Faulconer and Alvarez Leading In Special San Diego Mayoral Election

DATAMAR Poll: November 13, 2013

San Diego – A poll released today by Datamar Inc., surveyed 533 voters on their preference of candidates in the upcoming City of San Diego Special Mayoral Election to be held November 19, 2013. It shows that Councilman Kevin Faulconer is favored by 44.1 percent, and Councilman David Alvarez has the support of 25.3 percent of the voters.

Former State Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher came in third with 15.9% of the respondents vote, and former San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre received 5.4%.

San Diego’s municipal elections are officially non-partisan, that is, candidate’s ballot statement does not identify the candidates with a political party identification.

However, when respondents indicated a preference for an individual candidate, the choice greatly correlated with a partisan choice.

The Special Mayoral contest, up to this point, has been waged, based on poll results, by four principal candidates. Currently, the survey respondents are indicating that the contest will have Kevin Faulconer and David Alvarez as the top two choices of the electorate to continue on to the general election. If that is the case, then the supporters of the other losing candidates will be able to select one of the victorious top-two candidates.

Providing an analysis of what the hypothetical race would look like at this point, we found that with slightly less than one week to go before the mayoral primary there are plenty of uncertainties in predicting the general election.

First, and of primary importance is the voter turnout. This is a special election, barely a year since the last election for the same office. Normally, the most dedicated partisan electorate participates in these elections, for a variety of reasons.


Sample size 533
+/-4.24 Percent sampling error
November 13, 2013

Methodology: Findings are from a November 13, 2013 survey using a comprehensive predictive model of registered voters, based on election cycles and other factors of voters in California. The survey was conducted using an automated telephone dialer and the voice of a professional announcer.

The targeted-registration-based-sampling (TRBS)* selection criteria were based on election cycles and other voter factors in California. Datamar’s proprietary algorithms were used to generate random samples from the target group for calling.

Where necessary, responses were normalized according to age, gender, region, and political party.
Datamar Inc., an independent polling and political strategies firm located in San Diego, CA

TRANSFER OF OLD TOWN CALTRANS BUILDING TO PARKS IS FINALIZED

 

New Historical Addition to Old Town San Diego Planned

(San Diego)  The former CalTrans headquarters near Old Town State Park in San Diego has been officially transferred to the state parks system with the recording of the transaction with the County of San Diego today.  This move will ensure the preservation of historic structures and artifacts known to be below the building’s foundation and that the site will remain in the public’s hands.

Today’s transfer was the culmination of a process which began nearly seven years ago when CalTrans moved to a new headquarters and State Parks expressed interest in acquiring the property.  The transaction was slowed down by the high value of the property and state restrictions on making a gift of taxpayer-owned property, even to another state agency.  Earlier this year, Assembly Majority Leader Toni Atkins persuaded the Legislative Joint Budget Committee to approve the transfer.

“Today’s transaction begins the process of integrating the CalTrans site into Old Town San Diego and will create a fuller experience of our San Diego heritage,” says Majority Leader Atkins.  “It is a win for San Diego, for state government and, most important, for future generations of residents and visitors who will have the opportunity to see how San Diego began.”

“It was a challenging process,  but with the determination of several key people and the state legislation,  this exchange marks the end of an era for Caltrans and the start of a new era for State Parks and the community of Old Town San Diego,” said Caltrans District Director Laurie Berman.

“This is a property State Parks has been interested in for several years, and it is a logical addition to State Parks for its archeological cultural value. We believe it will contribute significantly to the overall history of the area and the visitor experience in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park,” said Major General Anthony L. Jackson, USMC (Ret.), Director of California State Parks.

The old CalTrans building sits on the location of the first permanent European settlement in California and of a Kumeyaay Native American village dating back to AD 500.  Under the site are Fitch’s, California’s first store; a Bowling Saloon owned by Ab Lyon, who would later become sheriff; and several adobes and homes.

$762,000 in Parks funds have been set aside since 2009 for planning and design for the site.  $7.1 million in bond funds have also been designated for this project.  This year’s budget actions secured those allocations. There is no additional cost to taxpayers to transfer the site.

Following today’s transaction, planning can begin on a new display of early San Diego life. Working with the San Diego River Conservancy, the San Diego River Park Foundation, and other stakeholders, a new entry will be created for Old Town that ties together San Diego’s early history, the river, and the state park.  The new installation will restore the history of the San Diego River, which originally ran past the old CalTrans building, including a representation of Kumeyaay Native American life along the river.

[From THP] San Diego Mayor: From Broken Bad to Our Own Jackie Robinson

A good article from The Huffington Post to read:

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | "The Huffington Post" is a registered trademark of TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

San Diego Mayor: From Broken Bad to Our Own Jackie Robinson
by Laura Fink (Nov 8, 2013)

Jack Roosevelt Robinson was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers in the spring of 1947. He faced a nation beleaguered at the conclusion of a war, and one as yet unready to confront the deep racial injustice it lived by. Few people could have imagined that this unknown rookie would change history. Armed with only his character, integrity and talent, Robinson's quiet leadership and extraordinary courage moved us forward, and made us a better nation.

It is rare that a leader with these qualities emerges -- and rarer still in the political arena. Today, we have such a leader in San Diego mayoral candidate David Alvarez.

Like Jackie, David's character was forged through adversity. Both are the youngest of large families that absorbed the bruising impact of working poverty. Jackie was raised by a single mother who cleaned houses for a living; David the son of a fast food worker and a janitor. Both broke the cycle of poverty through education and achievement. Jackie narrowly missed graduation from UCLA, and went on to professional sports. David was the first in his family to graduate from high school and the first to earn a college degree.

Their courage and talent enabled them to defy the odds.

When Jackie donned his uniform and stepped onto Brooklyn's baseball diamond, he was greeted with unrelenting verbal attacks and physical intimidation. Few people thought he would succeed, fewer still wanted him to. Yet he played, and played brilliantly -- scoring 12 home runs, leading the league in stolen bases, helping his team win the National League pennant and winning Rookie of the Year.

When David first ran for city council, he faced brother of the outgoing incumbent along with his familiar last name. He was up against a political alliance that invested more than $100,000 to try to defeat him. Few thought he could win. Many didn't want him to. Undeterred, David ran anyway -- and his campaign was historic. His commitment to neighborhood investment, education and the environment attracted crowds of volunteers and resonated with voters. He won with 57 percent of the vote, and inspired the highest turnout ever for a council election in his district.

As a councilmember, David has also lived up to his promise, executing his inclusive vision for the city. He chairs the council's committee on environmental issues -- where he has taken action on climate change, industrial pollution, and renewable energy. He has fought to rebuild our city from the neighborhoods out -- funding more than 100 miles of road repair, increasing investment in police and fire protection and keeping libraries open longer. He was "the closer" in budget negotiations that eliminated a $47 million budget gap, while still protecting vital city services. He did all this with full transparency -- and engaged his constituents directly by sending his staff to get their input door to door.

If there were a Rookie of the Year award -- he'd have earned it.

When Brooklyn took a chance on Jackie Robinson, he took the team to a World Series victory. More importantly, his example had an impact far beyond his play.

David Alvarez is San Diego's Jackie Robinson -- a paragon of character and integrity, whose quiet leadership of deeds rather than words seeks neither credit nor acclaim. He could be San Diego's first Latino mayor -- a barrier long overdue to be broken. More than that, his talent and courage have the potential to make him a transcendent leader. San Diego, long weary of political scandal and impropriety needs a leader like David -- and he needs your vote.

Laura Fink is the founder of the San Diego-based consulting firm Fink & Hernandez Consulting, LLC, specializing in politics, civic engagement and public policy. She was the second woman to come forward in the scandal involving former Mayor Bob Filner. She is not employed by any mayoral candidate or independent expenditure committee.

A History of False Assumptions from Nathan Fletcher

When Nathan Fletcher announced his intention to seek the office that eluded him the year before, he made a series of assumptions. With the backing of his financial benefactor Irwin Jacobs, the newly minted Democrat assumed that he would have a shot of getting the local Democratic Party endorsement or at the very least the party would take a "no endorsement" position and he would easily cruise into the runoff by virtue of having more campaign resources and endorsements than any other possible Democrat candidate in the race.  

This assumption was predicated on the notion that rank & file Democrats would overlook the fact that he had only re-registered earlier this year and would conveniently forget his atrocious voting record while serving as a Republican member of the Assembly. Flash forward a month later and this assumption proved to be entirely false when he failed to earned either the endorsement from the Labor Council or the county Democratic Party. His easy path to the runoff only got more complicated by the grassroots operation assembled by the David Alvarez campaign for mayor.

Now in the final stretch run of the campaign, seeing his position slip in the polls to endorsed Democrat David Alvarez, Nathan Fletcher is making another assumption that may prove entirely false. By breaking his campaign pledge to run a clean campaign, Fletcher has decided to go on the attack directed at Alvarez. This baseless attack smacks of desperation and a flailing campaign that sees history repeating itself. It also assumes that voters will be fooled by the unfounded smear campaign.

 

Only the election results will tell if Fletcher's assumption proves to be false, but in meantime, voters should be worried that he is willing to go against his own word to try to get elected. 

Limping to the Finishline

The lastest campaign finance filing came out, a little late due to a computer glitch, but it doesn't look good for former California State Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher.   It seems contributions have dropped like his poll numbers.

Fletcher's committee shows $178,312 cash on hand, but...looking at debt, run-off donations and recall funds, then it looks like the campaign has approximately just $38,000.  Having a fast burn rate from large campaign staff salaries and slowed donations flowing he might have a hard time making any big showing in this final stretch. 

The independent expenditures supporting Fletcher are not bringing in the promised donations too.  They are limping, like the candidate they support in the reports.  The memo they issued promised tv ads and walk programs and neither came to be. Without the $200,000 by two labor unions, UA and Labors, you would not see most of the attack mail on San Diego City Councilmember David Alvarez.  Strangest, the funds are being used to attack Alvarez on their own Labor Council and denouncing their issues as a negative votes.

It seems as we reach these final days of the campaign we can't expect any major actions from Fletcher. His supporters are expected with their limited money left to be a slash and burn closing act. A sad way for Fletcher to end the primary.

Fletcher Supporters Confirm They Won't Honor His Pledge

Twitter and Facebook are a flutter over former California State Assmeblymember Nathan Fletcher supporters telling Wendy Fry from NBC they are not going to honor Fletcher's campaign pledge and will get even further into gutter campaigning. Pledges of a clean and positive campaign from Fletcher and his supporters seem to have gone out the window and evenmore mud will be thrown by them.  Fletcher has lost all control of his supporters and it doesn't reflect well on his leadership skills if he can't even get his own supporters to follow him now.

It wasn't a good October for Fletcher with him falling in the polls, because of missteps over his college transcript, caught not being 1st in family to attend college after he sold it as his storyline,  refused to release his calendar from his former elected office as a public servant or now as a candidate and finally his non-responses after issuing a stange press release admiting he did get in trouble with the law, but won't talk anymore about it.  Wheels are coming off his little red wagon.

Fletcher once considered a raising star first in the GOP, and then hoped by some in the Democratic Party, seems to becoming a bad punchline. Recently, he even made an insensitive remark to San Diego City Councilmember David Alvarez in a debate. Now with his campaign in a downward spiral, the complete loss of control of his own people, even if he limps out of the primary, he is a dead man walking into the general election and will guarantee the election to San Diego City Councilmember Kevin Faulconer.

Can Fletcher pull back his supporters to save some face or has he lost all control?

Nathan Fletcher IE Hit's Alvarez

It is being reported by some reliable sources the Neighborhood Market Association is prepping mail to again attack San Diego City Councilmember David Alvarez. 

Former California State Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher had pledged to oppose negative campaigning even asking his own supporters to stay positive.  Recently, the Restoring in support of Nathan Fletcher attacked both Alvarez and San Diego City Councilmember Kevin Faulconer.   Fletcher condemned the attack and again called on the IE supporting him to stop the negative attacks.

Learning that Fletcher's supporters are again going to attack a candidate, even after Fletcher himself has asked them not attack, then what does it mean for his leadership? If he can't bring his own supporters to not go negative, then as mayor, what real chance does he have in bring others that opposed him to listen?

Assemblywoman Gonzalez’s Statement on State Agency’s Delay in Payment of Unemployment Insurance Claims

 

SACRAMENTO, CA – (Wednesday, November 6, 2013) – California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, made the following statement after attending today’s oversight hearing of the Assembly Insurance Committee dealing with the Economic Development Department’s (EDD) delay in payment of continuing unemployment insurance claims.


“The delay in unemployment benefit payments that took place after Labor Day caused real harm to hundreds of thousands of California families who were missing out on their lifeline to pay for housing, food, medical care and other everyday expenses that don’t go away just because a paycheck is lost. The delay caused real anxiety and suffering among unemployed workers and their families. It’s unacceptable and it caused a real black eye for how Californians view their state government.

“This delay was triggered by a major malfunction that surfaced during an upgrade to the computer system at EDD, but it was compounded by an already-inefficient system that has for too long fallen short with untimely claims payments, draconian appeals processes, and a telephone call center that is too inaccessible to the public.

“I am disappointed in EDD’s slow response to the concerns of front-line employees as well as the lack of checks and balances in the handling of a vendor that has caused cost overruns and performance problems throughout the U.S. on similar projects. However, I’m grateful Governor Brown intervened to speed up payments to jobless families and I’m committed to ensuring that existing inefficiencies are fixed to prevent future delays and increase access to the benefits for which unemployed Californians are eligible.”

For background information on the unemployment insurance delays, read the Assembly Insurance Committee’s background report on the issue: http://ains.assembly.ca.gov/sites/ains.assembly.ca.gov/files/Final%20Background%20Paper.pdf.  

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez represents California’s 80th Assembly District, located in southern San Diego County and including the cities of San Diego, Chula Vista and National City. For more information, visit http://asmdc.org/members/a80/.

Polls, polls and more polls

We are coming down to the final weeks before E-Day and the polls from the various campaigns and IE committees are all basically showing the same thing, San Diego City Councilmember Kevin Faulconer is in the lead around the low 30's, and San Diego City Councilmember David Alvarez is running neck and neck with former California State Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher.  Depending on the time of the polls, Alvarez has passed Fletcher, but the margin of error still keeps them in a dead heat.  This information includes Fletcher's own internal poll, which he has not yet released.  The only poll that was different is the Survey USA poll.

There are two things that are very clear:
1) There will be a run-off
2) Faulconer will be in the run-off, unless he commits some major misstep.

Fletcher supporters fearing his loss are now running around claiming Faulconer could win it straight out in the primary, even when they said Nathan could have won it straight out in the primary or was so strong he would win it in a run-off.  Clearly, they were feeding people a fairy tale line and the next time these spin-not so masters tell you about another race, then you might want to tell them thank you, but no thank you.

These polls have shown Fletcher wasn't as strong as proposed by his early supporters either against Alvarez or Faulconer and the early polls were more about name identification, then anything else.  It shows that if the few unions and Democratic elected endorsements had followed the Labor Council and Democratic Party and gone with the lifelong Democrat, who had the proven progressive voting record Alvarez, then he would be in a dead heat with Faulconer and Fletcher would have folded even faster in the race and not place the possibility of Fletcher getting into the run-off to clearly loss it.

Alvarez tied with Fletcher in Second Place for San Diego Mayor

New poll also shows a run-off election extremely likely

In a new poll released by Working Families for a Better San Diego, an Independent Expenditure Committee sponsored by the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council , David Alvarez currently stands tied with Nathan Fletcher in second place in the special election for San Diego Mayor, and is in a competitive position to advance to the run-off.


"As the majority of voters begin to make their decisions about whom to elect as the next Mayor of San Diego, it is important that San Diegans understand that David Alvarez is an extremely viable candidate and has a great deal of momentum on his side.  David is the only candidate we can trust to stand up for all of us.  Nurses, teachers, and thousands of working families have already gotten behind David and this poll reconfirms what we’ve already been hearing from voters”, said Richard Barrera, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council.

FROM THE POLL:

• In the mayoral trial heat, Kevin Faulconer now leads with 34% of the vote. David Alvarez (22%) and Nathan Fletcher (21%) are effectively tied for second position, and Mike Aguirre is a distant fourth with just 5% support.

• It is extremely likely that we are headed for a run-off election, as Faulconer is well below the 50% threshold needed to win outright on November 19.

The current state of the mayoral race shows voters settling into expected partisan divisions as they learn more about the candidates.

• Faulconer’s lead is largely due to his consolidation of Republican voters, among whom he receives 63% support.
• Alvarez holds an 11-point lead over Fletcher among registered Democrats, which makes sense given that Fletcher only recently abandoned his Republican roots.
• We also see Alvarez opening up an expected but important lead among the city’s Latino voters, 36% of whom support Councilman Alvarez, compared to 21% for Faulconer, 15% for Fletcher, and 8% for Aguirre.

Does the Knight Fall?

It was just about two months ago, when then San Diego City Mayor Bob Filner was going to resign and dialogue about an upcoming special mayoral election on the Democratic side was to put forward a candidate that could beat either former San Diego City Councilmember Carl DeMaio or San Diego City Councilmember Kevin Faulconer.   

Former California State Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher, who had run and failed in the last mayoral election, was now being touted around town as the savior of the left by some state and federal elected officials, as well as big Democratic donors as the only one that could win the special mayoral election.  He was the one!  This banter was to take him even over a true tested Democrat elected with name id, fundraising ability, proven mayoral leadership and solid Democratic credentials, California State Assemblymember Toni Atkins.  Remember, Assemblymember Atkins steered the city the last time a mayor resigned.  The theory regarding former Assemblymember Fletcher was he had name identification, polls showed him ahead of “Dirty DeMaio” and “No Name ID Kevin”, as well as he had brought in big fundraising numbers in his last failed mayoral attempt and he was just swell on the stump.  Those points were regardless of the facts that former Assemblymember Fletcher had switched his party registration three times in about a year and half, lost most of his support from the right which he was still touting as him being able to be a consensus maker, while disavowing his previous held public policy positions and voting record.  Also, when he was truly tested in a heated campaign he crumbled or some would say never lived up to the hype in the last mayoral primary.  These new boosters of former Assemblymember Fletcher billed him as the savior on the left.  Funny, just in the 2012 mayoral election, he was billed as the true savior on the right from “Dirty DeMaio”.

The latest polls are coming out, after we have gotten into the thick of a real campaign.  Voters have been hearing the positives, the negatives, the endorsements of elected officials and organizations.  Big money has been spent and we can expect some more money still to come into play.  Under the pressure of a campaign, former Assemblymember Fletcher has shown yet again his well-developed image and the storyline of the campaign he and others touted does not stand-up.  There are various public and even internal polls, including his own I understand that all show former Assemblymember Fletcher dropping now below Councilmember Faulconer.  In fact, they all have him neck and neck with San Diego City Councilmember David Alvarez.  Those in the Fletcher campaign want to point fingers outside of their own campaign and cast blame onto others, but a true assessment is on his campaign and their supportive independent expenditures.  Nothing is a sure bet going into a campaign, but you need to make the best of what you have at hand.  The tails of endorsements, money, name identification and cross party appeal does not seem to be materializing for him.

The election is not over yet and polls are not always right at forecasting the election, but it seems like what the storyline of this knight riding a stallion in shining armor to rescue all of us on the left is looking more like after all the horn blowing, drummers and fanfare, he is just maybe a pimply guy on a colt with a spray-on tan missing the target and falling off his horse.  Only time will tell, the election results this election night!

After Washington Republicans Kill Immigration Reform, How Will DeMaio, Jorgensen, and Simon React?

 

House Republicans are following up their disastrous government shutdown by killing the prospects for immigration reform for 2013. According to a report from Politico, Republican leaders are planning to prevent a vote by the full House on immigration reform, despite years of discussions and bipartisan passage of a bill in the U.S. Senate.

As House Republicans let another national problem fester, congressional candidate and DREAM Act opponent Carl DeMaio will have more time to explain why his Washington allies are stopping reform, while Kirk Jorgensen and Dr. Fred Simon refuse to disown the dysfunction that is hurting regular Americans.

“Carl DeMaio’s closest allies in Washington are standing in the way of reasonable solutions to real problems with our immigration system, but that’s no surprise given DeMaio’s opposition to the DREAM Act and support for Arizona’s antagonistic immigration laws,” said Matt Inzeo of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “While Carl DeMaio and his Washington friends share a reckless approach to immigration, Kirk Jorgensen and Dr. Fred Simon refuse to speak up for reasonable solutions, and it makes all three of them wrong for San Diego.”

BACKGROUND

“House GOP Plans No Immigration Vote in 2013.” “House Republican leadership has no plans to vote on any immigration reform legislation before the end the year. The House has just 19 days in session before the end of 2013, and there are a number of reasons why immigration reform is stalled this year. Following the fiscal battles last month, the internal political dynamics are tenuous within the House Republican Conference. A growing chorus of GOP lawmakers and aides are intensely skeptical that any of the party’s preferred piecemeal immigration bills can garner the support 217 Republicans — they would need that if Democrats didn’t lend their votes. Republican leadership doesn’t see anyone coalescing around a single plan, according to sources across GOP leadership.” [Politico, 10/25/13]

DeMaio Opposed the DREAM Act Calling it a “Poorly Thought Out Program.” In 2012, at an Institute of Americas Debate, when asked whether he supported the DREAM Act, Carl DeMaio refused to say he supported it and called it an unfunded program, saying “Unfortunately, legislators passed the DREAM Act without providing the funding revenues, the funding source to support that program. And so my concern is that you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. I think it’s a very poorly thought out program even though the intentions are well placed.” [Institute of the Americas Debate, uploaded 8/14/12]

DeMaio Supported Arizona’s Controversial Immigration Enforcement Law. In 2010, Carl DeMaio, as San Diego City Councilman, cast the lone dissenting vote on a resolution calling for the repeal of Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 immigration enforcement law. [Del Mar Times, 5/03/10]

San Diego Mayor Candidates Bob Filner and Carl DiMaio Debate at Institute of the Americas

Carl DeMaio’s Benefactors Face $1 Million Fine for Illegal Campaign Activity

While the Koch brothers use one of their partisan groups to attack Scott Peters, other elements in their network now face a $1 million fine from the California Fair Political Practices Commission and must pay $15 million to California’s general fund. The Commission identified two groups as “part of the ‘Koch Brothers Network’ of dark money nonprofit corporations.”

For years, DeMaio worked as a senior staff member of organizations where David Koch serves on the board of trustees. After his loss to disgraced ex-mayor Bob Filner, DeMaio went back to work for Koch’s Reason Foundation.

“With a Koch brothers ally attacking on Carl DeMaio’s behalf, it’s becoming increasingly clear that San Diego voters might have to live with the Koch’s infamous secret money attacks for the next year,” said Matt Inzeo of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “If the Koch brothers are willing to skirt California law to advance their Tea Party agenda, and they're already weighing in for their staffer Carl DeMaio, San Diego voters are in for a lot of politics-as-usual."

BACKGROUND
 
“Koch Brothers Network” Face $1 Million Fine for Illegal Campaign Activity.
“California's political watchdog agency on Thursday announced the largest fine in its history for campaign-reporting violations and ordered two political action committees involved in the 2012 elections to pay the state's general fund $15 million. The California Fair Political Practices Commission called the two groups that will pay the $1 million fine "part of the `Koch Brothers Network' of dark money political nonprofit corporations.’ The reference is to billionaire brothers Charles and David H. Koch, who have given millions of dollars to conservative causes across the country.” [San Diego Union-Tribune, 10/24/13]

Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity Released TV Ad Targeting Scott Peters. 
“The conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity is wading into the 52nd Congressional District race more than a year before Election Day, funding a television ad calling for residents to call Rep. Scott Peters and demand the Affordable Care Act be replaced. […] David and Charles Koch of Koch Industries are the primary funders of Americans for Prosperity, which is spending at least $200,000 to air the 30-second spot on network affiliate and cable channels over the next three weeks.” [San Diego Union-Tribune, 10/22/13]
 
2013: DeMaio is a Paid Consultant for Koch-Backed Foundation. 
In May 2013, Carl DeMaio announced that he was consulting for the right wing Reason Foundation, as chair of the California Reform Council. According to DeMaio’s personal financial disclosure, DeMaio received $37,500 from the Reason Foundation for his consulting work. David H. Koch serves on the Board of the Trustees of the Reason Foundation. [Carl DeMaio for Congress, 1/10/13; Federal Personal Financial Disclosure, 9/16/13; Reason.org, accessed 10/23/13]
 
·         1999-2003: DeMaio was Employed by Koch-Backed Foundation. 
From 1999-2003, Carl DeMaio worked for the Reason Foundation as a Director of Government Redesign. [Reason.org, web archive, 10/26/04; Voice of San Diego, 10/12/12]

When is campaigning, mudslinging?

There has always been debate; this special election cycle is no different, in the media and now amongst social media about dirty campaigning.  We are again abuzz and aghast with the campaign mail hitting homes, websites popping up, Facebook posts and parody twitter accounts from candidates, independent expenditures and political activists challenging certain things as crossing the line as attacks, going negative, slinging mud and dirty politics.  How dare you sir!

Going back to early United States history you see the mudslinging from some of our most distinguished and cherished elected officials.  It was never pretty.  My point is whether attacks are really mudslinging is in the eyes of the beholder.  For the attacker, they will claim they are only exposing the side of the candidate voters should be aware.  Just reaching back to our last mayoral election we hear from insiders and outsiders, “Why didn’t anyone tell us about former Mayor Bob Filner?”  Umm, that would be a charge of mudslinging, right?  What rises to the level of presenting the facts about a candidate or mudslinging?  The only answer I can see is depends from where you stand; making it or receiving it. 

Another interesting angle is when one slings mud claiming it is the guise of casting the light on another’s mudslinging.  A negative on a negative, classic!  I had to hand it to the independent expenditure supporting former Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher, they did the negative on the negative and went one step further, showed a photo of him and his family with mud splatters on them.  The mailer suggested the attacks they were defending were on the whole Fletcher family. No one has ever made any attacks on his family, but just the candidate.

In the end, the candidate needs to stand on their record, the good and the bad.  Those snarky comments by supporters of a candidate crying foul need to be judged on not how they respond to when their candidate is attacked, but how they respond when their candidate or the independent expenditure in support of their candidate attacks the others as well.  Mud will fly this election cycle, if you aren’t being hit, then you are throwing it. Splat!

What once is no longer, or was it ever really?

We have all read over the years about former Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher’s (R-75) ability to broker “The Deal” or bring sides together.  He was able to bring Republicans and Democrats together at the table to make “the deal”, break gridlock, create compromise in a broken down Sacramento world.  Looking at the repeated statements a little closer did then Republican Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher really make the deals possible?  Hmm

What really needs to be understood is the Democrats had almost a Super Majority and at minimum a majority.  In Sacramento, it didn’t take much to get something past, even when the Republicans stood in lock step opposition to it. You had a Democratic majority.  However, when you needed a few Republican votes they were usually around to be picked up.  It just needed for a deal to be made.  As former Speaker Willie Brown showed us when he kept his own speakership.  Remember, no one in Sacramento did anything for nothing; there was a deal and both sides gained something out of it.

This deal maker, the then Republican Assemblymember Fletcher was just selling something for something else and never really brought many Republicans, if any to the table from then his own party and as time rolled on, he had less success in bringing any other Republican to the table at all for a deal, besides himself.  Though, he got his from the deal, regardless.

Now, after the transformation from former Republican Assemblymember Fletcher, to Independent Assemblymember Fletcher in his loss in the last mayoral campaign, a year later he changed to a Democrat.   He is still making the claim, as well as his supporters; he can make the deal, bring people from opposing sides together and make the city work from its partisan gridlock. Not sure the partisan gridlock he speaks of, but let’s go with his narrative.  Sadly, since he is no longer a Republican, he no longer can bring any Republicans along.  You look at his current mayoral campaign and you don’t see any of his former Republican elected officials standing with him, you don’t see any of his former Republican big contributors standing with him, you don’t see any of his Republican endorsers, you don’t see any of his former Republican staffers standing with him, really you just don’t see him bringing anyone from his former Republican life to the campaign.  Rather, he is surrounded with the handful of swing voters from his last campaign, but mainly its all Democrats who he made deals with along the way.  He got something, they got something.  There is nothing wrong with people he made something happen for and they made something happen for him supporting each other.  My point is this, the image former Assemblymember Fletcher as the deal maker bringing people together was a great story, but like many stories it has come to an end and the more we re-read his story we see the errors in it.

The truth is if former Assemblymember Fletcher was not in the race, his support would have gone with Councilmember David Alvarez or they would have sat out of the race.  Maybe a few checks would have gone with Councilmember Kevin Faulconer, but just a handful at most. He isn’t drawing a middle of the road coalition and his storyline shows it.

The End