Not very controversial, right?
But a writer for a SD liberal publication attacked, saying (A) Zapf’s victory was no surprise, and (B) no one said she would miss the runoff and (C) we Rostrafarians were “Morons”.
As Jack Benny used to say, “Well !”
But was the Last Angry Man right in his basic complaint? We did some fact-checking to see and found these quotes of note:
The Angry Man’s own boss said this at a post-election forum when asked about the District 6 outcome: “Asked why Lorie Zapf was able to win the District 6 primary by 12 percentage points despite seemingly devastating reporting in CityBeat about her … [City Beat editor David] Rolland said, ‘We were flabbergasted that she beat Howard Wayne by 12 points. One of my reporters exposed Zapf as a religious zealot…'” [Hat tip to veteran local journalist Mark Conlan for this quotation and report].
…. LEADING PREDICTORS OF PRIMARY DEFEAT FOR ZAPF
The Angry Man also charged no one said Lorie Zapf would finish 3rd, or that Howard Wayne could win the race in June with 51% of the vote. Here are some responsible people who did think these things would occur in their pre-primary analysis. This is not a knock on any of the people quoted. They are all legit commentators and no one is expected to get them all right. These are reproduced to make the point that Zapf was seen as a goner on the Liberal side of town…
CHRIS CROTTY (well known,long-time Democratic consultant)
“Early in the evening, political consultant Chris Crotty predicted that District 6 City Council candidate Howard Wayne would take the race: …. ‘it’s only a question as to whether Wayne wins outright tonight.'”
“BLUE SD website”
“I predict Howard Wayne will come in a strong first and Tran will come in 2nd due to her strong name ID in Linda Vista. Everyone else will come trailing behind. The GOP will then put their weight behind Tran for November’s run off but it will be too late since Wayne will have his grip on Clairemont and will start eating into Tran’s turf in Linda Vista.”
“SD POLITICO” website
“Hadley has the Donna-heads on his side but that’s it. They will deny Wayne the outright win but will make it easier for him to unify the party in the fall. The egos of Kvaric and Sudberry have chained them to the flawed candidacy of Zapf…. in spite of the candidate, Zapf gets dragged across the finish line into the runoff.”
…….. SUMMARIZING THE FACTS TO DATE
These are all acknowledged voices of San Diego liberal politics. Each foresaw Lori Zapf heading to defeat, outright in the primary or going to the runoff badly trailing Howard Wayne. Instead Zapf ran 1st, 12% ahead of Howard Wayne. So… since SD Rostra reported in May that Zapf was neck-and-neck with Howard Wayne, and gaining, we had a right later to claim credit for seeing the Upset coming.
‘K?