Setting Sherri Lightner's Record Straight

There has been a lot of mail coming from Sherri Lightner’s opponent lately—firing plenty of attacks, but offering little, if any, substance. It seems that he is more interested in tearing down Lightner’s image than building up his own.

Since he does not seem to want to address any real issues, I thought I might take the time to compare Sherri Lightner with her opponent.

Neighborhoods

Lightner is actively involved with planning and community groups to understand the concerns of residents and stand up for important issues even while running her campaign [more]…
Where is Thalheimer?

Accountability/Openness

Lightner provides detailed answers to questionnaires, shares her political values and positions on major issues on her website, attends many public forums and debates, and has a plan for active public outreach…
Thalheimer ignores or refuses opportunities to answer questions from the public and often replies (when he responds at all) to questionnaires with one-word answers and no explanation.

Outsourcing

Lightner believes in a cautious approach to outsourcing to ensure proper oversight, no loss of service levels, and real savings to taxpayers [more]…
Thalheimer wants to outsource as many services as possible now.

Pension

Lightner realizes that there are no easy answers, that the grim reality may be that the City of San Diego is legally responsible for already-promised benefits, and that much of the funding for these benefits is dangerously invested in the stock market [more]…
Thalheimer thinks that halting the DROP program (which has already been eliminated for new city employees and may not be legally possible to end for older employees) is the silver bullet to solve the problem (GOP mailer, September, 2008).

Budget

Lightner believes that a line-by-line review of the budget will reveal costly and unnecessary expenses and programs that will not impact crucial city and neighborhood services [more]…
Thalheimer prefers to fund things he can “touch” (LJVCA Candidate Caucus, 4/23/08).

Economic Development

Lightner wants to partner with local universities and businesses to bring green industry and green collar jobs to San Diego in order to strengthen our economy by creating good paying jobs and create a new tax base [more]…
Thalheimer has not proposed any ideas.

Overdevelopment

Lightner believes we must ensure that roads, water, open space, parks and available transit be in place before runaway density overtakes us [more]…
Thalheimer says, “We must go up” (La Jolla District 1 Primary debate, 4/22/08).

Paid Parking

Lightner led the effort to prevent paid parking at the beach and on our streets [more]…
Thalheimer was first in favor of paid parking (11/23/07), then against it (4/22/08), and now…?

Regents Road Bridge

Lightner knows that we need results for fire and traffic safety now—many of which can be gained through building a fire station in south University City and improving traffic flow along the Genesee corridor [more]…
Thalheimer was first against it (2004), and then in favor of it (4/22/08), and then against it (La Jolla Village Community Association Forum, 4/23/08), then in favor of it again (5/7/08), and wants to spend millions of dollars and waste several years on designs and planning while ignoring residents’ current needs.

I-5/S-56 Connector

Lightner has signed on to Stop5Noise movement and opposes the removal or destruction of any residential property [more]…
Thalheimer refuses to rule out the destruction of private homes; has not signed onto Stop5Noise.

Code of Fair Campaign Practices

Lightner signed the pledge in March 2008 and has focused her campaign “on issues rather then untruths or distortions," as promised [more]…
Thalheimer signed in March 2008 as well, but has he really kept his word?

It is clear that we have a stark choice in this election. Sherri Lightner is the obvious choice if you would like a say in government, want to know where your councilmember stands (and why), believe that infrastructure should lead development rather than follow it, and is willing to roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty with the details instead of glossing over big problems.

Come November 4th; let’s make the choice for Sherri Lightner!

Philly Boy Has Bad Money Sense

With the June election behind us lets look towards the November Election. Since the media is not talking about it, then I guess someone should at least remind people about the why Phil "Philly Boy" Thalheimer can't win in November.

We don't have to go back very far, just remember the infamous San Diego Union-Tribune story, besides the other ones listed below. Much of these are from his own words and why residents of District 1 should NOT vote for him:

1) Early on he invested all his money on margin, sold short and lost it all, plus another $30,000
- He said, "I didn't realize you could lose more than you had"

2) His first job as an orderly was tough for him, because he had a hard time relating to youth and
after two years his boss told him he was not empathetic and should find another job

3) He worked for the controversial San Diego Data Processing Center

4) He left his job with the City of San Diego over people skills
- He said, “I never liked working for other people,”
- Also quoted as saying,, “As much time as I spent in local government, I never felt like I fit.”
- Now Philly Boy wants to come back to city government

5) He lucked out with being able to run the Flight Training International, even despite himself.
- Even with in his own words he called his business plan, "flawed"

6) In his previous candidate statement he says, "Phil Thalheimer will use business skills to clean
up the financial mess," he said, "refused to accept one dime of developer money," and "I have not and will not take one penny of developer/lobbyist campaign contributions."
- Is his business sense something we can afford?
- Now that he found wealth as developer he is okay with their money.
- Looking through his reports, I now see plenty of developer & lobbyist money.

7) Flip flops on the Regents bridge

8) He spent over $1,000,000 of his own personal money on his last losing city council campaign.
- It seems he really didn't learn from his other past investment losses.

Sadly, the Voice of San Diego reported Philly Boy's company, Flight Training International is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration. People will be watching the results of the investigations.

More Aguirre Follies

Last night before the San Diego County Democratic Party Central Committee meeting, city firefighters and other city employees held a thank you demonstration for the members of the central committee who back in November voted to deny City Attorney Mike Aguirre an early incumbent endorsement. The demonstrators held signs along city streets and in front of the State building where the committee meets.[Link]

According to my source who sent me the above photo, during the central committee meeting both Lee Burdick and Dan Coffey, who are declared candidates for city attorney, took strong anti-Aguirre positions when speaking to central committee members. I'm told the response from the members was respective, but not overwhelming.

In other news from last night's meeting, both Marti Emerald and Sherri Lightner received early party endorsements for district-7 and district-1 city council races.

Some End of the Week Reflections

Last night at the San Diego County Democratic Party - Central Region meeting, Both Marti Emerald in city council district 7 and Sherri Lightner in city council district 1 were recommended for early endorsement to the Central Committee meeting in January.

With the announcement earlier this week that TaxpayersAdvocate.org Scott Barnett is dropping out of the race for Mitz Lee school board seat, leaves John Lee Evans as the only announced candidate to fill the seat. The word on the street is that Barnett is going to be involved in one of the Republican campaigns for City Attorney?

Speaking of the City Attorney, I have heard this week that Mike Aguirre has retained the services of Al Ducheny, the husband of State Senator Denise Ducheny, to manager his re-election campaign.

Finally, Auday Arabo will get to face Democratic activists for the first time in January. The Chicano Democratic Association has scheduled their 78th Assembly candidate interviews for January 9th.

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.