San Diego Mayoral Candidate Forum

I find it intriguing the two lines of banter about the San Diego Mayor's race with some of the below candidates that have filed an intent to run statement:

• Sharam Adhami
  
• Hud Collins
• Loch David Crane, M.E.D.
• Carl DeMaio
• Bonnie Dumanis
• Bob Filner
• Nathan Fletcher
• Steven Greenwald
• Robert Girly Girly Harter
• Christine T. Kehoe
• Toby J. Lewandoski
• Rocky Neptun
• Tobiah Lee Pettus

There is the one angle of talk about the actual campaign; who are the front runners, certain candidate ceiling and base of support, intensity of a campaigner, fundraising capacity, candidates with competing support, partisanship, flame out potential (dropping out of race), and then the potential match-up in a run-off.

There is the other conversation on the various candidates and their management as a mayor; a strong mayor, characteristics related to previous mayors, a coalition maker, partisanship, understand the complexity of the issues, relationship to council members, downtown establishment and labor.

I think we have an opportunity this far out before the Primary Election to allow the voters of the City of San Diego the opportunity to meet these real half dozen candidates, hear why they are running, what they intend to do in office and ask people for their vote through a type of multi-district townhall debate program.

First, there are currently 13 people that have filed intent to run, but only four that have opened a candidate account. While it would be grand to have every candidate that files speak at the forum it should be for the legitimate candidates. There should be a criteria for those who are invited and if they wish to attend each one can meet what I would outline as the required criteria:

1. They need to open a candidate committee;
2. They need to hire at least one staff member to run their campaign on a full-time basis;
3. They need to hire a treasurer to manage their candidate committee; and
   
4. They need to actually commit to run a real campaign (i.e. send out mailers, host phone banks, host fundraisers or self-fund a reasonable sum, etc...)

While many love the fringe candidates that run every cycle, and say everyone should be invited to the debates this is a real issue for the voters of the City of San Diego who need someone that will make this a real full-time job. You can't have a substance debate for the voters with 13 plus people answering questions. Sorry Crane.

Here is how I would outline the forums:

1. There should be two forums hosted in each of the current eight city council districts with one in each district each following week starting the first of the year, then a second in each district after the completion of the first cycle of debates are completed.
2. The forums should be no longer then two hours or some voters will leave, some will not be able to absorb the entire debate and it is hard for the working person to dedicate more then two hours to anything political, unless they are political wonks.
3. Each candidate should get a two minute opening and a two minute closing.
4. The debates should allow for real-time translation at minimum for Spanish and possibly a second or third language.
5. The forums should be funded by the lcoal Republican and Democratic parties, who would just solicit donations from their respective donors anyway. We don't have to have taxpayers cover the cost of these forums.
   
6. There should be a three person panel to ask questions, which should be someone selected by the Republican Party chair, someone selected from the Democratic Party chair and a third which both party chairs can hopefully deem as neutral. Panels are always charged with being partisan, so lets skip the theatrics of choosing only reporters, academia, or non-profits and allow there to be some meaty questions.
7. The forums should hold candidates to 1-minute responses.
8. Candidates should each be allowed a certain number of times they can ask one specific candidate a follow-up question.
9. The audience should be polled at the end of each question on whether they think the candidates answered the question and not whether they liked the candidates answers.
10. At the end of the forum there is a spin zone for reporters from print, on-line and social media representatives to ask questions of either the candidates, their campaign representatives, party designee, and allow the fringe candidates to have a representative to complain how they were not allowed to debate.

I have other ideas, but I think you can get my line of thought here. So, I call on the following organizations that have the ability to put together these types of forums, to step-up and help organize these forums:

• Center on Policy Initiatives
• Common Cause
• League of Women Voters
• National University System Institute for Policy Research
• San Diego County Taxpayers Association
• San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council
• San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce

Sen. Christine Kehoe to Serve as Honorary Chair for New Leaders Council in San Diego

California State Senator Christine Kehoe has agreed to serve as the Honorary Chair for recently-formed chapter of the New Leaders Council in San Diego.

The mission of the New Leaders Council (“NLC”) is to train and support the next generation of progressive political entrepreneurs - those who are leading industries, setting trends, and building institutions that support robust civic and political life in a global America.

NLC accomplishes this mission primarily through the NLC Institute; the nation's premiere political entrepreneurship training program that builds local teams of outstanding young professionals in twelve cities across the nation. NLC Fellows engage in an intensive ten days of training over a five-month period to learn cutting-edge entrepreneurship, leadership, and political management skills from over 150 industry-leading volunteer faculty. Upon graduation, Fellows are paired with career mentors, join a national alumni network, and agree to fundraise to support the next class of Fellows.

Senator Kehoe has been a long time promoter of leadership development in the San Diego area, including through her participation with the Aaron Price Fellows Program, which introduces high school students to San Diego’s governmental, cultural, business communities. She has also participated in workshops to encourage women to run for public office through the Women and the Law Conference as part of the Annual Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lecture series, and through “San Diego Political Bootcamp” with the Lawyers Club of San Diego.

The NLC formed a chapter in San Diego over the course of the last six months, recruiting an advisory board of San Diego leaders from the business, labor, non-profit, legal and public sectors. The NLC board will operate the NLC Institute, and recruit accomplished professionals to train the 2010 class of NLC Fellows.

NLC believes in recruiting emerging leaders from outside of the traditional power structures, engaging them on both local and national levels, and equipping them to be civic leaders - not only for elective office, but also in their communities and workplaces.

The result of NLC is a growing corps of diverse and highly-skilled new progressive leaders who rise to the top of their fields, working together across sectors and in their local cities to build, expand, and improve the progressive infrastructure necessary for strong democracy, social justice, and equal opportunity.

To apply to the NLC Fellowship program click here.

To nominate someone to become a Fellow for the NLC program, click here.

Thursday - Quick Hits

Art you should have called yourself a taxi. More questions being asked regarding special treatment by police for a drunken mayor of La Mesa. UT

Recruiting is up and attrition is down for San Diego Police since the pay raise last year. UT

State Sen. Christine Kehoe taking the lead on making it easier for communities to raise the revenue necessary for more fire protection. NCTimes

Noticeable positive effects since alcohol ban has gone into affect in beach area. UT

Three days of marathon hearing by the PUC over Sunrise Powerlink, vast overwhelming majority opposed to it. UT

City of Santee votes to become a charter city. Will place measure on November ballot. UT

Friday - Quick Hits

Three hour long fire fight between law enforcement and drug cartels in Tijuana leaves six dead. UT

Misconduct at San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant has led to five employees fired and two others disciplined. UT

Governor visits town yesterday to explain, how his mismanagement of state budget now needs to be slashed. UT

Local GOP not too happy with Maienschein's entry into city attorney race. UT

Continuing to investigate City Attorney Aguirre, State bar has issued subpoenas in its investigation. UT

City on Encinitas has decided to purchase iconic boat houses. UT

If it passes a safety check, Sprinter rail service could start on Jan 27. UT

State Sen. Kehoe has requested that the Public Utilities Commission hold a public hearing regarding Sunrise Powerlink in the City of San Diego. NC Times

End of The Week Notes...

With the buzz surrounding the presidential races this week following the New Hampshire primary, it is hard to forget that there are plenty of local races that will be decided in June.

In the San Diego City Council District 3 race, Steve Whitburn pickup the endorsement from Congressman Bob Filner. Both of San Diego's Democrats in Congress have now weighed in on the District 3 race. It is interesting that both Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña and State Senator Christine Kehoe have yet to endorse in this race.

Also this week, I heard that Auday Arabo easily won the endorsement of the Chicano Democratic Association. In the coming weeks both the San Diego County Young Democrats and the Eastlake-Bonita Democratic Club will be having endorsements in the 78th Assembly race. It will be interesting to see where their endorsements go.

Kehoe, Atkins Among Members of Hillary Clinton's California LGBT Steering Committee

Earlier this week, Hillary Clinton announced the formation of her California LGBT Steering Committee. It's Chaired by Senator Sheila Kuehl and includes among its 100+ members San Diego Senator Christine Kehoe and Councilwoman Toni Atkins. The press release touts:

Hillary has been a longtime ally of the LGBT community. She fought against the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) both times and has worked on legislation that would promote equality for LGBT Americans.

It also goes on to note that she has publicly stated she would repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell and other positions. But as Paul Hogarth found out at YearlyKos, Clinton remains a fan of the Defense Of Marriage Act:

Defense of Marriage: DOMA, passed in 1996 when Bill Clinton wanted to deprive Bob Dole of a campaign issue, allows states not to recognize an out-of-state gay marriage. "DOMA served a very important purpose," she said. "I was one of the architects in the strategy of fighting the 2004 Marriage Amendment, and DOMA gave us a bright line to be able to pull back the votes."

So color me still perplexed by the LGBT support for Clinton, which certainly appears to be widespread. I can appreciate that Bill Clinton was the closest thing to an ally that the community has had in the White House in more than 25 years, so there's some (admirable) loyalty involved. And she is (thankfully) in favor of changing DOMA to allow federal recognition of state unions. But when she spoke to the Human Rights Campaign earlier this year, she wanted as little publicity as possible, and she still isn't budging on DOMA. So what makes her a better potential champion for LGBT issues as compared to other candidates?

Barack Obama caused a major kerfluffle a month ago by inviting popular homophobe and gospel singer Donnie McClurkin to perform at a campaign event. Big flag there. But he then turned around and condemned Rev. McLurkin's beliefs on homosexuality in no uncertain terms and spoke strongly about supporting the same LGBT issues that Hillary Clinton's press release mentions while also calling for the full repeal of DOMA. That part, at least, seems better.

John Edwards, like Clinton, supports repealing the part of DOMA "that prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex relationships." He voices strong opposition to any discrimination based on sexual orientation and while he's still not sure about marriage, is all for civil unions just like Clinton and Obama.

So I guess that I don't see all that much daylight between the three leading contenders. Or at least, not enough that would spark a stampede towards Hillary Clinton's corner. I'm more than willing to have this explained to me and would actually appreciate some sort of explanation now that two of San Diego's leading LGBT political figures have joined up with team Hillary. It just seems like an oddly un-progressive choice for a generally very progressive community with generally very progressive issue priorities.

Like Lane Hudson said at HuffPo a few months ago, if the value of DOMA was as a tool to defeat the Federal Marraige Amendment, and the FMA is now dead, then hasn't DOMA run its course? Why would anyone- within the LGBT community or not- even accept this as something for debate? And why would they so overwhelmingly and enthusiastically line up for someone who isn't even on the correct side of that debate?