Election

It’s Official: DeMaio to Challenge Congressman Peters for 52nd Congressional District in 2014

May 31, 2013 by Andy Cohen

By Andy Cohen

It’s official. Carl DeMaio has announced his bid to challenge freshman incumbent Scott Peters for the 52nd Congressional District seat in central San Diego. The right wing/Tea Party conservative who lost his mayoral bid to one of the most liberal candidates ever to seek the top job at City Hall now has set his sights on the left-of-center consensus builder who took down long time Republican incumbent Brian Bilbray, who was only slightly less conservative than DeMaio.

Congress is broken, he tells us, and he’s just the guy to go and fix it.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Lorena Gonzalez Wins Assembly and Myrtle Cole Wins City Council Seats

May 22, 2013 by Doug Porter
Thumbnail image for Lorena Gonzalez Wins Assembly and Myrtle Cole Wins City Council Seats

Mrytle Cole First African-American Woman Elected to San Diego City Council, School Board Member Richard Barrera to Head Labor Council

By Doug Porter / San Diego Free Press

The results are in for the last of a series of elections triggered by Bob Filner’s decision to run for Mayor of San Diego. Labor leader Lorena Gonzalez displayed her mastery of the political process, pulling together a massive canvassing campaign that gave her an overwhelming 70% of the vote and a seat in the State Assembly.

For those of you keeping track, Filner moved from the US House of Representatives to Mayor of San Diego, Juan Vargas moved from State Senate to fill Filner’s seat, Ben Hueso moved from State Assembly to State Senate.

Read the full article → 2 comments

Councilmember Lorie Zapf to Run for Termed-Out Faulconer’s District 2 Seat

May 15, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for Councilmember Lorie Zapf to Run for Termed-Out Faulconer’s District 2 Seat

About a week ago, San Diego City Councilmember Lorie Zapf filed her papers with the City Clerk to run for the District 2 seat – currently held by Kevin Faulconer, who is termed out. District 2, of course, covers Ocean Beach, the Peninsula and new areas of Clairemont.

San Diego City Co. district 2 newZapf, a conservative Republican, currently represents District 6, as she lives in Bay Ho. But new district boundaries approved 2 years ago by the Redistricting Commission now place her residence in District 2.

Read the full article → 7 comments

Labor Bashing and Lincoln Club Love : the Last Refuge of Losers and Scoundrels in San Diego Democratic Politics

April 29, 2013 by Jim Miller
Thumbnail image for Labor Bashing and Lincoln Club Love : the Last Refuge of Losers and Scoundrels in San Diego Democratic Politics

Local Races in Assembly District 80 and City Council District 4

By Jim Miller

Before I devote the month of May to the San Diego Free Press’s upcoming focus on my Golden Hill neighborhood, recent events compel me to do one last column on the special elections in Assembly District 80 and City Council District 4.

The 80th California Assembly District: Lorena Gonzalez vs Steve Castaneda

In the race to replace Ben Hueso in the 80th it shouldn’t be shocking that Lorena Gonzalez’s opponent has attacked her for being a “union boss” except for the fact that that charge was hurled at her not from a Republican but from fellow Democrat, Steve Castaneda. Indeed, Mr. Castaneda, who would surely have taken labor’s endorsement if offered, was far too quick to turn to cartoon like right-wing anti-union stereotypes. This should tell us all we need to know about this variety of Democrat.

Read the full article → 4 comments

Congressman Scott Peters to Hold Town-Hall Meet at Ocean Beach Masonic Hall Apr 27th

April 25, 2013 by Staff
Thumbnail image for Congressman Scott Peters to Hold Town-Hall Meet at Ocean Beach Masonic Hall Apr 27th

Rep. Peters Continues His ‘Congress on Your Corner’ Series of Town-Hall Type Meet-ups

Congressman Scott Peters will hold this month’s ‘Congress on Your Corner’ from 10:30 a.m. to noon, on April 27, at the Masonic Hall, 1711 Sunset Cliffs Blvd in Ocean Beach.

Read the full article → 0 comments

So, these are the fools who voted against background checks …

April 18, 2013 by Source
Thumbnail image for So, these are the fools who voted against background checks …
Read the full article → 2 comments

Five Stages of Republican Grief (A Tribute to the U-T’s Steve Breen)

April 11, 2013 by Annie Lane
Thumbnail image for Five Stages of Republican Grief (A Tribute to the U-T’s Steve Breen)

By Annie Lane / San Diego Free Press

Last week I came across a Steve Breen cartoon in the San Diego Union-Tribune entitled “Mapping Bob Filner’s Brain” (see left). I had quite the guffaw. I mean, if guffaws were redefined to be humorless, silent events that’s what it was.

I find it interesting that, given Breen’s skill and Pulitzer Prize history, the brain he chose to draw was so boorishly simple. Don’t worry, I get it — it’s intended to represent the supposedly simple mind of our union-sympathizing, anti-hotelier mayor.

Read the full article → 6 comments

Definitely Not Business As Usual at City Hall With Mayor Filner

April 11, 2013 by Andy Cohen

Bob-FilnerFilner commited to changing the culture of city government

By Andy Cohen / San Diego Free Press

Last spring, then mayoral candidate Bob Filner promised anyone who would listen that should he be elected Mayor of San Diego after 20 years in Congress, business as usual would no longer be tolerated by his office. The “Downtown Special Interests,” he said, had controlled San Diego for too long, and it was time to put it to an end.

Read the full article → 1 comment

Help Bob Filner Stand Up to Business as Usual: Vote for Myrtle Cole in District 4

March 25, 2013 by Jim Miller
Thumbnail image for Help Bob Filner Stand Up to Business as Usual: Vote for Myrtle Cole in District 4

Tomorrow is Election Day in District 4, and it matters.  While this City Council race has garnered very little attention in San Diego as a whole and will certainly be a low turnout affair, the stakes are actually quite high.  Indeed, the direction of the city is on the line.

As Doug Porter noted last week, outside money has been pouring into District 4 attacking Myrtle Cole. Why?  Because Cole is the only candidate who will stand firmly behind Bob Filner’s agenda and buck the powerful moneyed interests that are bent on subverting the mayor.

Who’s behind the attacks?  San Diego County Voters for Progress and Reform, a shadowy group that has been funded by the usual suspects: developers, downtown business groups, and the Lincoln Club.  Those same folks are backing Cole’s opponent, Barry Pollard, and even fellow progressive Dwayne Crenshaw has taken money from Robert Gleason of Atlas Hotels (and a key figure in the TMD struggle against Filner) as well as Rural/Metro Corporation whose contract with San Diego for paramedic services will soon come up for renewal.  In addition to this, sources close to the campaign tell me that Cole is the only candidate that has not met with the Lincoln Club, which should tell you all you need to know.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Meet the Candidates: The District 4 City Council Special Election

March 18, 2013 by Doug Porter

This ‘meaningless’ election could change the face of San Diego politics and community development for years to come.

Part One in this series on District 4 (here) presented (an all-too-small) slice of the history of the area with a general overview of the present-day political situation. We also broke the story about the GOP-type dirty tricks campaign going on in District 4.

Here's a copy of the faux "City" mailing that's going out attacking Myrtle Cole.
Here’s a copy of the faux “City” mailing that’s going out attacking Myrtle Cole.

There are nine, count ‘em, nine candidates running for the City Council seat vacated by Tony Young at the end of 2012. A candidate must get more than 50% of the vote to win, and by all accounts that isn’t going to happen on March 26th. So there’ll be a run-off. The trick here will be picking the top two candidates.

Given that this ‘special election’ isn’t going to be ‘special’ enough to drive much of a voter turnout, any candidate could end up in the running. (We’ll tell you our predictions and predications in Part 3 of this series.)

Read the full article → 0 comments

Dirty Tricks Fly in San Diego’s District 4 City Council Special Election

March 17, 2013 by Doug Porter

Part One of a three part series: Setting the Scene

There’s a special election coming up in San Diego on March 26th to pick a City Council person to represent the residents of District 4. Ho-Hum. Expect low voter turnout. Nobody cares, right?

Somebody cares. Somebody cares enough to send out smear mailers from a shadowy group trying to discredit progressive candidate Myrtle Cole. It’s getting nasty out there.
smear mailer

Voters in the 4th District are getting mail from a group called ‘San Diego County Voters for Progress and Reform’. Last they were heard of was last fall when they funneled $25,000 from California Real Estate Independent Expenditure Committee of Los Angeles in support of the failed city council candidacy of Republican Ray Ellis.

The mailers have the City of San Diego official seal at the top of the page and on the front of envelope. In bold type with a bright red background they say “Urgent City Message to Residents… Open Immediately”.

Read the full article → 0 comments

Why Mayor Filner is Right to Stand Up to the Real Bullies

February 25, 2013 by Jim Miller

What Filner is doing here is important and historic: he is standing up to the entitled private interests who have run San Diego for its entire history.

political-puppetsAs Doug Porter reported here at the San Diego Free Press last week, Mayor Bob Filner is now engaged in an intense struggle with City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, big hoteliers, and the UT-San Diego because he has refused to sign off on the sweetheart deal negotiated by his predecessor whose legacy is quickly evaporating as you read this. Specifically, Filner wants legal protections for the city if the dubious deal goes to court, a shorter tourism marketing agreement, a cut of hotel fees for city services, and a living wage for hotel employees.

Read the full article → 7 comments

A History of Community Planning in Ocean Beach

February 21, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for A History of Community Planning in Ocean Beach

Editor: Here is a series of articles about the history of community planning in Ocean Beach going back to the Sixties and Seventies. It is not a complete history, but does offer up an early history of the OB Planning Board, the Ocean Beach Precise Plan, the planning crisis that faced the community in the early 1970s, and OB’s response – which by the middle of that decade – made California history.

The Battle Over the Ocean Beach Precise Plan- how urban planning became a democratic process and how OB was saved (here)

  • an introduction to the story about OB’s historic battle over the Precise Plan and about the fight to make urban planning a democratic process – which in the end directly saved Ocean Beach from over-development, enabling it to be the quaint village it is today.
Read the full article → 2 comments

Big Push for OB’s Participation in Next Planning Board Election in March

January 22, 2013 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for Big Push for OB’s Participation in Next Planning Board Election in March

That venerable institution of Ocean Beach that’s been around since the mid-1970′s – the Ocean Beach Planning Board – is holding its annual elections in March. But this year there is a difference in the way the Board is approaching voting and in what will be on the ballot. The election is on March 12th.

Read the full article → 8 comments

ALEC – Centralized Conservative Legislative Clearinghouse

December 10, 2012 by Source
Thumbnail image for ALEC – Centralized Conservative Legislative Clearinghouse

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

Why hire individual lobbyists and send them out in search of Congressmen when you can set up a lobbying clearinghouse and have them come to you?

ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, does just that. Funded by the likes of the Koch brothers, Exxon Mobil and PhRMA, a trade association for the pharmaceutical industry, legislators are paid to come to ALEC meetings, where they are wined, dined, and handed “model” legislation to make into law in their state. Through ALEC, corporations vote on “model” legislation alongside politicians behind closed doors.

Read the full article → 1 comment

Right-Wingers Whine About Oscar Omission for ’2016: Obama’s America’ — Here’s Four Simple Reasons Why It Got Snubbed

December 10, 2012 by Source

By Laura Gottesdiener / AlterNet / Dec. 5, 2012

The directors of the anti-Obama film hilariously claim the film faces discrimination.

Gerald Molan, the director of the extremely anti-Obama movie, 2016: Obama’s America , is mad that his and Dinesh D’Souza’s film wasn’t on the shortlist of documentaries nominated for an Academy Award.

“The action confirms my opinion that the bias against anything from a conservative point of view is dead on arrival in Hollywood circles,” he complained to the Hollywood Reporter.

Read the full article → 3 comments

Fun and Gloating at Bob Filner’s Inauguration

December 4, 2012 by Frank Gormlie
Thumbnail image for Fun and Gloating at Bob Filner’s Inauguration

When we awoke this morning – for the first time in history – Bob Filner is the mayor of San Diego, the eighth largest city in America. Yesterday, Monday, December 3rd, was his official inauguration. (Please see Annie Lane’s wonderful photo spread of the event.)

Representing progressive media in town, I accompanied my good friend Doug Porter to the Balboa Club in Balboa Park to be witnesses to this historic event. Filner is only the second Democratic mayor in the last forty years in this town – and decidedly it’s most liberal. And Filner wasn’t the only politician being inaugurated, as there was an entire shelf of them waiting around when we arrived at the Balboa Club – all those veterans who had been elected, selected and rejected by the voters were going to be there.

Read the full article → 10 comments

Today Monday – Dec 3rd: Celebrate the Inauguration of San Diego’s New Mayor, Bob Filner

December 3, 2012 by Staff

It’s been a full generation since San Diego’s working families had a friend in the mayor’s office, but now there’s reason to hope for something better. Please join us today – Monday, December 3rd – to celebrate the inauguration and election victory of our new Mayor!

Bob Filner will be celebrating with communities all across San Diego to thank everyone who helped support the campaign. Take a look at the day’s many events to find the one nearest you!

Reservations are not required for any of the events.

Read the full article → 1 comment

Steve Peace: U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy Needs to Resign

December 1, 2012 by Source
Thumbnail image for Steve Peace: U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy Needs to Resign

By Steve Peace / IVN / Nov. 26, 2012

The election is behind us. Political season is in brief recess and we enter a period in which governing takes precedent over politics.There is always some unfinished business leftover from the hysteria that seems inevitable in the waning weeks of campaigning.In San Diego, there is one glaring transgression left unaddressed. U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy has yet to do the right thing by way of her agency and the citizens she swore to serve.

Read the full article → 2 comments

Grover Norquist, Pink Unicorns and a Ray of Hope

November 29, 2012 by Doug Porter

As (largely untrue) reports fly through the blogosphere and interwebs about reports of movement between the Congressional political blocs on various aspects of the impending ‘fiscal cliff’ crisis, the man at the center of it all, Grover Norquist is certainly having his moments in the spotlight.

Steve Inskeep of NPR gave Norquist air time this morning to prattle on about how it really isn’t true that Republicans are lining up to jump ship and break their pledges not to raise taxes. He likened talk of accepting tax increases in exchange for spending cuts by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to believing in a pink unicorn.

Read the full article → 1 comment

San Diego Congressmen Get Campaign Contributions for Domestic Drone Support

November 28, 2012 by Doug Porter

Chances are you’ve never heard of the “drone caucus” in the US House of Representatives, officially known as the House Unmanned Systems Caucus. Yet they are considered among the most powerful groups on the Hill. And participating in the caucus is a sure way for Congressmen to enrich their campaign coffers.

A story in the San Francisco Chronicle says that members of the group have attracted nearly $8 million in drone-related contributions over the past eight years. Local Reps Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter have each received more than $200,000 from drone firms. General Atomics, maker of the ever popular Predator drone, was among the top three all-time campaign contributors to California Congressmen Brian Bilbray.

Read the full article → 1 comment

The Sun Peeking through the Clouds

November 27, 2012 by Ernie McCray

I’m still riding high as a result of the elections. It was so great seeing so many propositions that I like pass, so satisfying having the president remain where he is, so refreshing having a mayor who is a friend. I mean, hey, I’ve been voting since 1959 and this has been a real new experience for people of my voting kind.

I’m just basking in these wins because there have been propositions voted on in the Golden State in the past that have affected me personally. Like 187. When that became law I went from a school principal to “la migra,” which just wasn’t a fit for me – …

Read the full article → 2 comments

Labor Council Head Lorena Gonzalez: ‘San Diego Progressives Have a Lot to Be Thankful For’

November 16, 2012 by Source
Thumbnail image for Labor Council Head Lorena Gonzalez: ‘San Diego Progressives Have a Lot to Be Thankful For’

Passage of Prop 30, Defeat of Prop 32 and Bilbray, Filner and Roberts Victories All Are Cause to Celebrate

By Lorena Gonzalez

San Diego’s progressive community has a lot to be thankful for this November. We passed Proposition 30, defeated Proposition 32, took down Brian Bilbray and elected Bob Filner our next mayor! And for good measure, we elected Dave Roberts as the first Democrat and first fresh blood of any kind on the county Board of Supervisors in two decades.

Read the full article → 0 comments

OB Historical Society Celebrates 40th Anniversary of 30 Foot Height Limit Victory

November 14, 2012 by Staff
Thumbnail image for OB Historical Society Celebrates 40th Anniversary of 30 Foot Height Limit Victory

The Ocean Beach Historical Society Presents:

V.O.T.E.— Founders of the People’s 30 ft. Height Limit Initiative

40 Year ANNIVERSARY of the 30 Ft. Height Limit

Wonder what helps keep Ocean Beach a beach town verses Miami? Most people answer is “its activist’s community”. But equally important is the “30-foot Coastal Height Limit Law”, which is celebrating it’s 40th ANNIVERSARY of being voted in as a people’s initiative in 1972.

Read the full article → 2 comments

Post-Election Thoughts … What if the Blue States seceded from the Red States?

November 14, 2012 by Jack Hamlin
Thumbnail image for Post-Election Thoughts … What if the Blue States seceded from the Red States?

The election is over and the dust really has finally settled. By the way my candidate lost, but it isn’t easy being Green. The 47% and then some spoke up and now, maybe, just maybe, WE can get to work and do the good things we do well, fix the good things we use to do well, and set aside the bad stuff which has been gnawing at our insides for so long.

WE proved the Koch Brothers, et al. could not buy an election, and Karl Rove is as superfluous as a dead rat on the floor just waiting to be swept up and thrown out with the garbage. WE, with the help of Donald Trump and Ted Nugent, proved that just because you have money and a forum, does not preclude you from being as crazy as a three-dicked goat. WE proved that even FOX News has to concede something to the other side every once and while.

Read the full article → 6 comments

President Obama Received Large Percentages of the Ocean Beach Vote

November 14, 2012 by Staff

In a continuing analysis of the historic national election last week, the U-T San Diego has developed an inter-active electoral map.

This after-election pencil-pushing has uncovered President Obama’s best precincts – and they were in San Diego’s urban core: Golden Hill, Logan Heights, Barrio Logan … and Ocean Beach.

Read the full article → 0 comments

← Older Articles