David Myers is running for San Diego County Sheriff against incumbent Bill Gore. As the challenger, Myers hopes to debate Gore to illustrate the differences between the two. Gore was appointed San Diego County Sheriff in 2009. He has enjoyed the power of incumbency in his last two re=elections: he has never faced a Democratic opponent and ran unopposed in 2014.
Gore has problems in this election cycle. The Republican Party of San Diego County has refused to entertain an endorsement of his 2018 re-election. (Gore is the only incumbent Republican not endorsed for the June election). A few months ago, he scuttled Bob Filner’s political consultant (Tom Shepard) in favor of Kevin Faulconer’s (Jason Roe). Roe has advised Gore to “run out the clock” on the Democratic challenger and rely on the power of incumbency to secure the June re-election.
Each time Gore has been asked to debate David Myers, he invoked penal code 832.7. Essentially, the Gore campaign says that a debate wouldn’t be fair because, while Myers could question Gore’s performance, Gore would be unable to discuss Myers’ performance because of penal code 832.7. Myers could take that objection away from Bill Gore by waiving his privacy rights. Myers waived that protection today. (Full statement from Myers). This removes any and all excuses for the two to have a debate Thursday night in Clairemont.
A debate is important for one reason– it permits Gore to address (publicly) what he has insinuated in closed meetings — that Myers has job performance issues which make him unfit for the job of San Diego County Sheriff. If Myers is as bad as an apple as Gore suggests, he should say that publicly Thursday night.
If Gore won’t debate Myers on Thursday night, we should assume that he’s bluffing and trying to run out the clock. It wouldn’t be the first time Gore has said one thing and done another.