SD CityBeat has condemned a threat by Jess Durfee, chairman of the San Diego Democratic Party, to blacklist any Democrats who dare endorse a Republican, even if the office is nonpartisan.
As reported by Voice of San Diego’s Liam Dillon, Durfee’s ire was directed at Democrats who endorsed Bonnie Dumanis for mayor of San Diego.
CityBeat wrote in its editorial:
“We loved the responses from Roberts and Sessom; they essentially told Durfee to stick it. In a follow-up story, Sessom told Dillon that she knows Dumanis but doesn’t know Durfee, and she challenged Durfee to bring it on. Good for her.”
CityBeat criticized the similar conduct of Tony Krvaric. That’s eminently fair, although saying the two are fit for a “fascist foreign regime” was just a wee bit over the top.
The alt-weekly also urged people to resist the tide of partisanship by changing their voting registration to decline-to-state. Hmmmmmmm.
Cheers to SD CityBeat for its eminently fair stance. While not without its faults, the plucky publication provides a point of view and reporting worth having in the mix.
Yes, another SD Rostra blogger has excoriated the alt-weekly and called for its boycott. But this is a group blog. Not all us Rostrafarians agree with each other.
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(DISCLAIMER: This is my opinion, and not necessarily that of my employer, the North County Times.)
Comments 4
To borrow a phrase — Gotta admit, Rostra will flip you on your head sometimes, eh?
“City Beat” editorial endorsements for November 2010:
STATEWIDE DEMOCRATS
Jerry Brown (Governor), Barbara Boxer (Senator), Bill Lockyer (Treasurer), Debra Bowen (Secretary of State), Kamala Harris (Attorney General), John Chiang (controller), Dave Jones (Insurance Commissioner) and Gavin Newsome (Lieutenant Governor).
…………No Republicans
DEMOCRATS FOR CONGRESS
Howard Katz, Francine Busby, Bob Filner, Ray Lutz
…………No Republicans
DEMOCRATS FOR STATE LEGISLATURE
Paul Clay, Judy Jones, Marty Block, Ben Hueso, Mark Hanson, Juan Vargas
REPUBLICANS FOR STATE LEGISLATURE
Nathan Fletcher, Martin Garrick
DEMOCRATS FOR SUPERVISOR/SD CITY COUNCIL
Howard Wayne, Stephen Whitburn, David Alvarez.
………No Republicans
On 23 major races, the Not surprising grand totals are 21 Democrats, and 2 Republicans.
Not complaining, those endorsements accurately reflect the overall tone of the publication…….. but how does that record square with principled opposition to “Obsessive Partisanship?”
Author
Jim,
SD CityBeat shouldn’t be judged on endorsements alone, but on how it treats Democrats who get out of line, like county party chairman Durfee. An obsessively partisan publication would defend a party chairman in such circumstances. CityBeat, to its credit, did not — and in uncompromising terms.
Moreover, CityBeat has harshly criticized both Durfee and his GOP counterpart Krvaric. I’m sure both chairmen, although they agree on little else, can commiserate on how unfair that ^@_)(*^ CityBeat is. That’s bipartisanship! 😉
It’s easy to attack political parties and party leaders. So easy, I’d argue that it is easy to overlook the importance of political parties in a Republic.
I’m hardly a world historian but I can’t off the top of my head think of any recent Republics that functioned well without strong political parties. In my opinion, they are a check on individual populism, and also provide a tool for collective responsibility. They provide a shorthand for voters that the agonizing ‘long ballot’ virtually requires unless somehow you are going to make the population start paying strict attention to politics and the news of the day. The lack of a ‘cue’ to voters about which team represented their basic interests would be a disaster in the sense that other than for the top of the ticket or very well funded lower down campaigns most voters wouldn’t have any idea who is who.
Further, I’m not at all sure what City Beat is suggesting would be an alternate system. OK – all voters become decline to state by mandate tomorrow. Do our friends at City Beat think that somehow political parties wouldn’t still exist or re-create themselves in other forms? Unlikely. It’s human nature to form these types of organizations.
In my opinion there is a reason that we are experiencing ‘more’ partisanship (and there have been plenty of other times in American history when we have also btw) — because there are some pretty strong policies to disagree about. This isn’t driven by political parties, this is driven by the fact that the public is broadly and strongly divided on the issues of the day.
Now of course if you got rid of the ability of political parties to communicate with their voters newspapers would have more power to determine elections. Even weekly newspapers. I don’t think any of us think that these kind of anti-democratic, individually owned or operated enterprises should have that kind of power, right?