By Doug Porter
News of a credible Democrat entering the race for mayor of San Diego barely made it onto social media yesterday before intra-party sniping began. The political party with majority registration in America’s Finest City couldn’t even field a candidate, and now its past bad behavior is threatening to sabotage a chance at salvation.
This should have been a serious bump in the road to Kevin Faulconer’s primary coronation, namely that a third well-known candidate made the 50%+1 threshold more difficult, with former City Council member Ed Harris jumping into the mayoral race, according to papers filed with the city clerk.
Running as a Democrat, Harris joins independent activist and former state legislator Lori Saldaña as a second major candidate running against the incumbent mayor. The longtime lifeguard and union leader was appointed to the council representing District 2 in 2014 following Faulconer’s ascension to the top job in a special election.
Harris emerged as a strong voice for taxpayer concerns, blowing the whistle on a sweetheart deal the city was in the process of making with negotiations on a new lease for Belmont Park.
This move came back to haunt Harris once he left the council, as the city suddenly changed course on negotiations to include lifeguards in “presumptive medical coverage”—a statewide provision for public safety employees making it easier to qualify for workers’ compensation.
Harris made the claim the switch in negotiating posture was politically motivated.
Ed Harris via Point Loma Democratic Club
From City Beat:
“Six weeks ago, they walked in and for the first time ever, they said, The mayor’s not supportive of this,'” said Ed Harris, spokesperson for the lifeguards union. “In our opinion that’s a bait and switch.”
Embroiled in labor negotiations with the city, Harris said the mayor’s office is specifically targeting him for his political actions as a former councilmember. Harris said he made enemies at City Hall last September after he led council Democrats to reject the terms of a lease extension for Belmont Park, the oceanfront amusement park in Mission Beach.
“I believe that my relationship with the mayor’s office after that deal has a lot to do with it,” he said. “I can tell you that when I opposed the Belmont Park deal, the relationship with me and the Republicans changed overnight. When you don’t go along with the program, they stop even looking at you or saying hi’ to you.”
Voice of San Diego’s Morning Report mentioned his candidacy today by saying Harris supports “the Briggs/Chargers plan for a football stadium.” I’m guessing that suggestive (Briggs & the Chargers both have plenty of haters around town) characterization is deliberate.
The former councilman has, in fact, endorsed the Citizen’s Plan. He has not endorsed a football stadium, which, by the way, isn’t funded mentioned in by the initiative. The plan does create a path by which a stadium could be built if hoteliers buy into a non-contiguous expansion. But no matter. The impression has been made.
UPDATE: h/t to Donna Frye for pointing out my error above:
The initiative prohibits the expenditure of public funds without a public vote, whether the stadium is built alone or in conjunction with a convention center. If a stadium were built as part of a joint-use facility, the initiative requires the stadium costs (i.e., those costs attributable to the stadium and not to the convention center) to be paid by non-public sources. “
(Link to exact wording.)
Harris also has enemies in the local Democratic Party. A 2013 email from Party chair Francine Busby to Point Loma Democratic Club leader Susan Peinado is back in circulation. It claimed that he was vulnerable to guilt-by-association charges because of his tenure as a lifeguard. At the time, Harris was considering running for city council.
Democratic Chair Francine Busby
From the OB Rag:
…In her email, Busby warned that supporting Harris could be a problem for the Dems and Peinado because “as a leader of the lifeguards, he will be associated with a culture that has a long history of discrimination against women.” In her email, she referred to “sexual harassment issues”.
Apparently, Busby also included in her email a link to a story – as Voice of San Diego reports –“about a woman lifeguard who sued the city over gender discrimination. Harris was not named in the suit, or deposed as part of it. His only connection to the suit seems to be working for the department where the discrimination took place. The lawsuit had nothing to do with sexual harassment.”
The Pt Loma Dems had not endorsed anyone for the race. Yet the party head cautioned Peinado about supporting Harris. She wrote:
“Whether or not you bring this issue to the attention of your members in the context of the impact that it will have on the election is your choice. If you don’t they may ask you if and when you learn of it and why you didn’t inform them and hold you responsible.”
There was, as it turns out, no substance to the ‘concerns’ voiced by Busby. Women who work with Harris wrote letters defending his character and he expressed deep disappointment with the party chair’s actions. Reporters for several outlets dug deep into the allegation and found nothing.
Harris dropped out of the race and endorsed Democrat Sarah Boot, who lost in the general election to Republican Lori Zapf. He was subsequently appointed to serve out Kevin Faulconer’s term on the council with the proviso that he could not run for re-election.
So it turns out that, in addition to a Republican opponent, Democrat Harris and Independent Lori Saldaña both have the ghost of Bob Filner to fight.
Lori Saldana
Here’s Lori Saldaña via email:
I’ve been troubled by incidents in recent elections involving allegations of sexual harassment.
These reports were treated very differently by democratic Party leaders- some were ignored, and were later proved to be accurate. Others were politicized, and later found to be false.
I don’t agree with way the party leadership has responded to these situations, but I don’t see a way to change their approach, so i’ve become an independent
My principles haven’t changed- only my party affiliation.
Here’s a Facebook posting from a member of the San Diego Coastal Democrats in response to a KPBS story on Harris running for mayor made last night:
Whisky Foxtrot Tango? I know four of the Mayoral Candidates personally, I don’t think I like what that says about me. Are you ready for another sex scandal?
Chairwoman Francine Busby has never apologized for her past statements about Harris.
UPDATE #2: The Democratic chair reached out to me and says she has engaged in discussions with Mr. Harris and has apologized personally to him. Unfortunate, word of this reconciliation wasn’t shared with those who were aware of the original email. So the story was still out there…
It’s time. Either the local Democratic Party hierarchy comes clean or they need to resign. Yeah, yeah, I know… they’re so far above us little people and we couldn’t possibly understand.
Super Tuesday: The Party’s Over (For Both Parties?)
The game now for Republicans in 2016 is survival as a party. The Donald’s seven victories in Super Tuesday primaries gives him an inside track to the presidential nomination. His in-house opponents are hopelessly divided, left to pray for divine intervention in the form of a billionaire donor coalition.
Lest traditional Democrats feel too smug about their chances following Hillary Clinton’s seven wins on Tuesday, the party is now caught between disparate voter blocs disenfranchised by the primary process.
Senator Bernie Sanders has vowed to continue on with his campaign, propelled in large part by a youth movement with little else to hope for other than a re-ordering of the economic system.
Republican party leaders, whose hope lies in maintaining the current economic order, find themselves cornered by angry voters who bought into the party’s failed promises. They’re left with unappealing choices: support the Democratic nominee (by inaction, mostly) or coalesce behind a long shot independent candidacy of somebody like Michael Bloomberg.
In either scenario, the GOP political infrastructure collapses. And I’m not sure the Dems organizational structures won’t be far behind. Too many players are threatening to walk away from the table.
Watch Christie’s face…. priceless…
NJ Gov. @ChrisChristie: “I’ve made a yuuuge mistake.” https://t.co/4ZibpISXty #SuperTuesday
— AFSCME (@AFSCME) March 2, 2016
A Shout Out to Jeeni
The KPBS Local Heroes Project has posted an article and video about Jeeni Criscenzo as part of their Meet Women’s History Month series.
She writes about homelessness and other issues as a columnist for The San Diego Free Press, and we’re thrilled to see her getting recognition for her work in the community.
On This Day: 1903 – The Martha Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel had 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women. 1962 – Wilt ‘The Stilt’ Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks 169-147. Chamberlain broke several NBA records in the game. 1990 – More than 6,000 drivers struck Greyhound Lines, most lose jobs to strikebreakers after company declares “impasse” in negotiations.
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Doug Porter
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While Dems may be a major party, I do not think Mr. Harris is a “major candidate.”
This story is mostly about the party leadership; what about the chances that a second Dem will split the vote giving Mayor Kev another term?
1. Harris has name recognition, having served on the council.
2. He will draw labor support. Combined with the get out the vote effort for the minimum wage measure on the ballot this could be a gamer-changer.
3. This may seem counter-intuitive, but internal polling shows that any candidate one on one against Kevin Faulconer won’t stop the incumbent from making the 50%+1 level needed to avoid the general election, where the demographics of the electorate are more favorable for a non-Republican.
Thus a three-way split in the vote is a better (though not sure) for path to defeat a sitting incumbent.
That’s one reason why many Democrats are unhappy about Joe Cava withdrawing in the city council race for D1. Dem candidate Barbara Bry alone now faces Rep. candidate Ray Ellis in a primary election where older and more conservative voters are more likely to go to the polls.
So then, what’s needed is a Democratic candidate who could defeat Faulconer. You’re saying that neither Harris nor Saldana could but that both together might force a run-off.
Seems to me that neither of them could draw voters from Kev, only from each other. That’s what I mean by they would split the vote.
I think Saldana has both greater name rec and netter cred. And a much better chance of defeating Mayor Kev. Harris will draw votes from Lori assuring another Faulconer term.
Lori Saldana certainly doesn’t see it that way. (See her Facebook post welcoming Harris into the contest)
Apparently Harris and Saldana are on your page as they are actually working in concert. I sure hope they, and you, are right and that their teamwork can somehow overcome Mayor Kev.
The best thing that could happen from a Trump victory in the Republican primary is a fracturing of the Republican party. The young and angry are finally waking up to the fact that the Republican party does not represent their interests.
Unless a maverick R or a celebrity from outside the political machine enters the mayor’s race to triangulate the vote, it’s the usual June swoon for the Ds.
Do we believe the GOP isn’t sitting on a damning file of opposition research that will disqualify Trump and set up a brokered convention with the likely outcome of a Bush candidacy, a candidacy now free of the ultra right rhetoric required to win the primaries but harm him in the general election?
Mitt Romney has risen. Again. Either he or Paul Ryan will be the party’s nominee at a convention where even more rotted baloney is thrown up by GOP activists and we all slump off to vote for Hillary because… ?
“There was, as it turns out, no substance to the ‘concerns’ voiced by Busby. Women who work with Harris wrote letters defending his character and he expressed deep disappointment with the party chair’s actions. Reporters for several outlets dug deep into the allegation and found nothing.”
____________________
Or there is lots of substance…..
The Lifeguard Service has about 50 full time guards. The sexism and racism and general bigotry for anyone non-white male is real. Read the lawsuits.
That being said, I think it is great that Lifeguard Sgt.Harris is running. It will help Lori.
Actually, I did read the lawsuits; back three years ago when this all came up. San Diego lifeguards had/have a history of sexism and racism. However, Harris was not implicated in any bad behavior. Harris and Michael Russell hashed out lots of issues with regard to the lifeguards in this March 2013 debate. I think it makes his position on these topics very clear.
Interesting article, Doug. Thanks for writing it.
Although your update states that Ms Busby reached out to you to say that she had apologized to Ed for her original email’s smear, she hasn’t apologized to me for smearing me by implying my complicity.
And this issue will never be laid to rest for Ed until she publically apologizes as members of the Central Committee have helped spread the smear. These members do not now know she admits she was wrong and won’t until they hear it from her own lips.
I would like to clear this up for all time. Ms Busby needs to show some real leadership by issuing a public statement that she was wrong to taint an innocent man with sexual harassment “issues.”
It was cruel and dishonorable. No decent man wants to have to explain this smear to his children And it arguably lost us the District 2 race.
This is not the example that most Dems want set by their Party Chair. We are also values voters- values of fair play, decency, civility, honesty, integrity and transparency.