Trailing, Peters Goes Negative

Trailing, Peters Goes Negative

Called out for sticking voters with $600,000 “Enron by the Sea” legal tab

SAN DIEGO – Voters across the 52nd Congressional District opened their mailboxes today to find Scott Peters trying to smear fellow Democrat Lori Saldaña.

Saldaña spokesperson, Joe Kocurek, called today’s development a last-ditch effort from a trailing candidate to confuse voters as they begin casting their ballots.

“Peters is dragging this race into the mud,” Kocurek said. “The fact is, Lori didn’t spend a dime of taxpayer money, so Peters' latest attack just doesn't make sense. And it's especially troubling coming from a multi-millionaire who used $600,000 of taxpayer money to defend himself from a federal investigation.”

While on San Diego City Council, Peters spent $600,000 on legal counsel when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigated him for voting to deliberately underfund the City of San Diego’s pension system and concealing that fact from investors.

The scandal--which led the New York Times to call San Diego "Enron by the Sea"-- left a $1.4 billion deficit in the pension system and the city’s finances in disarray for nearly a decade.

Investigators found that the city under Peters violated securities fraud statutes.

“With that kind of wealth, you’d think that he’d at least have the decency to pay for his own defense rather than leaving taxpayers with the tab,” Kocurek said.

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