Things must be tightening up in the District 2 race for City Council between Republican and incumbent Lorie Zapf and Democratic challenger Jen Campbell. Things are getting weird.
Check this out. Andrew Keatts over at Voice of San Diego posted on Halloween that Zapf’s campaign had announced late last week that she was going to hold a press conference to clear things up, to set the record straight about recent allegations and claims made by people who support her opponent regarding all those anti-gay comments she made years ago – and about the whooping it up she did along with her fellow Republicans the day Trump was inaugurated.
Within hours, Keatts maintains, Zapf’s campaign HQ sent out a correction – that, in fact, there wouldn’t be any presser at all in order to clear things up, no clean-up and no setting the record straight. What? Why – or why not?
The record doesn’t need straightening up. Apparently. Keatts says, “There was no mention of a record that needed to be straightened at all.”
And instead, the event was transformed into a rally, not a press conference – with appearances by a bevvy of Republicans; Faulconer, Councilman Mark Kersey and her favorite former police chief, Shelley Zimmerman (I wonder if Shelly’s still spouting all those fraudulent claims about crimes at marijuana dispensaries?)
So what happened? Did the Republican, pro-Trump, establishment get to Zapf?
Looks like Zapf was responding to all those campaign fliers and mail taking her to task for her anti-gay comments and Trumpian horseplay. The Voice:
Labor groups are filling voters’ mailboxes with ads about Zapf celebrating Trump’s inauguration with other Republicans in Rancho Santa Fe. Another alerts voters to anti-gay comments Zapf made in 2006, in which she said she wants to keep gay people out of public office and that she believes homosexuality is a sin. She later apologized.
Keatts surmises:
“… the campaign’s impulse to respond to those attacks reflects the state of panic on the right, as the possibility that Zapf could become the first City Council incumbent to lose since “House Party 2” was still in theaters gets more real.”
What’s remarkable is despite the rule in San Diego politics that incumbents always win in Council races, Zapf is running in a district that has about 10,000 more Democratic voters than Republicans. It’s a very blue district.
Zapf won her last two races, in part, because the Democratic Party put up fairly weak candidates, and this is not to disparage Howard Wayne nor Sara Boot, but politically speaking neither had deep ties to the actual neighborhoods of the district.
This time around, Zapf is running hard as a Democrat-type Republican – trying to distant herself from any national Trumpian taint.
The other news Keatts has for us is that Lorie – who criticizes Campbell for “outside money” – is on her way to spend $1.6 million to keep her seat. In contrast, Jen won’t be spending more than three-quarters of a million is she draws everything out of the bank. Here’s the Voice:
Yet the stalwarts of local Republican politics are spending an awful lot of money on someone they insist is practically a Democrat.
If they spend everything on hand as of Wednesday morning, Zapf’s campaign and two independent groups supporting her – one by the Lincoln Club, the other by the Lincoln Club and Chamber of Commerce – will have spent more than $1.6 million on the District 2 race.
Campbell’s campaign and an independent committee sponsored by local construction unions that supports her, meanwhile, could spend nearly $737,000 if they empty their coffers by Election Day.
In all, Keatts adds, $2.4 million will be spent on District 2 voters with about 70 percent of that spending “to protect Zapf.”
Keatts acknowledges Campbell’s labor support and Zapf’s scare tactics – ‘if Campbell wins, the unions will control the council’.
What a typical Republican reaction.
Yet, Lorie has other bad news.
San Diego’s LGBTQ community has announced their opposition to her. In a just released press statement, titled, “LGBTQ Community Opposes Lorie Zapf for her Shameful Comments and Extreme Views”, it states:
The LGBTQ community stands united against the hateful comments made by Lorie Zapf, …. Zapf has made discriminatory statements about homosexuality, including: “I absolutely want to keep Homosexuals out of public office…Not be allowed to influence our schools” wrote Zapf in an email released to the press. Additionally, Zapf stated “I do believe homosexuality is a sin.”
Significantly, the statement continues:
While the LGBTQ community has voiced their concerns about her hateful comments, there many others issues that create doubt on Councilwoman Lorie Zapf positions and values. “Lorie’s stance on building Trump’s border wall, her support of assault weapons, and her views regarding LGBTQ equality shows she is unfit to lead San Diego into the future …”
And surprise, surprise, Gretchen Newsom, was also quoted in that statement:
President Emeritus, Ocean Beach Town Council and Committee Member of the ‘San Diegans Against Hate in Opposition to Lorie Zapf’ Independent Expenditure Campaign, said
“Voters are abandoning incumbent Republican Lorie Zapf as they learn of her Trump-esque bigotry, horrible remarks about our LGBTQ community, and bad job performance. District 2 voters should vote for Dr. Jen Campbell for City Council – Dr. Jen has positive prescriptions to address our homelessness crisis, affordable housing shortage, and crumbling community infrastructure.”
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