Today marks a rare, outrageous, and somber day in the City of San Diego. Managed Competition will not appear on the November ballot. Some might celebrate this as a victory, but labor and business leaders agree, every signature should have been counted.
The Union-Tribune features a detailed story here. In summary, the MC campaign had the legal democratic option of counting every signature cut out from under them by the City Clerk and Registrar of Voters late Wednesday because the bureaucrats were unsure if they’d be able to finish a count in time. DeMaio’s only option would be to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars suing the City of San Diego, forcing them to give over 134,000 voters their voice. But a lawsuit would only perpetuate the timing problem, giving even less time for counting after a likely victory, and cost the City hundreds of thousands in legal fees.
Whether you supported or opposed Managed Competition what happened today should outrage you. As I look around at this I ask is this San Diego in 2010 or Mississippi in 1964?