There’s Always a Bad Smell Downwind of Carl DeMaio

Carl DeMaio in recent campaign ad.

Lori Zapf – the Future City Councilwoman for OB – Is Portrayed as Simply Another Republican in DeMaio Ad

By Doug Porter

Voters in the 52nd Congressional District come November will get to make their choice between the former City Councilman and incumbent Democrat Scott Peters. Today I’ll argue that this choice is more than ideological; it’s a question of character.

What differentiates DeMaio in my mind from others who I disagree with (including Congressman Peters from time to time) is the way he does business. A couple of recent examples serve to illustrate my point. (And I’ll remind you of some past incidents that bolster my contention.)

Having lost out on an endorsement from the US Chamber of Commerce last week, candidate DeMaio sought to change the subject by rolling out what he insisted was a series of women-friendly proposals.

This was odd, considering his previous stances on what he calls “social issues.” In the 2012 mayoral contest, DeMaio twice refused to fill out questionnaires sent to him by Planned Parenthood.

His core proposal, ripped from the pages of Reason.com and in vogue with other Republican candidates seeking traction in close contests, is to promote the concept of over-the-counter birth control pills. It’s a ‘common sense’ proposal (there is no medical reason why they shouldn’t be available OTC) with a not-so-obvious consequence.

Kelly Davis at CityBeat put this into perspective:

Here’s the thing: A Republican embracing over-the-counter (OTC) birth control isn’t new. It kind of becamea trend this week, actually, a synchronized—and hence, disingenuous—appeal to women voters by Republicans in tight races.

Why is OTC birth control not a good thing? Right now, under the Affordable Care Act, there’s no co-pay for prescription birth control. Insurance generally doesn’t cover over-the-counter medication, and paying out-of-pocket for birth control could run a woman $600 a year. Not to mention the fact that this would give employers a reason to cut coverage for other birth-control options (IUDs, Depo-Provera) from employee insurance plans.

Yesterday the The American Congress of Obstetricians denounced candidates or election officials who call for making birth control available over-the-counter as a “political tool.”

From Talking Points Memo:

In the statement, ACOG president John C. Jennings stressed that the organization supports making oral contraceptives available over-the-counter and that this kind of access should be part of a broader increase of “affordable, reliable access for American women to the contraceptives they need.”

“We feel strongly, however, that OTC access to contraceptives should be part of a broader dialogue about improving women’s health care, preventing unintended pregnancies, and increasing use of contraception, including long-acting reversible contraception (LARC). Over the counter access should not be used as a political tool by candidates or by elected officials.”

As you’ll see, Carl DeMaio’s political technique involves plausible deniability. If this issue breaks bad for him, it will soon be decreed to be somebody else’s fault.

Lori Who?

YouTube image, via Voice of San Diego

Over at Voice of San Diego Andy Keatts points out a deceptive portion of Carl DeMaio’s recently released TV ad.

Carl DeMaio’s new campaign ad features an endorsement from a local politician recently re-elected overwhelmingly, and in a district overlapping the one he’s running to represent.

Oddly, the ad goes out of its way to make her seem like just another resident who thinks he’d be a good congressman.

Councilwoman Lorie Zapf, a Republican just re-elected to her second term in the coastal district that sits entirely within the 52nd Congressional District that DeMaio’s running to represent, is identified in the ad simply as “Lorie – Republican.”

By itself, maybe this isn’t such a big deal. But let’s put it into context.

Small Things Add Up

There was the story about his plagiarizing a National Journal report on double-dipping pensions earlier this year (and then throwing campaign staff under the bus after promising not to). The only significant change from the original document was the inclusion of his opponent, who long ago donated that income to the San Diego Public Library and was very public about it.

Then there’s the trashing of his offices just prior to the June primary (which now appears to have been an inside job).

Remember this bit of hysteria (via National Review)?:

“They destroyed everything — they wiped us out entirely,” DeMaio, a libertarian Republican who served a term on San Diego’s city council, told Fox News on Friday. “It was designed to silence the campaign very clearly.”

Doesn’t it strike you as a little odd that DeMaio’s staffers are the primary suspects? And why would staffers in a political campaign commit such an act?

From UT-San Diego:

Two former staffers may be the ones responsible for a burglary at GOP congressional candidate Carl DeMaio’s Mira Mesa campaign headquarters on the eve of the June 3 primary election, a San Diego Police Department spokesman said Friday.

Lt. Kevin Mayer said police have concluded that a burglary did occur at the office late in the evening of May 27 or in the early morning hours of May 28. Several thousand dollars of hardware was damaged or destroyed, including computers, telephones, a copy machine and an Internet router and cable modem.

Mayer said the DeMaio campaign identified two former staff members as potential suspects early on in the investigation.

And if those recent stories aren’t enough, check out City Beat’s Carl DeMaio A to Z, published back in the 2012 Mayoral campaign. From having staffers re-write his Wikipedia biography, to telling voters the streets of San Diego would get repaired faster (how’s that working out for you?) if they voted for Proposition A, it’s all there.

DeMaio’s Shushing Librarian Lie

Since I’m Carl DeMaio’s case this morning, I want to give due attention to a bit of truth from SDFP’s own Anna Daniels, left as a comment recently:

Carl DeMaio, the misogynist who would be mayor, is going after the women’s vote? He just recently was playing “aint it awful” by reviving the shushing librarianwho has a larger pension than a four star general.

DeMaio couldn’t be bothered with the facts–the highest city pension recipient is a male assistant attorney who happens to receive $72K/yr more than the shushing librarian. But what DeMaio lacks in truthfulness he more than makes up for in misogynist as well as his usual anti-public worker dog whistles.

The shushing librarian is crafted to bring to mind the library lady who reads books to your pre-schoolers, and about whom you were warmly inclined until DeMaio told you she’s going to bring down a pension that is higher than a 4 star general. (Not true) And the shushing librarian also brings to mind the woman who thinks she’s queen or something and can tell you to shut up in the library. You don’t like that, do you? As a hard working tax payer, you paid for that library and her salary. Doesn’t it make you mad?

What DeMaio doesn’t tell you of course, is that the “shushing librarian” was actually the head of a city department, responsible for a $37 M annual budget, the operation of a 34 branch system and the old central library as well as ongoing capital projects and oversight of the new main library construction.

By choosing a professional woman with decades of experience and substantive responsibilities as his poster child for city pension excesses, DeMaio reveals his nasty little misogynist id.

DeMaio doesn’t agree with women receiving equal pay for equal work. He doesn’t value certain kinds of work that women do– he didn’t want salary increases associated with a masters in library science (MLS), which is required to be a Librarian, to count toward pensionable base pay.

Women voters out there might want to keep this in mind.

( Disclaimer: I worked for 26 years at the information desk of the Central Library downtown. Now retired, my city pension is significantly less that a 4 star admiral’s. Shhhhhhh!)

While none of these shenanigans are likely to ever land Carl DeMaio in the hoosegow, they do have a certain odor about them.

This is an excerpt from Doug Porter’s daily column over at San Diego Free Press, our online media partner.