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North Park Mayoral Debate Tosses the Rulebook: Intelligent Questions Evoke More Informative Answers

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By Doug Porter

I’ve listened to and watched a bunch of mayoral debates this year. Usually I come away from those things feeling like I’d wasted my time.

No other face-off featuring the major players even came close to what occurred last night at the North Park Theater.

I came away with a much better understanding of who the candidates are and what they stand for. Which is what’s supposed to happen.

A broad range of issues were covered. There were no opening statements, no mandated time for each candidate to rebut. Questions were submitted from the general public via electronic media and thoughtfully shaped by Voice of San Diego’s Scott Lewis.  There were no mouth-breather questions about traffic tickets, favorite colors or unicorns.  No candidate promised free ponies for everybody if they were elected.   [Read more…]

Time to Give Voice Through a Choice- AKA Get Out the Vote

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By Ernie McCray

With the mayoral election coming up on Tuesday, November 19th, it’s time for one of those “Get Out the Vote” kinds of appeals and I’m up for the deal because voting is what being an American means to me.

But there are folks who don’t vote which I see as an insult against the very notion of a democracy. They cry “What’s the use?” claiming that special interests rule the day and our representatives don’t care about us. Well, there sure is a lot of truth in that but I can’t think of any better reason to vote than to take on such abuses of power.

Voting is at the core of our nation’s soul. The big cats know that well. That’s why they buy folks who’ll heed their will.   [Read more…]

Analyzing the Candidates’ Responses: Virtual Mayoral Forum – On Managed Competition

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Democratic Candidates agree:  Significant savings and efficiencies could have been achieved without managed competition, and San Diego might have been better off.

By SDFP Staff

Earlier this month we published an eight part virtual mayoral forum, and invited each of the mayoral candidates to answer one question each day with the promise of no editorial intervention on our part. You can view that series by going to our 2013 special election coverage, here.

Now that the three major Democratic candidates have answered (Kevin Faulconer didn’t reply), we thought it might be useful to examine their answers and share our analyses. So over the coming days we’ll be covering one question at a time, comparing their answers with some of editor’s visions about what’s best for San Diego.   [Read more…]

Kevin Faulconer’s Republican Problem

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By Doug Porter

The race for mayor of San Diego is technically non-partisan, but don’t tell that to the various political action committees and “social welfare” groups around town.

While media speculation has focused on the foibles of newly minted Democrat Nathan Fletcher, and David Alvarez’s unabashed support from organized labor, Kevin Faulconer’s campaign has been conducting a master class in how avoid the “R” word.

I hadn’t given it much thought until yesterday, when the email from Faulconer spokesman Tony Manolatos to reporter Clare Trageser surfaced, complaining about her KPBS feature, saying that the account focused on “Kevin being a Republican and a tool for big business”.

That’s right. A Republican mayoral candidate’s spokesman is mad because a news story called him a Republican.   [Read more…]

Carl DeMaio Launches “Free to Be” (Poor) College Tour

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By Doug Porter

Failed mayoral candidate and wannabe Congressman Carl DeMaio is taking his message of “opportunity” to college students in the San Diego area this week, hoping that a smiling face and a pocketful of libertarian promises will woo the youth vote into the Republican fold.

Like the witch in Hansel and Gretel he’s hoping to lure young votes with the lure of sweet success: he’s the “new” Republican. Students are supposed to forget about all those nasty old white men waving their transvaginal wands to ward off people of color and other likely Democrats from voting booths around the country.

“I’m taking on the Republican Party and trying to get them off those divisive social issues — let individuals decide these kinds of issues for themselves,” the 39-year-old DeMaio told UT-San Diego. “The whole tone and tenor and culture has to change.”   [Read more…]

You’ve Got Mail: Mayoral Shapeshifter Sweepstakes Rolls On

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By Jim Miller

Everywhere you look, there is a different Nathan Fletcher. The magic never stops. You can see it in a recent mailer from the Municipal Employees Association (MEA) that touts the man with an 18% lifetime score on labor issues and a 36% Sierra Club score on environmental issues as someone with “a consistent progressive record we can trust.” The MEA magic comes by taking a handful of votes that Fletcher made while re-positioning himself for his mayoral run and giving them the tag line, “Show Us the Facts.”

Well, brothers and sisters, if you think that Fletcher is a progressive, with both a labor and an environmental record that actually comes in behind Republican Kevin Faulconer’s, you just don’t care about the facts. Particularly when you know that David Alvarez’s record on these issues is far superior to both of them.   [Read more…]

Virtual Mayoral Forum – Part 8: The Environmental Essay Question for Extra Credit

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Welcome to Day 8 of the SDFP Virtual Mayoral Forum.

All of the candidates running for mayor were invited to participate in this forum, where their verbatim answers to questions posed by our editors and contributors would allow readers to get a different look at these aspirants for higher office than they might see in a TV interview or a panel debate.

Of the major candidates only Kevin Faulconer’s campaign decided not to participate. They didn’t say “no”. They didn’t say “we’re too busy”. They didn’t say anything. And that speaks volumes about both the candidate and the campaign, we think.

SDFP will follow up next week with some analysis of the candidates’ responses, talking about whether they did or did not correspond with out values.

Today’s topic was in fact an invitation for the contenders to speak in depth about any one (or more) of  four issues.   [Read more…]

Virtual Mayoral Forum – Part 7: ObamaCare for San Diego?

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Welcome to Day 7 of the SDFP Virtual Mayoral Forum. (See Day 1, Asking about managed competition, here , Day 2, Looking back on the Plaza de Panama controversy, here, Day 3, The Building Permit Process is a Hot Mess and Plans for the Planning Department, here. Day 4.  Walkable/Bikeable Neighborhoods and Public Transit, here. Day 5, Fixing the Infrastructure, here. Day 6, What About the Homeless?, here.)

With input from our many contributors, editors put together a series of eight questions we felt were unique, not too open ended and not trite. We’re publishing one response from the candidates per day (Monday-Friday) so readers can see the verbatim responses side by side.

We emailed the questions to the addresses listed with the City Clerk’s office as contact points, knowing most of the minor candidates wouldn’t respond. Kevin Faulconer’s campaign is refusing to participate. We can only assume–and, believe me we’ve tried to get them involved– their non-response sends a message about their openness to the citizens in this city. You can decide what that message is.

The complete questionnaire can be found here.

SDFP editor Doug Porter provides context for today’s question: What about the Affordable Care Act?   [Read more…]

A Brief History of “Livable Neighborhoods” in San Diego

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By Jay Powell

Livable Neighborhoods was a program piloted in City Heights in the early 90′s by then City Manager Jack McGrory. It was in response to a community improvement partnership of community members and the City to bring City staff out of City Hall and into the communities. It was complemented with Neighborhood Policing that had assigned teams cruising patrol cars and bikes and meeting in storefronts to proactively address issues block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood.   [Read more…]

Virtual Mayoral Forum – Part 6: What About the Homeless in San Diego?

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Welcome to Day 6 of the SDFP Virtual Mayoral Forum. (See Day 1, Asking about managed competition, here , Day 2, Looking back on the Plaza de Panama controversy, here, Day 3, The Building Permit Process is a Hot Mess and Plans for the Planning Department, here. Day 4.  Walkable/Bikeable Neighborhoods and Public Transit, here. Day 5, Fixing the Infrastructure, here.)

With input from our many contributors, editors put together a series of eight questions we felt were unique, not too open ended and not trite. We’re publishing one response from the candidates per day (Monday-Friday) so readers can see the verbatim responses side by side.

The complete questionnaire can be found here.   [Read more…]

Mayoral Race 2013: Character Matters

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For the second time in the last year, San Diego voters will be asked to determine who they trust to lead the city.

By Andy Cohen

Who do you trust? That’s the overriding question in this 2013 San Diego Mayoral Special Election. After what most San Diegans consider to be a major betrayal by our ex-mayor Bob Filner—whether you agreed with his policies or not—the major question on the minds of probably most voters is can we trust the current crop of candidates vying to replace him?

There are currently four major candidates running to complete Filner’s first term: City Councilman Kevin Faulconer (R), City Councilman David Alvarez (D), former State Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher (D), and former City Attorney Mike Aguirre (D). San Diego broke with historical tradition and elected a Democratic mayor for the first time in 20 years in 2012, and now there’s a sense that voters could revert back to Republican rule, despite there being a nearly 90,000 voter registration advantage for Democrats within the city limits.

Combine that with frighteningly low voter turnout expectations for the special election—circumstances which almost always favor Republican— and it’s easy to imagine that Kevin Faulconer has a major leg up on the other contenders.   [Read more…]

What’s Next for Political Reporting in San Diego? A Nose Hair Census?

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By Doug Porter

Mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher’s campaign has had their fair share of issues over past six weeks or so.  The former assemblyman is taking hits from both the right and the left; direct mail pieces have flooded city mailboxes seeking to exploit what polling says are the front runner’s vulnerabilities.

I’m not persuaded that these efforts are working, despite the fact that I share the sentiment behind them.

But I’ve found common ground with the Fletcher campaign’s refusal to participate in the latest exercise in “transparency journalism” at UT-San Diego. Snoop dog reporter Trent Seibert’s latest exercise in lunacy includes a stab at rounding up of mayoral candidates’ college transcripts.   [Read more…]

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