Friday - Quick Hits

Sad news. Megan Emily Rountree, the daughter of Lucy Krohn, chief of staff to Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña, died from a fall last Saturday night. CapitolWeekly

After 16 months of negotiations between City of Chula Vista and Gaylord Entertainment, deal is still elusive on $1 billion bayfront project. UT

State Supreme Court say screw the seals in upholding lower court ruling that Children's Pool in La Jolla has to be dredged. UT

Thanks to DiFi's criticisms, city to study cost of adding additional fire stations and firefighters. UT

California Coastal Commission to examine Oceanside plans for beachfront hotel next month. UT

Tri-city hospital board has choosen design for $778 million expansion and upgrade of medical center. UT NCTimes

What happen last night....

Following is a synopsis of what transpired based on an e-mail I received this afternoon from a friend who attended the meeting last night:

It turned out that last night's Democratic Central Committee meeting was quite the eventful evening. The highlight of the evening was the early endorsement of Mike Aguirre for City Attorney.

In attendance there were representatives from the City Attorney's office including Karen Heuman and Kathryn Burton as well as representatives from the Municipal Employees Association who were distributing photocopies of anti-Mike Aguirre articles to Central Committee members outside the room. Also there was Dan Coffey, who is a Democrat and announced candidate for City Attorney.

Mike Aguirre spoke to the members on the Central Committee and detailed the accomplishments of his office since he took over three years ago. He also spoke very passionately about the Democratic values he believes in.

The discussion was limited strictly to Central Committee members, 10 of them spoke. During the discussion among the members that were both Aguirre supporters and Aguirre non-supporters they argued their positions enthusiastically. One of the individuals who spoke on Aguirre's behalf was 76 AD Assemblywoman Lori Saldana.

The person who probably had the most impact in swaying some undecided members to vote against the endorsement for Aguirre, was a member who had once worked in Aguirre's office.

I think the vote surprised the Aguirre supporters in the room, with the vote being 23 for and 19 against. Aguirre falling short of the 60% requirement by two votes.

Following the Aguirre endorsement vote, the early incumbent endorsement for San Diego School Boardmember Sheila Jackson was brief opened up for discussion. The reason was her intention to vote for Republican Luis Acle as president of the School Board next month. By this point most of the committee just wanted to get out and her endorsement sailed through with no opposition.

One final note from last night's meeting. I am also told that the party amended its bylaws to allow for early endorsements in open races. Setting the stage to endorse in City Council seats 1 and 7 at the January meeting.

Republicans fooling themselves on the 78th

The local Republican leaders have lost their supposed hero, former Police Chief David Bejarano and scrambled to re-hype Chula Vista Councilman John McCann. This is the same person the party forced out of the race for Bejarano.

Now, the party is looking at what they can do to hold on to the district seat and there was only one way, money, money and even more money. However, they seem to be missing why Assemblywoman Shirley Horton was able to win the seat in the first place and I'm not going to tell them.

The 78 Assembly District has a total registration of 204,938 voters and the party breakdown is 84,033 Dems, 69,443 Reps and 42,955 DTS. Remember the 76 Assembly District has a total registration of 214,340 voters and the party breakdown is 84,797 Dems, 63,564 Reps and 54,012 DTS.

So, again it wasn't the party registration that won the seat for Horton and with a higher turnout for the Presidential election next November McCann will need more then money.