Time for a 6 Month Update on the Triathlon between County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price and top-tier challenger Steve Danon. The actual election is 14 months away, but the race keeps generating news! Both Tom Blair and Barry Jantz reported that Tom Shepard will direct Danon’s campaign. I reported earlier that Karolyn Dorsee is doing fundraising for Danon. Pam Slater-Price has led District Three for 20 years, so the best talent will be needed to defeat her. Tom Shepard and Karolyn Dorsee are as prestigious as it gets — But Slater-Price has assets too! — (A) $318,000 cash-on-hand in her campaign account, (B) wide name ID, and (C) the strong desire to keep a job she worked hard to win in 1992 against SD Rostra’s own Richard Rider and SD Councilwoman Judy McCarty.
………….Where these Competitors Came From
Slater-Price first emerged from the political Gladiator school that is Encinitas politics as a city councilwoman in the late 1980s. Her only serious supervisorial challenge (since 1992) came from well-regarded Solana Beach Mayor Marion Dodson in 2000. Slater-Price topped Dodson by a 2-1 margin.
Steve Danon aided Brian Bilbray’s congressional wins in the 1990s. Bilbray narrowly lost to Susan Davis in 2000, and after that district was gerrymandered in 2001, Bilbray looked to other activities. Then came the 2005 Duke Cunningham meltdown, and a frantic special election to pick his successor. Danon was instrumental in Bilbray’s come-from-behind primary election upset win and now serves as his chief of staff. Danon too knows the North territory.
…………..Looking Ahead to the 2012 Race
Danon’s goals have to include (a) locking up early endorsements and a Veteran campaign team to discourage other challengers from the District 3 hunt, and (b) preventing removal of his home neighborhood from District 3 during 2011’s remapping process. By starting early, he has made it a potential PR nightmare to exclude him from the contest in that way.
Danon is on-course with both of those goals. To use the Triathlon analogy, he is out of the water now, onto the bicycle, and meeting his pre-race time targets.
Slater-Price needs to remain visible, stay out of unnecessary controversies, and keep together her coalition of coastal activists and inland conservatives. She is doing OK on the first two, but holding together that Inland/Coastal coalition has never been easy, and less so now in the Tea Party era. (Think Maude and Archie Bunker at the same election rally…a little exaggeration but one that still makes a real point!)
This remains a real Case Study of how local San Diego politics have changed … a race stretching out over nearly a two year period. So pull up a chair, put on your sunglasses, and get ready for the big moment when the two stalwarts leave their bicycles and then start that final 26-mile run to the Finish Line…. We’ll be there to cover it at SD Rostra !
Comments 1
It’s time for Pam to retire. In fact, it would be nice to see some new blood on the board in a few other seats too, but not the union-backed liberal type. The County of San Diego is a relative oasis of financial and political stability in a sea of red ink. Given time and opportunity however, the Democrats will drive the county off the cliff just like the rest of California.
Steve has the integrity and drive we need in regional government. I hope he succeeds in his efforts. If Pam were smart, she and Herschel should make a graceful exit and enjoy their retirement – generously paid for by taxpayers.