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San Diego’s Mayoral Candidates on Walkable Neighborhoods: Walking the Walk or only Talking the Talk?

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Editor: The following article is a repost from UrbDeZine San Diego, and as such only reflects the opinion of its author, Bill Adams.

By Bill Adams / UrbDeZine San Diego / October 7, 2013

J Street looking East in Downtown San Diego“Walkable neighborhoods” and “liveable streets” are terms that are receiving a lot of play these days. San Diego’s special mayoral election is no exception.

All of the candidates are grabbing the walkable neighborhoods / livable streets banner, encouraged by programs such as the Livable Streets Mayoral Candidate Speakers Series put on by the Livable Streets Coalition, a joint effort of several environmental, smart growth, and non-auto transporation groups.   [Read more…]

Point Loma Dems Meet and Greet David Alvarez

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By Judi Curry

A “meet and greet”  was held Sunday  in Pt. Loma to introduce Point Loma Democrats and friends to David Alvarez, a candidate running for the position of Mayor of San Diego.

It was the first time that many of the attendees had ever met Mr. Alvarez, and there was great interest from the over 50 people in attendance in what he had to say, how he said it, and what he sees for the future of San Diego. He gave willingly of his time, and spent almost three hours answering every question asked.  It is interesting to note that at no time did he evade the questions, and from this observation was honest and sincere in what he said.

He stated that his leadership goal as the mayor of San Diego is to continue the community action that is so badly needed in San Diego.  He said that he would put the “neighborhoods” first and work on infrastructure so badly needed in our city today.   [Read more…]

Is San Diego in a New York State of Mind? De Blasio and Alvarez Give Us Hope

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By Jim Miller

After my last column on the perils of Carl Luna’s characterization of progressives supporting David Alvarez as the “Tea Party of the Left” I got a response from Luna when the article was reposted at the OB Rag where he stood by his analogy “that those in the Democratic camp who hold that there are ‘true’ progressives (aka those they agree with) and DINOS are in danger of going down the Tea Party rabbit hole—like the Occupy Wall Street people run wild. (Except that Tea Party has 90 seats in Congress—OWS zero).”

This was prefaced by a reminder that, “the point of elections is to win.”

My response to this was to observe that, “The problem with the Tea Party argument is false equivalency. To equate the Tea Party (a movement based on factually challenged assumptions across the board combined with a good dose of racism funded by the Koch brothers) with progressives worried about the growing influence of the rich and corporations inside the Democratic Party is sloppy thinking at best. It implies a kind of moral equivalency, which is frankly offensive.   [Read more…]

For Fletcher, History is the Narrative that Hurts

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By Jim Miller

To the surprise of many over the last couple of weeks, San Diego’s Labor Council, the San Diego Democratic Party, San Diego Democrats for Equality, Progressive San Diego, the Environmental Health and Justice Campaign, and a host of other local progressives have all lined up to endorse David Alvarez for Mayor. Even as the Gonzalez/Forrester/Jacobs/et al camp has pulled out all the stops in their effort to force-feed Fletcher to local progressives, Nathan just hasn’t gone down that well.

As one person who was being courted by Fletcher before the Democratic Central Committee’s endorsement vote reported, an exasperated Fletcher complained to them about having to work so hard to line up votes. I guess his friends on the inside said it was going to be easy.

Unfortunately for Fletcher, he has had to work hard but it hasn’t paid off. And all this has some folks in the “everybody knows” crowd a bit rattled.   [Read more…]

Projected Low Turnout in Mayoral Special Election Favors Faulconer

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By Doug Porter

Two studies released this week appear to validate the decision made by big money Republican donors to boost the candidacy of City Councilman Kevin Faulconer.

A poll by Republican leaning Competitive Edge Research & Communication of 504 likely voters (Sept. 26-29) shows Faulconer running essentially even with Nathan Fletcher (26-27%, with a plus or minus margin of error of 4.4 percent).  Candidate David Alvarez was favored by 13%, Mike Aguirre got 7%, 20% of those polled said they were undecided and while 8% backed one of the seven other candidates in the race.

Following “push” polling questions, wherein surveyors read politically leading statements to respondents, support for Faulconer jumped to 34%, with Alvarez moving into second place with 22% and Fletcher support dropping to 20%.

Probable voter turnout in the Competitive Edge survey was pegged at somewhere between 35 and 40%.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Special Mayoral Election: Meet the Candidates – Part 2

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Six Candidates You May Not Be Familiar With

By Doug Porter  (Part 1 can be accessed here)

Yesterday we took a look at a bunch of things we know about the five Big Name candidates.  Today we’re looking at the Rest of the Pack: six men with a variety of reasons for wanting the job of mayor that you might not ever have heard about.

We’ll be writing a lot of the mayoral campaigns in the coming weeks for the November 19th special election. These articles are introductions, mostly in their own words. The wording and formatting of the candidate statements is taken directly from the City Clerk. The biographies come from the candidate’s websites. And included are links (I think) will be useful in giving insight as to what these guys are all about.   [Read more…]

The Mystery of Why Qualcomm Adopted Nathan Fletcher

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By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner

Did you ever suspect you were being taken for a ride but decide to go along with it anyway?  Did you ever ignore that little voice inside your head warning you to watch out! because the guy conning you was so smooth, so really cute,  how could you say no?

You’ve just been introduced to Nathan Fletcher in his rematch race for mayor of San Diego.

Nathan Fletcher is funny, engaging, self-deprecating, and a topnotch storyteller.  He is low-keyed even when boasting, “I interrogated al-Qaeda… I can negotiate a labor deal.”   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Special Mayoral Election: Meet the Candidates – Part 1

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The five big name players, in alphabetical order

By Doug Porter

Following the resignation of Bob Filner it seemed for a while like everybody wanted to be Mayor of San Diego. Nearly forty people pulled the paperwork, hinted to the news media or issued press releases proclaiming their willingness to become the top political player in America’s eighth largest city. Now we are down to 11 men (there are no women candidates) who say they want the job.

Political pollsters will tell you that, after the President, most voters identify with the mayor of their city as being the personification of their government.  Loyalty to one’s country trumps civic pride, but not by much–which might explain the passion surrounding the rise and fall of Bob Filner.   [Read more…]

Passionate Debate Ends with Alvarez Getting the Backing of SD Democrats for Equality

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Story and Photos by Eva Posner

The San Diego Democrats for Equality endorsed City Councilmember David Alvarez last night, furthering his momentum toward an improbable-but-not-impossible victory against Nathan Fletcher and Kevin Faulconer in the November 19 special election to replace Bob Filner as mayor of San Diego.

The result is interesting, given the amount of infighting that has taken place among local Democrats since Alvarez entered the race– placing himself opposite former Republican Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher for the title of Democratic front-runner.   [Read more…]

Sweet Tweets, Cold Cash and Barrio Logan on San Diego’s Mayoral Campaign Trail

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By Doug Porter

 Tuesday night’s vote by the San Diego Democratic Central Committee was a clear victory for backers of Councilman David Alvarez’s mayoral aspirations.  If for no other reason, the endorsement was important in raising the councilman’s name recognition, both for the headlines it produced and the cash that will now flow from Democratic Party coffers boosting his candidacy.

Others with skin in this game reacted in differing ways.

A much heralded spat between United Food and Commercial Workers President Mickey Kasparian (who supports Alvarez) and Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (Nathan Fletcher’s booster), appears to have passed.  After all, the vote is over, and the party did vote to support whichever of those candidates wins the November 19th primary.   [Read more…]

Alvarez Gets The Nod from Democratic Party as Mayoral Election Takes Shape

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By Doug Porter

San Diego’s Democratic Central Committee met last night to consider the question of endorsing a candidate in the upcoming special mayoral contest.

Former City Attorney Mike Aguirre, civic activist Bruce Coons, former assemblyman Nathan Fletcher and City Councilman David Alvarez all pled their case behind closed doors in Kearny Mesa.

The Dems could have voted not to endorse at this point in the process. Or they could have endorsed more than one candidate. But either move would have effectively left the party’s ability to raise unlimited funds at the sidelines for the Nov 19th primary.

So in the end City Councilman David Alvarez won the endorsement with a 63-40 40-24 vote over Nathan Fletcher. In the event of a runoff after the special election, the committee agreed to back whichever Democrat advances, whether or not it’s Alvarez.   [Read more…]

Fletcher Versus Alvarez: The Battle for the Soul of San Diego’s Democratic Party

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by Jim Miller

This last week marked the two-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, a political happening that finally put the issue of economic inequality in the spotlight and started a national discussion about money, class, and political corruption. That movement was largely brought to us by young people, Millennials mostly, whose view of mainstream politics is justifiably jaded.

As Peter Beinart recently pointed out, “Compared to their Reagan-Clinton generation elders, Millennials are entering adulthood in an America where government provides much less economic security. And their economic experience in this newly deregulated America has been horrendous.”

And this experience has been made worse by bankrupt politics that pits what Beinart rightly characterizes as “a procapitalist, anti-bureaucratic Reaganized liberalism” that is “inclined toward market solutions” to everything against a radicalized “right wing populism”:   [Read more…]

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