By Doug Porter
Voters in San Diego County’s District 5 race for Supervisor have a tough choice to make this year. It’s Republican Bill Horn against Republican Jim Wood, which–from a partisan perspective– is probably just the way they like it in the northern reaches of the county.
Unflattering portraits of both candidates have appeared in the media over the past day or so. Voice of San Diego’s profile on Wood paints him as a social neanderthal. Online inewsource’s probe into Horn’s crossover religious and real estate dealings makes him look sleazy, even if it’s unlikely he’ll ever face legal action.
Oceanside’s Mayor Jim Wood says he’s running as a populist alternative to five term incumbent Bill Horn, whose relationships with developers and inflammatory rhetoric have often been seen as controversial. I can attest from personal observation that Wood is socially challenged around women, and after our most recent experiences with the Mayor-who-cannot-be named, it’s safe to say he’s an embarrassment waiting to happen.
Via Voice of San Diego:
But in cultivating a folksy, old-fashioned persona on the campaign trail, the 66-year-old Wood has also showcased his own vulnerabilities. One of his early campaign advisers wondered whether he would have been better-suited for an election half a century ago.
Wood sometimes comments on women’s appearances and often refers to them as “girls.” He parted ways with Chris Crotty, an early campaign manager, in part because he uses a wheelchair. And Wood’s past is dotted with allegations of inappropriate behavior, including at least one formal recommendation that he change his ways.
Crotty said he and other advisers had to frequently admonish Wood for his behavior on the trail, especially about commenting on women’s clothing and appearances.
“We repeatedly reminded him that it was in fact the 21st century,” Crotty said, “and things were different now.”
The incumbent has his own baggage, which for many years apparently included a religious foundation which was funded in part via interest from real estate escrow funds parked in its bank accounts. The non-profit Basic Faith, formerly known as the Sojourners Foundation is shuttered now.
The inewsource investigation into Horn’s dealings included an interview with the County Supervisor, who maintained that the group’s activities were his private business. “It’s a private part of my private life,” he said. “It was mine. I owned it. I bought it.”
Via the inewsource story:
After interviewing Horn, inewsource consulted experts — from San Diego, Miami, and D.C. — with well-established backgrounds in nonprofit management and tax law. (Their full bios are available here)
All five expressed surprise at how Horn described his management of Basic Faith. They took issue with his “purchase” of the charity, his using it for real estate purposes, his failure to file tax returns for Basic Faith, his lack of record-keeping, and his using it to sponsor the appearance of a political candidate.
Horn responded to further questions raised by reporter Brad Racino via high powered attorney Jim Sutton, who claimed “there is no legal or factual basis” to claim the Basic Faith operation was illegal.
Both stories I’m talking about today have lots of juicy details and should be read in their entirety.
Tank Top Guy for Supervisor
If you are disgusted by all this (and you should be), here’s another alternative, via the Wonkette Blog,who suggested “Obamanation Tank Top Guy for County Supervisor!” after seeing a Fox5 interview (video link) with a Carlsbad resident who lost a home in last week’s wildfires.
Via Doktor Zoom:
It’s pretty nice to know that in the midst of tragedy, some people cling to what’s really important, like ranting about how Barack Obama has ruined America. Meet an unidentified media hero in Carlsbad, California, who took the opportunity to tell a local reporter what gives him the strength to go on after his house was destroyed by a wildfire: the knowledge that, bad as it is, “the last five years under Obama has been worse than this.”
Republicans Statistically More Likely to Lie
How can you tell when a Republican is lying? Apparently when he/she is moving their lips.
Via Addicting Info:
In case you missed it, a study not released by MSNBC (so save your breath conservatives), by the nonpartisan Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University have found that Republicans are significantly more likely to lie than Democrats. And here is the kicker that the liberals have been saying all along: the lying gap between Republicans and Democrats is widening as President Barack Obama spends more time in office.
Oh this is just too good. Ever since Obamacare was passed and signed into law in 2010, the Republicans have been no strangers to lying about everything, from the healthcare law itself to the number of vacations the President has taken. The study came as the political atmosphere heated up during the “scandals” of the IRS, Benghazi, and the AP…
…If you look back on the 271 ‘Pants on Fire’ claims that Politifact has measured since 2007 (the first one was from Joe Biden when he called Bush “brain dead”), 217 of them have been perpetrated by conservatives whether they be from chain emails, Facebook posts, pundits or politicians. They range from chain emails claiming the ACA will question your sex life, to President Obama being a Marxist Muslim.
A Bad Day for SeaWorld
The local water park and its corporate overlords got a double whammy of bad news yesterday.
Via UT-San Diego:
Visitors passing through Lindbergh Field are now able to see an advertisement urging them to bypass SeaWorld, thanks to the settlement of a lawsuit targeting the airport’s advertising agency.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, had sued the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority after its advertising vendor, JCDecaux, chose not to accept $17,500 for an ad that says, “Welcome to San Diego,” followed by, “Please avoid SeaWorld.” The ad features actress and San Diego native Kathy Najimy.
The Airport Authority, which began displaying the ad Tuesday in the baggage claim area of Terminal 2, said it agreed to do so as part of an out-of-court settlement with PETA and the ACLU. It offered no further comment. The ad will be up for the next four weeks.
And…
The Taco Bell fast food chain announced yesterday, in response to a Change.Org petition created by activist Laura Morse, that their marketing partnership with SeaWorld will end in September. Over 20,000 people signed the petition.
Tentative Grocery Store Settlement
The potential for a grocery workers strike went down yesterday as United Food and Commercial Workers’ President Mickey Kasparian tweeted out the news:
We’ve reached a tenative agreement w/ Albertsons, Ralphs, & Vons on a new contract. A deal we’ll be proud 2 present to our members @UFCW135
— Mickey Kasparian (@MickeyKasparian) May 21, 2014
This contract is a big deal, given the uncertainty in the local grocery business, as Albertson’s parent company (Cerberus Capital Management) is the process of swallowing up Vons (owned by Safeway). The deal is expected to close by the end of 2014 and may result in closures of some local grocery stores.
A bitter five month strike in 2003-2004 saw 70,000 southern California workers picketing Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons stores.
Issa’s Plan to End Daily Mail Service
When he’s not busy ginning up the teahadist wing of the GOP with scare stories about Benghazi, Obamacare and the Internal Revenue Service, Congressman Darrell Issa is also delivering the goods for his many corporate sponsors. For a guy who is one of the wealthiest members of Congress and has a very safe seat, he does very well.
One of his crusades is the privatization of the Post Office, which is financially ‘troubled (a $600 million profit in FY 2013) these days thanks to some really rotten double dealing by his Congressional colleagues. Since the Post Service was mandated by the Constitution, Issa and his cohorts can’t simply close it; they’re just doing their level best to destroy it. The over half-million union members working in that agency are the real target.
Via NBC News:
Millions of Americans would no longer get mail delivered to their door but would have to go to communal or curbside boxes instead under a proposal advancing through Congress.
The Republican-controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on an 18-13 party-line vote, approved a bill Wednesday to direct the U.S. Postal Service to convert 15 million addresses over the next decade to the less costly, but also less convenient delivery method.
March Against Monsanto
Another year has passed and the corporate masters of the food chain at Monsanto still haven’t gotten the message about their opposition to labelling and predatory practices towards small farmers.
Local activists have three days of protests planned for the coming weekend, starting with a rally outside Monsanto’s La Jolla offices (11099 Torrey Pines Road) on Friday starting at 4:30, a rally and march starting at the fountain outside of Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park starting at 11am Saturday and the Overpass Light Brigade displaying “Stop Monsanto” signage at the Clairemont Drive overpass of I-5 starting at 7:30pm that evening.
On This Day: 1895– Union Organier Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned in Woodstock, Ill., for his role in Pullman strike 1955 – A scheduled dance to be headlined by Fats Domino was canceled by police in Bridgeport, Connecticut because “rock and roll dances might be featured.” 2002 – In Birmingham, AL, a jury convicted former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry of murder in the 1963 church bombing that killed four girls.
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Doug Porter
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Very nice reporting on each of these issues. I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t report the over indulgence of alcohol Bill Horn is known for. When in Valley Center and east towards Borrego Springs, all the regulars and neighbors know when Bill Horn shows up, there will be plenty drank and risky behavior to talk about the next morning. But I guess you can’t cover every negative aspect of every candidate.