Part 4: The Aftermath
Editors Note: Former Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña has an up close and personal story to tell about her dealings with former Mayor Bob Filner and the Democratic party establishment. This is part three of a five part series running this week at San Diego Free Press. Part one covers her early encounters with Filner, Part two describes the indifference she met when she tried to alert Democratic Party leadership, Part three talks about the pressures brought about to gain her endorsement of the Filner mayoral candidacy.
By Lori Saldaña
On Election Day, I trailed Scott Peters on the first ballot announcement in the primary by less than 200 votes. I eventually lost by 700 votes, after being outspent 4:1. Most of his funds were family money.
Dollar for dollar, we ran the most cost efficient Congressional campaign in the state, if not the country. But in the end, personal wealth and internecine party warfare trumped our efforts.
Worse, after the June 2012 primary election, I continued to hear reports regarding Filner’s behavior towards women, including at campaign fundraising events. I did not personally witness these activities, since I had withdrawn from political activity. But they became common knowledge throughout the political community and were discussed by volunteers and others at events, who apparently decided to “hate the sin, but support the sinner.”
By this point- what else could anyone do? Speak up and allow Carl DeMaio to become Mayor?
That summer, many people encouraged me to attend campaign events. Our strong showing in the primary impressed many in the progressive community. I was called by fundraisers and others who hoped I would shift my support to other candidates, and continue to be a high profile leader for progressive Democrats who were troubled by the moderate influences within the Party.
But I was exhausted. I had worked for nearly a year on the campaign, ignoring my own health and well being. I re-focussed on my family and recovering my health. An injury I had been ignoring required treatment and possible surgery, and my 84 year old father was already scheduled for major surgery that summer. His recovery didn’t go well, and I found myself spending long hours at the hospital and rehab center as he went through a protracted healing period.
In early September I returned to teaching at Mesa College, and between that, physical therapy, and my father’s hospitalization, I didn’t have the time, energy or inclination to get involved with local political events.
Our work in the primary was truly grassroots, and widespread, and was not just about me- it was also about many thousands of people who desired a progressive Latina to represent San Diego in Congress, for the first time in the region’s history. Sadly, at that time, San Diego had never even had a woman of color elected to the city council.
After Filner won the November election, without going into details, I encouraged the Democratic Party volunteers I was still in communication with to work with Filner to ensure he treated his staff and others respectfully. Privately, I hoped he would be required to complete sexual harassment training, as we were in Sacramento, in addition to whatever other steps were necessary to be an effective leader for our city.
Obviously, this did not happen.
In December I rejoined the Sierra Club as their Chapter Chair, and when people approached me for recommendations to apply for Mayoral appointments to boards and commissions, I told I wouldn’t feel comfortable making personal recommendations while serving in this position.
When asked how I saw Filner managing various projects and initiatives, I privately feared the worst, but again, kept my concerns to myself. Instead, I told people I thought it best to see how he managed the transition over the first several months of his Mayoral term before offering a review.
However, I did express concerns to those I knew well. If they wanted a recommendation for a Mayoral appointment, I told them that a letter from me would not be helpful. I didn’t explain exactly why, but simply said I had a rocky relationship with the Mayor, and they would be better served by getting letters from others.
This went on for 6 months, until that news conference that finally opened the lid on the harassment.
In the end, San Diego needed and deserved a leader who represented all of us with fairness and integrity. Sadly, it was impossible for Bob Filner to demonstrate these values, as a Congressman, a candidate, and as mayor of San Diego. His eventual destruction was not just an individual failure. It impacted countless lives and added to San Diego’s reputation as a city that struggles to manage it’s civic affairs with integrity, transparency and honesty.
I will likely never convince my detractors that staying silent was a good choice. Had I received confirmation of his actions with more time before the Mayoral election, and not been a candidate myself, my choices and actions may have been different.
Announcing something that will destroy a person’s personal reputation and career is not something that should be taken lightly. Just review the news announcements from last summer to see how wrenching these actions were for others who finally spoke up.
As other recent scandals show us: there is more than enough bad behavior, corruption and deceit to go around in the political arena. I experienced more than my share while serving in Sacramento, and will write about that another time.
As for this incident: my weakness two-fold: I did not have the stomach to tolerate Filner’s transgressions, nor did I have the necessary relationships with others who might have been able step up and confront Filner directly and persuade him to change his behavior, or better yet, not run for Mayor.
Some have since suggested that Democratic leaders didn’t respond to me in part because they had decided it would be easier to get Filner elected into the Mayor’s office, then force him to resign in disgrace, and draft Fletcher to run to replace him.
I will end here, by saying: It’s not as absurd a theory as some may think…
Tomorrow: Looking forward – the battle for progressive ideals.
Lori Saldaña
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Thank You for writing this series, Lori. As a Vice Chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party until I resigned in December 2011, I completely agree with your assessment. I will also point out that SDSU professor Josh Chanin agrees with your observation about “San Diego’s reputation as a city that struggles to manage it’s civic affairs with integrity, transparency and honesty.” In a panel discussion I attended this week, he reported that he is studying more than 300 police departments across the country to see how well they publicize their policies. SDPD is in the bottom quarter of the departments he’s examined.
This series of reflections reminds me of the need for mandatory harassment and diversity training of all employees and volunteers in community organizations alike in San Diego. Only now is Congress thinking of requiring sexual harassment training and standards for that institution.
In my experience, both political and service organizations rarely train volunteers on these important topics. This lack provides no process or an orderly system of recourse in situations like this. We should insist that our community institutions train, and have procedures in place when issues come to light. Formal, corrective action early can stop unwanted behavior and raise community standards in a clear and actionable way. Online tools can make this training affordable for low budget community groups. Thanks, Lori.
Lori, where is that”city that struggles to manage it’s civic affairs with integrity, transparency and honesty,” that you speak of? Or, maybe more meaningfully, the one that does engage in that struggle and wins the battle?
I never had the courage to run for office. I know full well that if I’d found myself in your position of knowing Filner’s flaw, and thought that by talking about it I would “allow Carl DeMaio to become Mayor,” I suspect I could be talked out of talking about Filner’s behavior, just as you were, Lori Saldana.
So let’s be honest now. Everyone Did It. Everyone Caved. Is that what happened?
Inevitably, I’m reminded of that line from W.B. Yeats, describing the last days:
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.”
Very interesting series, Lori. Some much needed perspective on the situation.
“By this point- what else could anyone do? Speak up and allow Carl DeMaio to become Mayor?”
Wouldn’t that have been preferable to the outcome, Ms. Saldaña ?
I learned two things from this series:
1- Political committees have too many people who rely on institutional support, for a primary source of income, to make decisions based upon the best interest of the party and public.
2- Political committees place such an emphasis on “the lesser of two evils” that they are willing to compromise the very principles which the public admires about their parties.
I’m grateful you told this story and kept your promise. I only hope more people start doing the same. Thank you.
I reserved comment on Ms Saldana initially and now I am especially glad I did. I was someone who was thrilled that Filner decided to run. I had been a member of SNIC as a teenager when Freedon Riders were heading south from Washington D.C. where I lived. I felt that Filner’s candidacy represented a triumph for the members of my generation who still struggled to see our political goals met on a local level. I met him several times and found him as brilliant and funny as my old friends in DC.
But almost immendiately I heards from women friends who said he was remarkably rude. I questioned others, wanting details that I never got. There was the pervasive feeling that De Maio had to be defeated and no one else was a viable candidate. Not being a member of the Democratic Party I always feel there is room for an alternative to the Big Two, but no one wants to hear about that, and I felt surely Filner was a decent man, just agressive and impatient in the way I remember many of my peers in SNIC being. I became an apologist for his bad manners.
When the bad news came I took it personally. As Lori said, many of us felt our personal credibility, integrity and INTELLIGENCE were called into question. Knowing now that there were many, including my friends, who knew about his behavior really hurts. But I wrote in this paper afterward that we should be mobilizing now to create the candidates we want to see. I thought David Alvarez was good, but he was up against his youth, the fact that it was a “special” election, and Filner’s long shadow. Too bad. So now we begin again. Pick yourselves up, dust yourself off and start all over again.
thanks Laurie- many people hoped Filner would be able to live up to high expectations based on his personal history of progressive action. (Maybe that was one of the things that the moderate power brokers counted on to ensure his election.)
Serving 3000 miles away from your constituents can be useful for hiding a multitude of sins. Serving locally requires different ways of working with staff, other elected officials, and of course, interacting with the public.
Despite having served on the City Council and School Board, Filner was not able to make the transition back to being a local elected official.