Bob Filner Silences the Doubters

Photo by Annie Lane

After a slow start to his mayoral campaign, Filner finishes the primary season in a previously unthinkably strong position to become San Diego’s next mayor.

Bob Filner survived.  Not only did he survive, but he pretty much thrived.  It was widely expected that UT-San Diego darling Carl DeMaio would cruise through to the November general election for Mayor of San Diego, but it was very much in doubt right up until the polls closed and the votes began to be tallied who his challenger would be, and how close the margin between that challenger and DeMaio would be.

Turns out that the guy who ran the quietest campaign of the four major candidates did pretty darn well, thank you very much.  Bob Filner, the guy with less funding than you’d expect from a major candidate and the smallest amount of mass media exposure, ended up finishing second to the big money favorite, DeMaio.  That fact in and of itself may not be so surprising, since Filner has a good amount of name recognition after his 20 years in Congress representing San Diego’s 51^st District (Southern San Diego County and Imperial County), his years on the San Diego School Board, and his years as a member of the San Diego City Council.

What is very surprising is how tight the margin is between DeMaio and Filner as the final votes are tallied at the County Registrar of Voters.  As of the latest updated figures, Filner stood a mere 1.47 percentage points behind DeMaio in the primary voting, which is shocking considering the amount of paid and free media DeMaio was able to saturate the San Diego airwaves with.

Money was widely expected to be the name of the game in this election, as in he who had the most of it would fare the best.  That was at least half true.  But Filner defied the odds in finishing second in the primary election, while finishing a distant third in the money race (District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis finished fourth).

According to the City of San Diego Ethics Commission, Carl DeMaio led the money race—by a lot—with a grand total of $2,381,777.57 in contributions to his campaign and outside expenditures on his behalf.  It should also be noted that DeMaio put in $675,631.71 of his own money into the campaign.

Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher finished second in the money race, with $1,877,700.79 in contributions and expenditures on his behalf.

Bob Filner?  He finished the primary season with a “mere” $950,346.38 raised and spent on his behalf.  (Dumanis finished with $801,855 raised and spent.)

For the rest of this story, please go to the San Diego Free Press.