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Fighting for Endorsements in the Mayoral Race

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By Doug Porter

The battle for endorsements by political campaigns is a key part of any election strategy, fostering prestige, volunteers, mentions in the press and donations.  Today we’ll take a gander at the Alvarez and Faulconer campaigns’ lineup of endorsers. Their campaigns have been slugging it out in recent days, each hoping to top the other with press releases and media events.

My curiosity about endorsements was trigged by a press release from Republican Kevin Faulconer’s campaign. Here’s the lede: “Countering the Asian American labor union bosses that endorsed David Alvarez last week, the official Asian American Coalition that supported former Democrat candidate Nathan Fletcher in San Diego’s mayoral general election, will announce a break with the Democrats and endorse Kevin Faulconer in the runoff election.”

I wondered about the phrase “labor union bosses,” since my recollections about the group referred to by Faulconer’s PR guys, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), was that their activities were focused on immigration reform, human rights and aid efforts for victims of natural disasters.   [Read more…]

Mayoral Campaign Heats Up With TV Ads, Mailers and a Very Interesting Poll

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By Doug Porter

Now that the “We Support the Chargers by Wearing a Bolo” meme has collapsed, there’s nothing standing the way of San Diego’s mayoral contest rising to the top of the daily news heap.

The reporting on sports and politics contests have much in common: a mix of subjective logic is mixed with euphoria or dejection as events progress. ‘Our team sucks’ can quickly become ‘Our team is invincible’ during the course of a contest.

On the political front there was lots of action over the past few days. The first wave of negative mailers from Kevin Faulconer’s corporate allies rolled into area mailboxes, with messages tailored towards party registration and residential location. Some people (including me) called it “Race Baiting”, (at least in my case) putting the ads in the context of the last 50 years of GOP campaigning. Others didn’t think so.   [Read more…]

Low Income Housing Fee Opponents Up to the Same Old Tricks in Signature Drive

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By Doug Porter

Oops. They’ve doing it again. San Diego’s voters are once again being hoodwinked into signing petitions. Given that our City Attorney apparently thinks this behavior is part of the “democratic process,” the likelihood is they’ll get away with it. 

Currently supporters of an initiative to overturn yet another City Council action have deployed an army of paid signature gatherers at shopping centers in San Diego.  At issue is an ordinance restoring linkage fees on large scale developments to pre-recession levels as a mechanism for funding low income housing. 

As has happened with other recent signature drives sponsored by corporate interests, those individuals are “stretching the truth” in their quest to earn their pay-per-signature wages.  Whether or not these representations cross the line into outright lies is something I hope the courts will someday decide. These latest tactics shouldn’t surprise anybody in the wake the hysterical “the Navy is leaving” campaign staged by opponents of the Barrio Logan Community Plan.   [Read more…]

To Hell with Pio Pico – It’s Time for a La Jolla Power Plant

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By Doug Porter 

The pattern of dirty development has become undeniable in the San Diego area. Attempts to abate or oppose polluting projects in neighborhoods with higher percentages of non-whites are cast by proponents of those projects as critical to the regional economy.

A simple nine block buffer zone protecting Barrio Logan from pollution associated with the maritime industry gets attacked as threatening the entire industry. And now a proposed power plant in Otay Mesa has been reborn in the wake of last year’s closure of the San Onfre nuclear facility.

Meanwhile, a “controversy” caused by the odor of sea lion poop in La Jolla gets major media coverage. Oh. My. Goodness.

Maybe we can work out a trade. On second thought, forget that idea. Let’s just get a power plant built upwind of La Jolla. Then they won’t be bothered by the sea beasties so much.   [Read more…]

UT-San Diego Shafts its Employees, Blames Obamacare

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By Doug Porter

Employees of the UT-San Diego are the latest casualties in the sordid saga of the right wing’s assault on the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

UT Publisher Doug Manchester has made opposition and denigration of the President’s health insurance reform agenda a top priority since the day he bought the paper. His editorial pages have been (figuratively) screaming about the impending end of Western Civilization for months on end.  The ACA’s primary pillar—the individual mandate—was actually a conservative counter-proposal to President Clinton’s attempt to implement universal health care nearly two decades ago.   [Read more…]

A Lot of Naughty and Very Little Nice: Looking Back at December 2013

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#1 Doug Manchester’s Two State Solution

The editorial board at UT-San Diego finally crossed the line from delusional to just flat out insane this weekend.  After reading Sunday’s paper a rational human being might even be open to arguments suggesting that the satirical Onion website has surreptitiously taken over our Daily Fishwrap.  But this weekend’s fare wasn’t funny…

Our city has many pressing issues, as the many debates leading up the special mayor election prove beyond a doubt.  Now UT-SD is trying to frame the upcoming runoff in the context of our city’s desperate need for a new football stadium, saying they’ll step in from Day One to pressure our next mayor to “get it done”.   [Read more…]

The Phone Calls Stop When You Vote: Looking Back at November 2013

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By Doug Porter

#1 Walmart CEO Optimistic About Food Stamp Cuts

Today’s the day.

Twenty three million Americans, including four million in California and more than a quarter million in San Diego will see a 5% reduction in their food stamp benefits starting November 1st.

As many as one in nine California families receive food benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — known as CalFresh in this state.  The cuts mean a family of four will receive $632, or $36 less per month in federal food assistance, even as California food costs rise. That is the equivalent of losing roughly 21 individual meals per month based on calculations used by the Department of Agriculture.   [Read more…]

The Light at the End of the Shutdown: Looking Back at October 2013

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For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line last year.

By Doug Porter

#1 The Government Shuts Down and Obamacare Stumbles

Today’s UT-San Diego editorial repeats the GOP fantasy that the Affordable Care Act is about to “collapse under its unworkable weight”.  If that’s true, shouldn’t they just let it happen? Could another Democrat get elected for President in the foreseeable future if that’s true?

Today’s paper also features a predictable “poll”.  A plurality says it’s the President’s fault.  The question of whether or not the government should be shut down isn’t even asked.   [Read more…]

The Repackaging of Kevin Faulconer, Wherein Barney Fife Gets Transformed into John Wayne: Looking Back at September 2013

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For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line last year.

By Doug Porter

#1 Carl DeMaio Obeys Orders

It was a day to remember in San Diego’s political history.  Three high-profile politicians opted to decline the opportunity to enter the contest for the top spot in the eighth largest city in the United States.  That’s like three customers going into a Starbucks paying for a latte with a hundred dollar bill and saying “keep the change”…or a camel passing through the eye of a needle.

…DeMaio deferred to his Congressional ambitions, Todd Gloria said that the job of being interim mayor demanded his full attention and County Supervisor Ron Roberts opted out of the race.   [Read more…]

All Filner, All The Time: Looking Back at August 2013

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 For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line in the past year.

By Doug Porter

#1 Apologies to John Cleese..

In response to reader requests, I’m doing my best to keep this Filner falderal all in perspective. Not every development in this saga is a screaming headline kinda deal. So I’ll limit my remarks in keeping with what I see is the actual significance of events in yesterday’s San Diego edition of the Monty Python Media Circus. (h/t My Mom)

Ex-Mayor Sanders went on TV to say Filner’s gotta go. It’s bad for business, said the current head of the Chamber of Commerce, citing staffing cutbacks with the local tourism marketing effort.   [Read more…]

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s World Starts to Fall Apart: Looking Back at July 2013

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For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line in the past year.

By Doug Porter

#1 Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire…

It was an “aha!” moment triggered by one sentence buried deep in the latest of an ongoing series of “news stories” published in the Daily Fishwrap that triggered a larger realization for me.

The purpose of the story and others like it was to propound upon the sore loser propaganda campaign promulgated by UT-San Diego publisher Papa Doc (that’s what his employees call him) and his like minded minions: With [insert disliked politician’s name] in power we are all doomed.   [Read more…]

Issa’s Joe McCarthy Imitation, DeMaio’s Koch Connection and #filnereverywhere: Looking Back at June 2013

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#1 Why Only Five People in Washington Take Congressman Darrell Issa Seriously

San Diego’s own Congressman Darrell Issa is making headlines nationally this morning, but not in the way that the local daily paper would like you to believe.

Today’s UT-San Diego has a Page Two story up featuring a picture featuring Issa holding up a piece of paper, with a caption that says “interviews with employees at the Cincinnati IRS office indicate they were directed by Washington to target conservative groups.”

The north county’s answer to Joe McCarthy went on CNN Sunday morning to tout his latest ‘evidence’, which turned out to be highly edited selections from staff interviews with IRS agents. Political correspondent Cindy Crowley called Issa’s bluff, actually reading the documents and pointing out that they proved nothing.   [Read more…]

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