Guest Commentary
by Brian Brady
Who’s running the San Diego County Republican Central Committee, the grass roots activists or the elected officials?
If you’re a Republican volunteer or a tea party activist (like me), this game of “inside baseball” might irritate you. I’ll lay out what I see happening and you decide.
Republicans Carl DeMaio, Nathan Fletcher, and Bonnie Dumanis are running for San Diego mayor against Democrat Bob Filner. Saturday morning, the San Diego Republican Party Central Committee is meeting at the Rancho Bernardo Inn to hold an endorsement vote for the mayor’s race. This endorsement is pretty important because it motivates grass roots activists to volunteer and raise money for the supported candidate. More importantly, the endorsed candidate will be “the party choice” for the “Get Out The Vote” campaign. Republican volunteers will distribute door hangers prior to the June election to San Diego Republican voters.
The name on the door hanger matters. Republican voters often look at the vetting process performed by the most active volunteers to be an influential factor in their voting decision. In the mayor’s race, voters might want to know which candidate is going to have the full force of the GOP volunteer and fund-raising team behind them. If the voter is undecided, that door hanger makes all the difference. For instance, I rarely have time to research the Superior Court judges, so I rely on the volunteers’ choice.
Yesterday, an email was sent from “The Coalition to Retire Filner”, signed by State Senators Joel Anderson and Mark Wyland, and Assemblyman Brian Jones. It dreams the dream Erica Holloway had about two Republican mayoral candidates in a runoff. The “Coalition” makes an impassioned plea to the volunteer Republican Central Committee members:
“In order to establish and maintain that focus, we have come together to urge the Republican Party of San Diego County to refrain from forcing an endorsement in this race that will divide many of our most loyal and dedicated supporters, but instead to unify and focus on defeating Democrat Bob Filner in the primary.”
Why would three guys, who don’t even live in the City of San Diego, ask the volunteers to cancel an endorsement vote? To answer that question, first ask “Cui Bono? ”
Carl DeMaio is most favored among voters followed by Filner. Fletcher, the “coalition’s” colleague in Sacramento, trails with less than 15 percent support (as does Bonnie Dumanis). DeMaio performs best among registered Republicans (35 percent support) and doubles all other candidates’ support among independents. Filner does best among Democrats (which will secure him a spot in the runoff election in November).
The grass roots activists on the GOP Central Committee know the score. These are the most engaged Republicans in the County. The “Coalition,” all ex-officio members of the Central Committee, is asking the volunteers to cancel the endorsement vote. There is nothing wrong with Central Committee members (ex-officio or volunteer) lobbying each other for votes, but it seems awfully strange that the ex-officio members couldn’t find one single volunteer activist to “join” their coalition to stop the endorsement vote. The “Coalition” is all made up of the Sacramento Club, two of which endorsed someone other than the candidate leading in the polls, so I ask you again…
Anderson, Wyland, and Jones are stellar representatives. Tabling votes is a great tactic for stopping a Democratic majority in the Legislature, but this isn’t Sacramento. Saturday’s vote is about Republican volunteers deciding whom they want to support.
Back off fellas. You already made your endorsements.
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Brian Brady is a small business owner who lives in Solana Beach. He is a director for Stop Taxing Us, the taxpayer advocacy and tea party group. There, he crafted the “Promise to California taxpayers,” a no new tax pledge candidates make. He is a candidate for SDGOP Central Committee.
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Admin NOTE: Apparently, two communications were sent signed by Anderson, Wyland and Jones. The link to the email mentioned in the above guest column by Brian Brady has been corrected to show the one he received, which was the first such communication. It is also here.