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Anti-Criminal Justice Reform Group Names San Diego’s Summer Stephan as DA of the Year

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San Diego’s interim District Attorney Summer Stephan has received an award from Crime Victims United as their Southern California District Attorney of the Year on Monday.

Local media coverage at CBS8, the Times of San Diego, and KUSI consisted of lightly edited versions of the press release issued by the public relations staff at the District Attorney’s office.

Not noted in the local coverage of Stephan’s award was the campaign being led by the awarding group to place a measure on the ballot rolling back portions of criminal justice reforms enacted by the legislature and California voters in recent years.   [Read more…]

San Diego Politics in 2018: A Whiff of Racism, the Odor of Misogyny, the Stench of Entitlement

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Electoral contests in San Diego County government are coming into the final stretch. Mail-in voting is just a month away. A politics column and editorial board interviews at the Union-Tribune, along with the release of depositions from the now-settled lawsuits against labor leader Mickey Kasparian, have all contributed knowledge to what I’ll share today.

First up: a column by Michael Smolens on the race for District Attorney. He describes the contest as insider/reformer (Summer Stephan) versus outsider/advocate (Geneviéve Jones-Wright.

Smollens accurately describes Jone-Wright’s candidacy as the local manifestation of a national movement seeking to address the race and class bias of U.S. criminal justice system and notes the differences in style between the candidates.   [Read more…]

Why Trump Tells California Voter Fraud Stories | Progressive Activist Calendar April 6 – 17, 2018

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 “In many places, like California, the same person votes many times. You probably heard about that. They always like to say ‘oh that’s a conspiracy theory.’ Not a conspiracy theory, folks. Millions and millions of people.” — President Donald Trump, April 5, 2018.

I knew something was up in the voter fraud rumor mill as I checked our daily statistics in the morning. There it was: hundreds of people searching and ending up at an article from a few years back in our archives on voting in California.

Voter suppression has become a core strategy for Republicans in recent years, and if they can’t figure out a way to block people from casting their ballots, this kind of rhetoric is used in the hope of people just staying home.   [Read more…]

County Sheriff, District Attorney Races Heating Up

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Gore Tells Reporters He Wants to Fire Opponent; Stephan’s Supporters Under Fire

There are developments in the crucial June 5th contests for County Sheriff and District Attorney. Incumbent Sheriff Bill Gore’s management abilities are under the microscope. And appointed District Attorney Summer Stephan’s campaign has its own problems.

I’ll start with the San Diego Sheriff Department, which is turning out to be a real little shop of horrors. Top dog Bill Gore apparently still feels entitled to his job, even as claims against the department mount.

What the Department did or didn’t do after warnings about the San Bruno shooter continues to be a mystery. Los Angeles Times crime reporter Richard Winton posted a Tweet saying, “@SDSheriff remains silent on what the Dept knew about Nasim Agdam and Youtube after father says he warned them about her YouTube issues.”   [Read more…]

Assemblywoman Shirley Weber’s Police Accountability Bill Couldn’t Come at a Better Time

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On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination, it seems appropriate to write about gun violence and the haters who enable it. Three local events relate to this topic, and there is some news of national interest I’ll add along the way:

  • Two bills introduced in the State Legislature, aim to bring California’s police use-of-force law into the 21st century and open a gap in the Blue Wall of silence surrounding investigations into police misconduct.
  • High school students from Carlsbad and San Clemente joined the weekly protests outside Congressman Darrell Issa’s Vista office to present a petition asking him to hold a town hall to address gun violence and school shootings.
  • San Diego resident Nasim Aghdam was named as the shooter following an afternoon of terror at YouTube’s San Bruno headquarters. Three people suffered gunshot wounds and police found Aghdam dead of apparently self-inflicted wounds.

  [Read more…]

Immigration Advocates Say Yes to California Values in Escondido As Trump Pumps Up His Base

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On Wednesday, the Escondido City Council is expected to vote on joining the Justice Department’s lawsuit to block the California Values Act and other state laws protecting immigrants.

The ACLU and immigration rights activists will hold a 3pm press conference, followed by an Indivisible-supported rally supporting the state law and the region’s immigrant community, which was recently targeted by ICE raids that arrested more than 100 residents.

The San Diego County Supervisors will meet in closed session on April 17 to join the lawsuit. The only event at the County building related to this vote at this point is in support of the Trump administration’s stance, organized by the Border Patriots, the same group of we’re-not-racists who’ve been targeting Chicano Park in recent months.   [Read more…]

Meet the 16 Candidates Racing to Replace Darrell Issa | 49th Congressional District Election Snapshot

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Not long ago the Big Fear was no Democrats would make it past the primary to the general election. There was some serious infighting going on, and only late-entrant Christina Prejean was willing to take one for the team in the 49th Congressional District, leaving four candidates ready to go the distance.

A disaster was in the making; a general election amid a Blue Wave and two Republicans to chose from. Certainly, things couldn’t get much worse.

Then the Republicans stepped up and said, “Hold my beer.”   [Read more…]

County Supes Set to Join Trump’s War on Brown People | Progressive Activist Calendar March 30 – April 9, 2018

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We can no longer afford to ignore the County of San Diego in the struggle against the policies of the Trump administration.

San Diego’s Republican County Supervisors are proposing to join Attorney General Jeff Sessions lawsuit challenging our state’s stance against the administration’s racist policies. These actions will be considered in a closed session on April 17. The vote will likely be 3-2 in favor our using the County’s moral authority and our tax dollars in support of bigotry.

In addition to supporting the use of immigration enforcement as an instrument of terror, the Supes are proposing to consider supporting the administration’s quest to use the 2020 census to ask every American household to record which members of their family are US citizens.   [Read more…]

With a Big Endorsement, District Attorney Contest Gets National Attention

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“In the age of Trump, brave reform-minded prosecutors are more important than ever. Geneviéve Jones-Wright will be just that.”

There’s big news to report on the race for San Diego County District Attorney. The cavalry has arrived, namely the Real Justice Political Action Committee. Co-founder Shaun King formally endorsed Geneviéve Jones-Wright on Wednesday.  This means experienced and reform-minded boots on the ground are coming to town. 

Bleating about outside influence began months ago, with appointed incumbent Summer Stephan’s political consultant, Jason Roe, sounding the alarm via Twitter about liberal donor George Soros’ Democracy Alliance taking an interest in the DA’s race.

Real Justice isn’t funded by Soros (it’s Silicon Valley money), but the Greek billionaire has been known to fund similar contests.   [Read more…]

Snapshots of Congressional Districts 51, 52, and 53 | Three Incumbent Democrats With Safe Seats

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Three incumbent Democrats. Zero controversies. No surprises expected on June 5.  I thought this snapshot would be the most boring of all the election pieces I write pre-primary. But it wasn’t. I learned some stuff, and you will too.

The Democratic Party has a majority of registered voters in each of these Congressional Districts. There are no challengers from the more progressive wing of the party taking on the center to center-left incumbents.

My assumption was that I’d find a bunch of minor GOP functionaries and a smattering of whack-a-doodles in the opposition. They’re there, but there are also a few compelling stories to be told along the way.   [Read more…]

Digging Up Dirt in Duncan Hunter-Land | Election Snapshot for the 50th Congressional District

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First in a series

The filing deadline has now passed for candidates seeking office in California, so it’s time to take a closer look at who’s running, what we know about them, and how they measure up as what needs to be done to end the reign of error also known as the Trump administration.

Incumbent Republican Duncan D. Hunter occupies what should be one of the safest seats in the House of Representatives. His father had the position until 2008. Political consultants say they believe many residents of the 50th Congressional District still think they’re voting for Duncan L Hunter (papa).

Republicans (+11) and white people (58.6%) are dominant parts of the electorate in a district encompassing the mostly rural east and north parts of San Diego County, along with a sliver of Riverside County. Duncan D.won his last two general elections by 70,000 or more votes.
  [Read more…]

In the Wake of the March for Our Lives, Let’s Talk About Criminal Justice Reform in San Diego

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This moment in time is about so much more than gun reform. It’s about political reform. It’s about criminal justice reform. And that’s what I’m going to focus on today, in light of recent events in Sacramento and along with what’s (or not) happening locally.

San Diego is lucky in that we have candidates for County Sheriff (Dave Myers) and District Attorney (Geneviéve Jones-Wright) in the June primary who stand on the side of criminal justice reform.

Assemblyman Todd Gloria and San Francisco’s David Chiu have joined forces with statewide Indivisible groups in partnership with ACLU of Northern California and the American Friends Service Committee to co-sponsor AB3131.

The bill would create oversight and ensure transparency on the sale of surplus military equipment to police departments statewide. This is important because President Trump and Jeff Sessions have rolled back an Obama executive order limiting the sale of surplus military equipment to state and local police departments.   [Read more…]

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