Post updated below with a statement from Peder Norby.
_______

After just last month filing the necessary documents to set up a committee and declaring his intention as a candidate against Fifth District County Supervisor Bill Horn next year, Planning Commissioner Peder Norby recently had a change of heart.

Norby’s consultant Bob Schuman confirmed his client would not run. “He’s got a great life, job and marriage,” said Schuman. “He asked himself why he’d want to risk messing any of that up.” Schuman also said Norby was happy knowing he would continue to be involved while influencing public policy, “doing what he is doing.”

Although the official announcement won’t take place until later this week, SD Rostra confirmed today that former Assemblyman and 2012 San Diego mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher is returning to the Republican Party.

Fletcher caused a stir by leaving the GOP and registering non-partisan during last year’s mayoral contest, after failing to win the party’s endorsement in the race. Many political watchers believed the move was a strategic gamble to breathe life into his campaign effort. Athough Fletcher received a flurry of notoriety as a result, it ultimately wasn’t enough as he finished third behind Bob Filner and Carl DeMaio in the June primary election.

Sam Adams was the blogger of his day. The King of England didn’t understand him either.

Read it and (fill in the blank)…

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/government/article_811f11a8-7d12-11e2-b71e-001a4bcf887a.html

Here too is the Matt Hall’s Storify compilation of the reaction…

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/feb/22/jan-caldwell-fuzzy-slippers-media-credentials/

Many in political and government circles in San Diego and throughout California knew Jim Schmidt as a tireless community advocate.  He was also one of the nicest gentlemen you could ever hope to meet, even while pointedly telling you the way things should be — or how much more efficient government was when Ronald Reagan was Governor.

In case you missed it, Jim passed away on January 5 at his home in El Cajon. Here is the UT San Diego obituary.

I was asked to ensure SD Rostra readers were aware of this Thursday’s celebration of Jim’s life…

I’ve laughed in the past at those so willing to defend the late Michael Jackson based solely in their seemingly blind belief that he was too talented to have any “issues” … or at least any poor judgment. They would put him on a pedestal, perhaps not wanting the worst to be true.

It’s clear that I, admittedly, have done the same with Lance Armstrong.

Yet, any comparison to Jackson ends there. His obvious personal “weirdness” differed greatly from Armstrong’s apparent lack of any. Some would say a dysfunctional upbringing fueled Jackson’s demons. Yet, Lance overcame a life-or-death illness, thus captivating and capturing many through his courage.

Pop Quiz:  What candidate received the most votes ever in a single City of San Diego election?

Poli-hacks will no doubt mull that one based on a myriad of details, such as growth over time in population (and thus voters), turnout, popularity of the candidate, and whether it was during a primary with multiple candidates or, say, a two-candidate runoff during a presidential general election, etc., etc.

So, what do you think?  Bob Filner?  Jerry Sanders?  Susan Golding, perhaps?  Pete Wilson, or was the pool of voters too small back then as compared to today?

As has been my custom the last few years on this night….

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.  And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

Finally, the results have been tallied up in our General Election Contest (here are the questions) … and we have some winners!

I know you’ve been waiting breathlessly, now six weeks after election day.  My only excuse is that I knew we’d have a tie-breaker.  With many entrants guessing to a hundredth of a percent on the difference in the San Diego Mayor’s race, I knew it could be futile until the Registar’s count was complete to finalize my own results.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

It’s that time again, peeps! Show us your political prognosticating prowess. The contest all the poli-hacks have been awaiting. At least that’s what some tell me, even if they don’t admit it to anyone else.

As a reminder, Christine Moore won the primary contest, in the most competitive finish yet. She hasn’t yet collected on the meal, but we haven’t yet connected at the same Albondigas lunch — my fault. Yet, I am good for it. Trust me.

A reminder of the “rules,” if that’s what you call some of these…

A short response to the little Rostra debate over Tony Krvaric’s reaction to the recent Tom Shepard news…

Commenter ‘D. Morton’ says, “Only through a combination of naivete and delusions of grandeur could someone actually believe that it is both possible and the ‘JOB’ of 60+ people in a hotel banquet room in Rancho Bernardo to define a Republican.”

To change the end of his quote a tad… Only through a combination of naivete and delusions of grandeur could someone actually believe that it is both possible and the ‘JOB’ of 121 people in a building in Sacramento to decide policies that impact over 37 million of the rest of us.

In the last several hours, I’ve seen just as many web “accusations” that the movie theatre shooter is a Tea Partier as I’ve seen “claims” he is part of the Occupy movement.

On Twitter, I referred to those pushing such irrelevance as idiots. Although my now relative calmness may not change the reality of that description, I’ll attempt a bit more thoughtfulness.

Maybe the perpetrator does have a political philosophy, maybe he doesn’t. That will follow, no doubt. Yet, one blogger wrote that as an Occupy member the shooter was upset because the new Batman movie supposedly depicts the movement in a negative light. Just as inane as the Facebooker who posted the shooter’s photo, noting that no conservative would have his sideburns.

The results have been tallied for our little Election Contest (see the questions here), with about 45 participants.  I’m pleased to say it was the most competitive contest yet.  Maybe the questions were too easy. I’ll remember that next time.  But, we do have some winners.

First, some stats — since the type of ner … uhhh, I mean wonks who enter the contest are into stats.

Out of the 10 base questions, no one got less than five correct answers, with 63 percent of the participants getting between five and seven right. About another one-third nailed eight or nine correctly, pretty amazing.

Tuesday, June 19 — After yesterday’s update from the Registrar…

SCOTT  SHERMAN

15542

50.16%

MAT KOSTRINSKY

12447

40.17%

RIK HAUPTFELD

1791

5.78%

NATHAN E. JOHNSON

1207

3.90%

As of yesterday morning, 112 ballots were left to count. The race was over a week ago, per the below, but this confirms the current numbers.

Tuesday, June 12 — after 5 pm update from the Registrar of Voters…

But, starting with my tweet at 4:26 pm:

“Prediction: Out of about 30,150 votes, @ShermanforSD will have 50.25%, about 75 votes more than the 50 mark.”

(Originally posted a couple of weeks ago.)

It’s that time. Make your picks. Pick your seats. Will your picks be seated?

The rules:

• Read the questions closely.  No tricks, just read the durn questions.

• Send guesses to info@sdrostra.com ONLY.  The Rostra peeps are assisting on this, so don’t send to my email.  Do NOT post your answers here (you know who you are).

• Deadline to submit guesses: Election Day — Tuesday, June 5, 2012 — High Noon. No exceptions. That’s Pacific Time.

• If you’re reading this on FlashReport and don’t follow San Diego politics, don’t complain.  Just DON’T ANSWER.  See the title of a Milton Friedman book.

A “Memorable” Weekend for Some Candidates

by Barry Jantz

While readying its public system in advance of primary election night, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters released test election “results” on its website this weekend for every race in San Diego County, although in actuality no such real data can be released until the polls close at 8:00 p.m. on June 5.

The Registar’s office confirmed this is standard procedure prior to each election.  The resulting test report clearly indicates the information as being updated 07-04-76, a mock reference to the famous 1776 date.

Tony Krvaric, Bob Filner and T.J. Zane enjoying the Taxpayers Association dinner. Note Congressman Filner’s campaign button.

Jarl Turner of Turner Consulting provided a heads up that County Supervisorial candidate Carl Hilliard recently donated $100,000 of personal funds to his campaign coffers, thus triggering the ability for his competitors to exceed the usual maximum limit of $500 from individual donors.

The Registrar of Voters office confirms the information, indicating a $100,000 donation from Hilliard to his campaign committee on April 19. This follows previous personal donations of about $40,000 from the candidate.

Hilliard, the mayor of Del Mar, is vying against Solana Beach Councilmember Dave Roberts and longtime legislative aide Steve Danon in the race to succeed retiring County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price.

If the mayoral candidates were cars, what kinds would they be and why?

For the background on a similar question, read this article by Chris Cillizza in The Washington Post’s “The Fix”…

If President Obama was a car, what kind of car would he be?

“If President Obama was a a car, what kind of car would he be and why?”

That’s the question Resurgent Republic, a Republican-led polling conglomerate, asked a group of independents in Colorado and Virginia who had voted for the president in 2008.

Following news reports over the weekend of an FBI search of her home and former business, Jillian Hanson-Cox has resigned effective immediately from her position as an El Cajon City Councilmember, it was just confirmed to me.

Not knowing the details of the reason for the investigation, I can still personally say I am saddened by this news.  I know Jillian as completely dedicated to her community and very committed in her support of local causes. I pray the best for her and her husband.

—-

Update — The U-T San Diego has the story…
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/mar/07/el-cajon-councilwoman-resigns/

Former Assemblyman George Plescia (R) today took out papers to seek the 39th Senate District seat, setting up what could be a classic matchup against Assemblyman Marty Block (D).  I have a call into Plescia for a comment.

Here is some prior Rostra coverage of the seat and its registration numbers by Jim Sills.

Some key points on the question of whether elected officials are in violation of any laws when supporting campaign related issues…

Let’s start with a “given.”  In no circumstance can or should public resources be used for political campaign activity. That goes for both elected officials and their staff members while they are engaged on the public dime.  Let’s hope we can all agree on that one.

Those elected to office do not give up their fundamental, constitutional right to be involved in political campaign activities, as long as they are not using public resources to do so.  If you disagree with that assertion, read no further, because you may simply have a problem with the Bill of Rights.

As part of his January 7 Weekend Politics & Media Mashup, Rostra blogger Tony Manolatos wrote:

I leave you with this prediction: look for the U-T to carpet bomb the expansion plans for the San Diego Convention Center in favor of a plan that would funnel some of those tax dollars to a new Downtown stadium for the San Diego Chargers. The paper foreshadowed such a move in its New Year’s Day editorial, and its new owners have said from Day 1 that they would cheer for a new stadium.

In a partial rebuke to the City of San Diego that will likely have broader implications, a federal court today declared unconstitutional a city-hoped for $1,000 limit on the amount political parties can donate to local candidates, while further striking down the existing prohibition on candidates spending personal money 12 months in advance of an election.

In a summary judgement on nine separate cross-motions in the case of Thalheimer vs. City of San Diego, Chief Judge Irma Gonzalez of the U.S. District Court’s Southern California division ruled in favor of some of the plaintiff’s motions, while denying others, as follows:

If you missed Gayle Falkenthal’s Part 1, The San Diego Rostra Mayoral Debate Drinking Game, please read that little gem here.

For those who can’t make it to the debate tonight at the U.S. Grant Hotel  (5 p.m.), it will be on UStream, thanks to some quick thinking and work by the Lincoln Club and San Diego County Taxpayers Association.

Here is the link to watch it live:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/lincoln-club

More details on the debate at Storify.