Thursday, October 13, 2011

Twitter and San Diego's Republican Party

As noted below, Twitter suspended the accounts of the San Diego Republican Party for setting up dummy accounts on Twitter for Democratic officials, in blatant violation of Twitter's rules.  In particular, the chairman of the San Diego Republican Party, Tony Krvaric was banned from Twitter because he was setting up these dummy accounts himself.  Weirdest of all, when he was caught, Mr. Krvaric didn't deny that he was behind the dummy accounts.

I mention all of this because Wonkette is right - while this sort of thing goes on all the time, its usually an intern, or a "overactive volunteer" who pulls this kind of stuff, not the head of the Republican Party.  That's because when the dirty trick gets exposed, as it will always be exposed, an intern, or overactive volunteer doing the dirty work will get ignored by the media.  When the GOP chairman gets caught, the media pays attention.  Good job, Mr. Krvaric.

Now comes the next fun question: which Republican officeholders and candidates will condemn and/or repudiate Mr. Krvaric's actions first?  My money is on Bonnie Dumanis, who's not only a law and order type, but she's also trying to shore up her centrist cred.  By the way, each time one of these GOP candidates/officeholders condemn or fail to condemn Mr. Krvaric's actions will draw a headline.  Again, if an intern, or "overactive volunteer" set up the dummy accounts, Mr. Krvaric could distance himself from the whole affair, and the story would die.

So, Mr. Krvaric, the Democrats you impersonated on Twitter may not have been savvy enough to setup Twitter accounts for themselves, but you were stupid enough to do the dirty work yourself.  Well done, sir.

Wonkette: Twitter Overlords Order San Diego GOP Chairman To Get a Life

Bored dingbat San Diego County GOP chairman Tony Krvaric got kicked off Twitter after he registered a half dozen fake accounts to the names of his Democratic opponents, because he is a vindictive weirdo who isn’t smart enough to blame this kind of banal malarkey on some intern. Instead he’s wearing it around like a Boy Scout badge of honor on his new Twitter account, and he wants us all to know that he is a heroic numbskull, because he has taught the Democrats an Important Lesson, about the ’puters. Why hasn’t someone thanked him?


Oh, it’s probably true that the San Diego County Democrats if they were smarter would have put some 14-year-old staffer who knows how to “work the buttons” in charge of this project, but seeing as how it’s not technically illegal (yet) to refuse to spend precious minutes of this one life on earth registering eighteen different Twitter accounts to variants of your name, Krvaric is acting like a very superior weiner.

Read the article here.

SDCDP: Republican Twitter Accounts Suspended 

MEDIA ADVISORY: October 12, 2011

Republican Twitter Accounts Suspended
San Diego GOP Linked to Attempt to Impersonate Democrats

Days after a formal complaint from the San Diego County Democratic Party, Twitter has suspended several accounts impersonating San Diego Democrats, along with the official page of the County Republican Party (@sdrepublicans) and that of its chair, Tony Krvaric (@TonyKrvaric).

On October 6, the general counsel for the County Democratic Party contacted Twitter to protest four accounts that purported to represent candidates for the San Diego City Council -- @SherriLightner, @ToddPhilips, @MatKostrinsky, and @MartiEmerald -- in addition to one impersonating the County Democratic Party, @sddemocrats, and its chair, @JessDurfee.

The Democrats' letter cited Twitter’s policy on this practice, which defines impersonation as “pretending to be another person or entity in order to deceive.” The policy continues: “Impersonation is a violation of the Twitter Rules and may result in permanent account suspension.”

Though Krvaric’s and the Republican Party’s accounts were not mentioned in the Democratic complaint, both were suspended today along with the fraudulent accounts -- indicating that Twitter has pinpointed the Republicans in impersonating Democrats and trying to trick their followers.

“I applaud Twitter for acting quickly to shut the deceptive profiles down,” said Democratic Party Chair Jess Durfee. “Childish and unethical conduct online is nothing new, but I am disappointed to see that my Republican counterpart and his party may have been behind it. The idea of Tony Krvaric posting as @JessDurfee is just creepy.

“From hiring a spy to shadow a Redistricting Commissioner to pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into failed signature-gathering efforts, this has been a busy year for San Diego Republicans,” Durfee added. “Now apparently they can add Internet fraud to the list. In the meantime, Democrats have out-registered them countywide, and we’re looking forward to out-campaigning them in 2012.”

Campaigns and organizations across the political spectrum have increased their presence on Twitter in recent years, using the social networking tool to communicate with supporters, raise funds, and promote stories in the news media. The authentic Twitter handles for the impersonated Democrats in San Diego include @Kostrinsky, @MartiEmeraldD7, @SanDiegoDems, and @ChairJessDurfee.

#  #  #

SDUT: Twitter accounts of county GOP, chairman yanked

Krvaric said he did send a few tweets as Jess Durfee, who he said joined “after I mocked him forever.”

“It wasn’t about him,” said Krvaric, now registered as @Krvaric. “It was really just goofing off."

Durfee said he was not surprised to learn Krvaric was behind the stunt.

"He doesn’t seem to spend his time doing the things that help build a party; rather he spends his time playing little games," Durfee said. "While they are doing all that crap, we’re out there registering voters. I guess I approach my position a little more seriously and am doing things that I should be doing."

Read the article here.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Mayoral Debate Next Wednesday


MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact: Evan McLaughlin, 619-850-2790 cell




San Diego Mayor's Debate Presented by A Better San Diego Community Coalition

Community Coalition To Test Next Mayor of San Diego On Economic Issues Facing City's Neighborhoods

Wednesday, October 19, 2011
6:30 p.m.

Balboa Theatre
868 Fourth Avenue (@ Horton Plaza)

The A Better San Diego coalition is comprised of community, faith, labor, LGBT rights, immigrant rights, environmental and social justice organizations who have been working to build an economic vision for our city that focuses on jobs, quality of life, equality, prosperity and fairness for more San Diegans.

This mayoral forum will be focused on presenting candidates in next year's mayor's race with the challenges facing our communities and seeking answers about the candidates' approach to confronting them.

The 90-minute forum will consist of a community panel, a media panel and questions from the audience. All members of the public are invited to attend.

All major candidates have been invited. Congressman Bob Filner and Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher have confirmed their attendance.

For more information or to submit a suggested question for the candidates, visit www.abettersandiego.com.

###


Congressional District 51

Image courtesy of MAD Magazine


Politics in the South Bay has been a seesaw of revenge and recriminations. Families and political alliances have shifted and rotated depending on electoral winners and losers. Often sharing staff and resources, players in this field can never be permanently counted out.


Vargas
State Senator Vargas has always wanted to be in Congress. So much so that he went to Republican donors to make it happen in a past run against Filner. But Filner has been the wall keeping Vargas from his dream. For years, politics in South Bay was aligned along the Filner -Vargas divide with Vargas gaining an upper hand on the local level and Filner always keeping the Congressional seat.

With Filner running for San Diego Mayor, Vargas has gone all out to claim the new 51st CD as his own. He has hired away Mary Salas's campaign manager, Filner's former Imperial Valley consultant, and is on track to hire Hueso staff to send the message that this train is unstoppable. Word on the street is that he has begun "pressuring" local elected officials in South Bay to come on board or get crushed. Vargas has already solicited big Democratic donors in San Diego and is working overtime to heal the rift with the insurance lobby and curry favor with the Native American gaming tribes.

In his race against Salas, Vargas won through his ability to buy the talent on the ground and work with Hueso in the west and Perez in the east to pick up the slack. It is rumored that Vargas expects to open the 2012 year with 6 million in the bank. He knows that the best way to become a real player is to arrive in D.C. with the most cash to spread around to other races.


Ducheny
But he cannot be as generous with the money as he could be with a non-token primary opponent. Enter Former State Senator Denise Ducheny. If there was anyone left, who was not Mary Salas, in South Bay to take him on, Ducheny is the one. She is a scrapper who is unafraid of fighting and does not appear to care about playing nice.

This makes her a great foil against Vargas but she comes in as the underdog. She does not have the name recognition from having run only last year nor does she have the cozy business relationships to the degree Vargas has to make campaigning easy.

What she does have are angry Salas supporters, latent Imperial Valley support from her terms in the State Senate, and an altogether different donor base that Vargas. Her campaign has not taken advantage of some Vargas staff issues in the Imperial Valley, which has raised some eyebrows, but it is still early.


Conclusion
Too early to tell. If the election were held today, Vargas would win for no other reason than he has a campaign team which is campaigning. He is courting Labor and tacking left. Ducheny does not have the deer-in-the-headlights reaction to Vargas's money that Salas had last cycle. She's been talking to Alvarez supporters about staffing and has been quietly building a war chest. She is known as a strategist and may just be taking her time. We will see.

SDUT: Supervisors embrace independent redistricting panel

Supervisor Bill Horn took issue with “wanting to fix something that’s not broken.” He noted that supervisors were directly accountable to voters — unlike the proposed independent commission.

“It seems like we are reacting to a very vocal minority that came in here at the last moment after what I thought was a very fair process,” Horn said.

Read the article here.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

SD Mayor: Eight month check-in

Labor at work: Flyer sighted yesterday in Mira Mesa


We are a little less than eight months away from the Primary Election for Mayor of San Diego. In typical fashion, most of the electorate is barely aware of the upcoming battle for the future of the site where "happy happens."

Filner
What I find interesting about the SUSA poll is that Filner really has not begin campaigning and starts off with a quarter of those surveyed. Those are nice number to emerge from gate without lifting a finger. That does not mean that Filner can take the race for granted. He has not drawn any serious Democratic opposition and this will allow his campaign time to gear up for the hard slog ahead.

DeMaio
What is also interesting about the SUSA poll is that DeMaio comes in at a quarter and he has been campaigning since he arrived in San Diego. With his signature gathering over and list of supporters/contacts derived from this pension reform/election drive, it remains to be seen if politician DeMaio can actually mount a real citywide campaign. Without his initiatives proving a cushion for his elections and feathering his electoral nest with donors, it is hard to discern how DeMaio's campaign would get beyond this 25%. But with the lists of contacts and donors, his is the only campaign driving the "selfish angry voter who isn't too up on and doesn't care about details" which describes a good chunk of the SD Republican base. Hence the other two Republicans playing "me too." DeMaio is acting quite the politician in staying out of the Fletcher and Dumanis battles to spilt the Reps apart and keep his path to the General election open.

Dumanis
Inertia will only get you so far. Laws of thermodynamics and elections tell us so. With the swatting she received for flipping on the pension, the Dumanis campaign seems to be lying low, quietly collecting endorsements and slowly figuring out Twitter. This would be a fine strategy if it were only she and Filner. It is not and someone should inform the Dumanis campaign that Aesop's fable about the Tortoise and the Hare works if the hubris of the hare causes the hare to stop. As of this writing, neither Fletcher nor DeMaio show any signs of slowing down. She may limp into the next year but I just don't see how Dumanis can secure a spot in the General.

Fletcher
With his Sacramento and local support, Fletcher is still the "Dark Horse" in that he has yet to emerge from the shadows and do something to wake the San Diego electorate to his existence. It would not take much to remind them of what he has done and it is possible that he is holding his fire until 2012. Still, he has to carve a solid base somewhere that won't be attracted to the Filner-DeMaio poles and this task is made easier without Dumanis. As she flails amongst the "moderates" for support, Fletcher can either wait her out or plow forward, on his own which may be a gamble that he'd rather not take at this time.