Email from a failed mayoral candidate…

From: Nathan Fletcher

Date: May 4, 2013, 12:22:31 PM

Subject: BREAKING

BREAKING: Tea Party Favorite Carl DeMaio Eyeing Run for CA-52

Recent news out of Washington D.C. is that Tea Party extremists are recruiting one of their own — failed San Diego mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio — to run against my friend Scott Peters.

There is no doubt, this race is going to be tough. The Tea Party is going to raise a ton of money to support their ideal candidate. Scott doesn’t need to match him dollar-for-dollar, but he will need the resources necessary to defend himself. We need Scott to keep solving our most pressing problems and continue to bring change to Washington.

“After every national tragedy, you can be sure that some clueless brand will try to exploit it. In today’s episode of ‘What the hell were they thinking,’ the food website Epicurious sent out the following tweets to its 385,000 followers”…

Read it at Mr. Media Training.

I’ll add this…

Along with every politician of any party with no connection to the situation, yet who feels the need to rush out a statement of condolence.

The President? Yes, we want to hear your words. Officials from the Boston and Massachusetts areas? Of course.

The rest of you? Just stop.

In the aftermath of the weekend UT San Diego story on the “Carl DeMaio research project,” the head of the effort’s Wikipedia page has been updated.

I was prompted today to take a look at the contents of Fred Maas’ wiki bio, or see if one existed, after Twitter remarks that someone needed to update the page. It appears the unknown someone was quick to comply…

Gay-Baiting Scandal

During the 2012 election cycle, Maas spent more than $33,000 in an effort to personally smear then-mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio. Maas’ involvement in the effort became the subject of an ethics investigation when he “raised money for the project and failed to disclose its financial backers or spending activity”.^[13]

U-T San Diego reporter Craig Gustafson does a superb job detailing the cast of now outed (there’s some irony in that word) characters who tried to bring down Carl DeMaio last year, or at least attempted to keep him out of the mayoral runoff election. The story details the effort to research DeMaio’s background, the resulting “dossier” produced, and the mostly failed attempts to get the media to do anything with the information.  It’s a must read…

Secret anti-DeMaio campaign revealed: Crime author was hired by influential figures to investigate mayoral candidate

It should be no surprise that Assemblyman Ben Hueso won yesterday’s special election to fill the open 40th State Senate seat, which became vacant by virtue of Juan Vargas’ election to Congress last year.  Next is the special election for Hueso’s assembly seat.

As was noted on Rostra in March a year ago…

If Hueso were to run and win a special election for Senate, it would create a vacancy in his Assembly seat.

So, who would run for Assembly?

Lorena Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, recently moved into a community that overlaps the new 80th Assembly district, where Hueso is seeking reelection.

Xanthi Gionis, a Republican candidate in the March special election to fill the open 40th State Senate District seat, is embroiled in some controversy of late, as you may have seen…

• U-T San Diego: Public Health School Called a Fraud
• Patch: State Senate Candidate Ran University Without State License, BBB Says
• NBC San Diego (which first reported on the story): Aristotle University Dean Denies Allegations

In a nutshell, the articles note allegations of Aristotle University being a worthless diploma mill, if even that, while taking thousands of dollars from hapless students.

Some moments of brilliance, courtesy of the U-T article:

We’re a little surprised this has been quiet until now. Councilman Bill Wells tells SD Rostra he wasn’t seeking coverage of the incident, that Californian reporter Alice Keyser recently called him about it, the first communication he had with any media. Maybe she heard a rumor or saw a police report, best guesses.

Considering the shooting took place November 2, there certainly was time before the election for some media coverage, had Wells wanted it. So, it’s pretty clear he wasn’t seeking media. TV would have been all over it.

From the East County Californian…

Ben Kalasho is raising a ruckus in El Cajon, while challenging incumbent Councilmembers Bob McClellan and Bill Wells, and appointed incumbent Tony Ambrose. The Kalasho ruckus is not so much over his chances, but his background. He believes in change, lots of it.

He ran for Santee City Council two years ago and lost. He was registered as an independent.

This story has been updated below.

A massive North County and North City of San Diego TV buy is set for the last five days of the election (starting today) in support of Steve Danon for County Supervisor, say well placed sources.

If “well placed sources” isn’t enough substantiation, Rostra has obtained the nearly final cut of the 30 second ad, with a few “Internal Review Only” seconds at the start…

That ad, or another similar one in support of Danon, will also run during Monday Night Football on ESPN, the same insiders say.

In American Spectator, Chris Reed asks, “Will San Diego elect a gay libertarian or a snarling misanthrope as mayor?”

SAN DIEGO — For four decades, California’s second-largest city has had a habit of electing bland, mostly Republican centrists. Some have been effective. Pete Wilson went on to become a senator and governor. Some have been disasters. Dick Murphy was blasted by Time magazine in 2005 as one of America’s worst mayors shortly before he resigned.

Longtime educator tells Rostra “It’s their choice” whether the district sees her in court. “I want my job back.”

In a lawsuit filed yesterday against the San Diego Unified School District, Board President John Lee Evans is alleged to have struck a deal to gain the teachers union endorsement and campaign contributions in exchange for the demotion of a district area superintendent.

The suit, filed in San Diego Superior Court on behalf of Dr. Brenda Campbell, alleges she was wrongfully demoted without cause and a violation of her constitutional rights of due process, citing a school board action of one month ago.  It further states that Evans’ vote on the matter was a result of a “quid pro quo” arrangement with the union to gain support for his current reelection effort.

Don’t miss this! Must be seen to be believed. The New American Flag…

https://store.barackobama.com/obama-2012-store-collections/artists-for-obama/our-stripes-country-print.html

UPDATE Sunday 3:30 pm. Buzzfeed reports flag is gone…

http://sdrostra.com/?p=30659&cpage=1#comment-304371

In response to Ryan Purdy’s recent post, Bob Filner’s Week of Lily Pond Lies, commenter La Playa Heritage writes, “By Monday, please stop encouraging Lillygate stories. Enough.”  LPH then asks that we “move on to actual civic issues.”

Really?  Monday?  How Random.

Let’s make something perfectly clear.  The Balboa Park Lily Pond vandalism incident of last week started as a story about just that: a night time party resulting in damage to the pond.  Directly related to that story was the secondary one of whether the San Diego Police Department, knowing in advance of the party, should have done anything to monitor it or respond while it was “playing” out.

According to CaliforniaWatch.org, San Diego was among 11 counties in the state to miss a primary election deadline to mail over 8,000 ballots to overseas and military voters.  CalWatch reports that failure to send the ballots by April 21 is in violation of the Uniformed & Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.

Anyone know the stats on what percentage of military personnel vote Republican? You can look it up.

Read the story here.

A follow-up from last night’s KUSI San Diego mayoral debate…

A web-based and television ad campaign launched today called Fletcher Facts, which, according to the website, is “dedicated to finding out the facts about Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, his historical positions on issues, and his voting and political records.”  The effort is said to include a “major TV buy” of advertising time.

The campaign is paid for by “Taxpayers for Carl DeMaio – Mayor 2012,” an independent expenditure.  The website notes the material as not being authorized by a candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate.

Here is the associated TV ad, now running:

Likely responding to a dose of political reality, Metropolitan Transit System CEO Paul Jablonski is declining his board’s previously approved consideration of a merit increase that would have increased his benefits compensation by about $20,000 annually, following what appears to be increasing opposition to the move.

Here is Jablonski’s letter declining the offer…

MTS CEO Adjustment

The “change of heart” follows the MTS board unanimously approving the increase in a March closed session vote.  The U-T San Diego Watchdog questioned the appropriateness of the closed session action, resulting in a pending re-vote on the item scheduled for tomorrow.

Jaime Bonilla, trustee and former president of the Otay Water Board, has resigned to accept a position as an official in Mexico, insiders say. It is said the position may be to work for a Congressman, although Rostra is awaiting written confirmation.

Bonilla has long been “credited” with nearly single-handedly controlling the board majority at the Otay district, including driving last year’s controversial decision to extend lifetime benefits to employees.

Developing, in a word.

Among other things in a skewering letter to the California Public Employment Relations Board, San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith writes, “Never in the history of this state … has there ever been a requirement to meet and confer over a citizens’ initiative placed on the ballot by voter signatures.”

That pretty much sums it up when it comes to the state PERB lawsuit alleging the city’s lack of utilizing the meet and confer process with public employee unions prior to placing the Comprehensive Pension Reform measure on the ballot. As Goldsmith notes, CPR is not a city council initiated measure.