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Mayor Faulconer’s Republican Unicorns: Jobs! And the Minimum Wage Veto

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The Committee for Slave Wages and Free Puppies for Everybody Lives On

Have you seen the Falconer for Mayor ads in social media yet? San Diego’s incumbent mayor is claiming credit –sort of– for a 34% drop in local unemployment since he was elected. If you buy into this claim, you’ll love the expected follow-up ads claiming credit for the sun rising, the sun setting, and better-than-usual surf in Ocean Beach.

Think of this employment claim as like a candidate standing next to a cardboard cutout of somebody famous, hoping for the perceived endorsement. In Faulconer’s case, this cutout could be anybody but a member of his own political party since it would be hard to find a living Republican with a positive economic record. And hasn’t he heard the proclamations from his fellow Republicans about how jobs are fleeing the People’s Republic of California?

Independent mayoral candidate Lori Saldaña called Falconer out this claim this week, pointing to the reality that San Diegans are working more for less money, thanks to his veto of a minimum wage increase in 2014.   [Read more…]

Replacing Rasputin: A Subtext of the Election Contest for City Attorney

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Termed-out City Attorney Jan Goldsmith felt free to drop the pretense of serving all the public last week during his introduction of Texas Senator Ted Cruz at a campaign rally in Mission Valley.

“We believe in jobs, freedom and security. You know something? The Democrats don’t believe in these values,” Goldsmith said. So much for my theory that he wasn’t an ideologue.

The point here is that the current occupant of that office has utilized the resources available to him to protect political allies, namely the ones who believe that a plurality of the electorate owes its allegiance to a political party in the city engaged in undermining “jobs, freedom and security.”   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Earth Fair 2016: All in for the Environment

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Sunday, April 17th. EarthFair Day.

Having heard all the warnings about trying to drive to Earth Fair–not to mention the irony–, I took the bus.

The Number 7 bus was a half hour late and it dropped me on the corner of Park & University. It wasn’t going anywhere near that mess in Balboa Park. Eventually, the Balboa Park “shuttle” appeared. After quibbling with the driver when he asked for another fare, we sped three blocks south only to get in line. Hurry up and wait.   [Read more…]

Primary Update: California Democrats Get Ready for Hillary vs. Bernie and Beyond

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There was no knockout blow thrown at last night’s Brawl in Brooklyn between Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Sanders threw haymakers, never quite connecting. Clinton responded with deft political footwork and an ongoing series of jabs. Both were hoping to draw support from New York voters in next week’s primary.

“Does Secretary Clinton have the experience, the intelligence to be president? Of course she does,” Sanders said. He pivoted, pointing out her ties to Wall Street and her vote for the war in Iraq, closing with, “I don’t believe that is the kind of judgment we need.”   [Read more…]

Primary Update: The GOP’s Hate Campaign Heads to California

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California Republicans announced yesterday that Presidential candidate Donald Trump will be the keynote speaker at the state party’s spring convention, joining Ted Cruz and John Kasich at the Bay Area gathering later this month.

The Donald will address a lunch banquet on the opening day of the GOP gathering in Burlingame, on April 29. Kasich will speak that evening, followed by Cruz the next day. Needless to say, Trump slot is the most high profile.

The June 7th California primary will likely play a decisive role in the Republican nominating contest, with voters determining whether Trump can amass the 1,237 delegates necessary to secure the nomination.

Only 13 of the state’s bloc of 172 GOP convention delegates go to the candidate who collects the most votes statewide.   [Read more…]

Downtown Double Cross: Hoteliers Walk Back Briggs Lawsuit Settlement (Or Did They?)

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This week’s twists and turns involving Attorney Cory Briggs, the City, the Chargers and the barons of the hospitality industry are simply stunning. Get your popcorn now, folks, cause this mess is likely to go on for a while.

Forget for a moment about whether a new stadium or convention center or combination facility is desirable; yesterday’s shenanigans peeled back the facade on local politics to reveal a mess of squabbling interests and a mayor paralyzed by the prospect of actually doing something, anything.

At the center of all this are ballot measures potentially paving the way for a joint use facility in the East Village, aka the convadium. I’ll do my best to sort this out.   [Read more…]

City Council Races Beg the Question: When is a Democrat Not a Democrat?

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Are there candidates running for City Council in Districts 3 and 9 supported by interests with a history of backing Republicans really Democrats? Do campaign donations define a public official?

Is Bernie Sanders a Democrat? Is Hillary Clinton just a Republican in drag? How about Congressman Scott Peters after his votes on refugees and trade? Are people who used to be Republicans ever to be trusted? Where do you draw the line?

Today I’ll explore these questions as they impact a couple of local contests…   [Read more…]

Will the Trump Campaign Wipe Out in California?

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The candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination are looking to the June 7th California primary to be the final showdown. One hundred seventy-two delegates are up for grabs, and there is a big-money push underway in the nation’s most populous state.

Donald Trump is now mathematically unable to seal the deal until the last day of the primary calendar. Senator Ted Cruz, who is holding rallies in Orange County and San Diego today, is ahead of the other candidates in terms of grassroots organizing and campaign infrastructure.

The contest to be the next GOP nominee has entered the professional political realm, as California is just too big to win with bluster and bullshit. To make matters worse, The Donald has seemingly gone into hiding after getting trounced in the Wisconsin primary and routed in the race for delegates in Colorado and South Carolina.   [Read more…]

Better Ted Than…? Cruz Stumps San Diego Monday

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Given Senator Ted Cruz’s fundamentalist leanings, there’s no small irony in the growing assumption among Republicans that he is ‘the devil they know’ and Donald Trump is the devil they don’t.

Yesterday the Cruz campaign announced appearances in Irvine and San Diego on Monday. Locally, the Texas Senator will appear from 6-8 pm at the Town and Country Resort in Mission Valley. Pre-registration will be required for those wishing to attend.

The latest Field Poll has Cruz just 7 points behind Donald Trump in California, a state with a winner-take-all lode of 172 GOP delegates. Former Republican state chair Ron Nehring, who hails from San Diego, is now a national spokesman for the Cruz campaign.   [Read more…]

So-Called Religious Freedom Laws Amount to An Attack on Democracy

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The culture wars aimed at dividing the nation are once again prominent in the media. Having lost battles in the courts and in the arena of public opinion, extremists have turned to state legislatures mired in the stone ages, thanks in large part to partisan gerrymandering.

Mississippi is the latest state to enact legislation allowing religious groups and private businesses to deny services to gay and transgender people in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court ruling effectively legalizing same-sex marriage.

Schools and companies would be allowed to set “sex-specific standards or policies concerning employee or student dress or grooming.” In other words, women could be told not to wear pants in Mississippi.   [Read more…]

Ballot Box Basics for San Diegans: What You Need to Know About the 2016 California Primary

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Massive Voter Turnout Expected

California’s June elections are looking to be like the OK Corral of presidential primary contests this year. With Senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders both besting their party’s frontrunners by 13 points in Tuesday’s Wisconsin voting, the Golden State’s large lode of delegates is rapidly gaining in significance.

Better than 600,000 Californians have registered to vote online or updated their information in the last three months, says California Secretary of State Alex Padilla in a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown. One unnamed campaign has reportedly requested 200,000 registration forms, according to Padilla, and he’s looking for an additional $32 million to handle predicted major surges in turnout for both the June 7 California primary and Nov. 8 general election.   [Read more…]

Highways, Not Skyways Motivate Voters in SANDAG Polling for Ballot Measure

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In just a few short weeks, the Board of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) will vote on placing a half-cent sales tax increase on the November ballot. At stake are billions of additional dollars for transportation projects in coming decades.

The regional government group has released results from a just completed Competitive Edge survey of 1201 local voters, weighted for voting history, survey mode, age, party, gender, and subregion.

The ‘Good News’ is that there appears to be enough of a consensus to reach the two-thirds majority required for passage. The ‘Bad News” is that the 68% supporting the idea dwindles to 62% once arguments against it are presented. (But the trend is in the right direction if you’re an optimist.)   [Read more…]

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