demonstrated an ability to work with others council in his role as president of the city council. It was painfully obvious that the central committee was divided Aguirre and Peters with Aguirre having more supporters there that Peters. After two votes Aguirre fell 1% short of the 60% required for the party endorsement.

Aguirre has now twice failed in the last 6 months to capture the party endorsement. It appears that he wasn't able to enlarge his majority on the central committee enough for him to break the 60% threshold. If he ends up making the runoff for the November election, he can once again go before the central committee in July to try to get the "hat trick" in no endorsement from the party.

Correction: In a post the other day I made mention that the Democratic Party in 2004 had endorsed Kathryn Burton over Scott Peters in 2004. The information I received was wrong from a central committee member was incorrect. Scott Peters and Kathryn Burton were co-endorsed by the party.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. I liked how one member who shall remain nameless said, "Mike Aguirre pisses off the Democrats, he pisses off the Republicans, he must be doing a good job."

Uh, aren't we the Democrats?

2. Another committee member, who shall remain nameless but is of a higher profile, pointed out Aguirre's double standard: Aguirre said Peters made backroom deals because he had conversations with Labor, yet Aguirre called everyone on the Central Committee to try to line up his votes. Hypocritical?

Anonymous said...

I think my favorite was Lawson Chawick. After being banned from the Central Committee (for starting a recall against a good democratic city councilwoman, Esther Sanchez) he finds a loophole and is appointed by his wife. He pissed off enough Committee members just by being there. Then, Mike Aguirre has him speak for him first. Bad Judgement Mike at it again. You have to say, on balance, Scott did have the more influential and reasonable of the Central Committee members on his side speaking out, along with bringing Toni Atkins and Ben Hueso.

I say point Scott because I think Aguirre went into the night with more than enough votes to pull out an endorsement. Scott and his supporters were just able to sway enough for no endorsement.

Anonymous said...

Derek Casady spoke right from Mike Aguirre's playbook: Lies about the pension case, Lies about Mike's support for privatization, Lies about Mike's viability. For shame.

Anonymous said...

Scott Peters, Toni Atkins, and Ben Hueso all voted for Jerry Sanders loophole-filled version of Density Bonus. Only Donna Frye voted for the environment. Mike Aguirre wrote an alternate version of Density Bonus that followed state law and closed all the loopholes. Now all Density Bonus incentives are ministerial, over-the-counter review, not subject to CEQA, and do not have to pay for mitigation for fire, police, parks, etc.

Anonymous said...

Unlike Richard Nixon...you will have
Lawson Chadwick to kick-around for
a while longer...he was just elected
again to the county committee......
Before most of you were born..Lawson
was in a labor union..shoveling coal
in a steam engine on the high plaines
of Nebraska....most of you want to be
DEMOCRATS...don't have any idea...
what it is to walk a picket-line in
dead of winter...and fight to form
your union.....4 MORE YEARS FOR MIKE AGUIRRE..HE HAS BALLS!

Anonymous said...

Lawson Chadwick is crazy. If he was such a good union guy, why did he try to unseat Esther Sanchez? The only dem in North county.

Anonymous said...

Palomar college....has 4 DEMOCRATS
on it's board...the only BLUE area
in North County....SANCHEZ is the
reason the Oceanside's mayor Jim
Wood is the mayor...check her FPPC
460...she is a major donor to this
REPUBLICAN mayor....When SANCHEZ
went on the Oceanside council...
there were 4 Democrats...because of
her she is the lone Democrat!