By Lucas O'Conner
Cross posted from Calitics
Statewide, we're all gearing up to beat back Proposition 32, that tries to give full financial control of our elections to corporations and millionaires that have already been running amok since Citizens United came down. But down in San Diego, we're already fighting what comes next. Carl DeMaio is running for mayor with big designs on becoming a national sensation for the far right, and if he gets momentum now he just might pull it off.
Prominent state and national GOP figures are already putting on Orange County fundraisers billing DeMaio as "The Next Scott Walker," and his calling card has become the string of roadmaps and pathways that mirror Paul Ryan's Roadmap for America's Future. DeMaio knows how to become a champion for the far right, and he's executing the playbook from DC step by step.
Lucas O'Connor :: Carl DeMaio, the next Scott Walker
It's a record that should have a familiar ring to anyone who's been following the presidential race. Plucked out of college by Newt Gingrich, he worked on the Contract for America before moving on to the Reason Institute to have his work funded by the likes of the Koch Brothers and Scaife Family and fell in with the Abramoff crowd.
In a sadly familiar story, he made a personal fortune after starting companies to help the government cut jobs and outsource work, and help contractors to profit off the deals. Playing both sides of the street paid off handsomely for him.
The boldness of his hypocrisy and the things he outright makes up could almost be admirable if they weren't so damaging. Running as a fiscal conservative, he's orchestrated a new billion dollar tax payable directly to corporations. Even though voters rejected the same tax twice, he simply imposed it anyways.
He's roiled many in San Diego's LGBT community by accepting big campaign checks from some of Prop 8's biggest supporters despite being a gay candidate himself. Reportedly, the price of those donations was a promise that "he would not push the gay agenda issues" as mayor.
Now in the general election, his claims have gotten even wilder.
After posting the worst cumulative score on the League of Conservation Voters scorecard since joining the city council, he's declared himself an environmentalist based on nothing in particular.
He's attempting to reach out to San Diego's Latino community after announcing that local police should enforce federal immigration law and casting the only vote on city council defending Arizona's SB1070 racial profiling law.
And now he's announced he's pro-choice, which would be great... but big news to Planned Parenthood. Of the four leading candidates for mayor in the primary, DeMaio was the only one not rated pro-choice by Planned Parenthood.
DeMaio's gamble is that not enough people have been paying attention and the media won't push back enough for all these bizarre claims to backfire on him. He'll have millions in TV ads to make his case, and it remains to be seen whether the plan will work.
He's already spearheaded dramatic attacks on public workers, championed outsourcing, and promised that he owes favors to the developers and contractors who are bankrolling his campaign. Along the way, he hasn't hidden his plan to bring this agenda to the state level next.
If the state and national GOP is lining up to spend millions electing the next Scott Walker in San Diego, it's time to push back. You can learn much more about what's on the horizon at DirtyDeMaio, and stay up to date on Facebook and Twitter.
I'm proud to work for San Diegans for Bob Filner for Mayor 2012
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