OB Town Council Candidate Is Trumpian Anti-Masker, Supports Newsom Recall and Disparages People of Color

by on August 27, 2021 · 21 comments

in Ocean Beach

One of the candidates for the five open seats on the  OB Town Council Board of Directors is Jim Musgrove. Musgrove, a former president of the OBTC, was known then as an ardent support of one of the most right-wing politicos to ever walk across San Diego’s stage, Carl Demaio.

Yet, from a review of Musgrove’s facebook page, it is very apparent that Musgrove still harbors his extreme views. He clearly is a Trumpian anti-masker, supports the recall of Governor Newsom, and during the pandemic, he made fun of efforts to maintain public health. Worse, his facebook page carried images that disparaged people of color.

Jim Musgrove is not someone to be on the local town council of a liberal, tolerant community such as Ocean Beach.

Musgrove, moreover, deleted some of his worst posts, but comments from OBceans that criticized his racism and misogyny remained.

His facebook posts showed his disdain for Biden, other Democrats, the media, mail ballots, health experts and called attempts to have people wear masks during the pandemic as authoritarian and Nazi-like. And he posted images that suggested he was calling for revolution due to the Biden candidacy and COVID restrictions. Plus, he’s a big gun advocate.

See the following screen shots from Musgrove’s facebook page; most were grabbed today, August 27, 2021.

{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }

Jake Ryan Raigoza August 27, 2021 at 10:46 am

i love that this time there was a funnies section<3

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Reader August 27, 2021 at 10:50 am

Let the research and info roll out like this, please so we can learn more about who is who, more about the other more unknowns

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Bob Edwards August 27, 2021 at 11:06 am

Wow, what a jerk.

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Denine August 27, 2021 at 1:29 pm

I had no idea! Thank you so much for posting this as I was taking his experience into consideration.as a possible positive trait. Thank you OB Rag for helping us be informed about the candidates.

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retired botanist August 27, 2021 at 3:33 pm

Wait! Whaaat? This guy was a former President of OBTC? You’ve got to be kidding…

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Chris August 27, 2021 at 5:29 pm

I was surprised to find out Ashley Babbitt lived in OB. She moved to there from Lakeside. And there’s of course Matt Baker. In retrospect I’ve seen some pretty ugly rightwing incidents over the years. do though it’s one of the more progressive neighborhoods in SD, there’s always been a right leaning presence so thinking back it’s really not that surprising.

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Sam August 27, 2021 at 5:45 pm

This facebook page lists him as living in Lakeside, not 92107!

https://www.facebook.com/james.musgrove.50/about

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kh August 27, 2021 at 11:02 pm

That’s not him, you’re terrible at facebook.

Try here: https://www.facebook.com/jim.musgrove.3

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Sam August 27, 2021 at 6:52 pm

Scrolling through his facebook posts it looks like he fell down the QAnon rabbit hole a few weeks after the lock down started. Sad to see all these boomers running off the rails.

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Feffro August 27, 2021 at 8:13 pm

Interesting

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unwashedWalmartThong August 27, 2021 at 8:14 pm

dickhead

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melpomene August 28, 2021 at 9:53 am

I moved to OB in the early 2010s. I chose this community in large part because I wanted to be surrounded by like-minded progressive, liberal folks. I actually haven’t found that to be the case at all. Yes, we certainly exist here, but I have been surprised by the number of conservative OBceans. All that’s to say that while Jim Musgrove’s Facebook posts are deplorable and horrible and should *definitely* be called out, I think it’s inaccurate to imply he wouldn’t represent a large portion of OB who share his opinions. It’s disappointing. But those of us who fall on the progressive side (which I would venture to guess includes most OB Rag readers?) shouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking we share that viewpoint with all of OB. We may want to think of ourselves as being a liberal, tolerant community, but that doesn’t make it true. :(

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kh August 28, 2021 at 10:34 am

The image is from a gag gift on Amazon. It’s a reference to southern roadkill cooking. Here’s the real thing: https://youtu.be/JgFAzY8iQy8
Coon is short for raccoon and the word has plenty of legitimate usage. And it’s used as a racial epithet.

I care as little about Jim’s opinion on masks and government overreach as I care about yours. Some of those posts (shares) are offensive. It’s also clear to me he has deep roots in the community and a twisted sense of humor. Don’t take mine or Frank’s word for it, decide for yourself: https://www.facebook.com/jim.musgrove.3

I’ll have to weigh all that against the newbies that barely moved here and don’t know a thing about OB, and have shared little or nothing about their character.. Also anyone that thinks OB is some liberal bastion needs to get out more. We have a lot of diverse backgrounds here. Unfortunately some only appreciate diversity in skin tone, and not diversity of thought.

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Chris August 28, 2021 at 11:15 am

I’ve been hanging out and spending time in OB since the mid 80s. I’ve been living in Hillcrest since 2005. OB IS for the most part a very liberal progressive community but I think Hillcrest and the immediate surrounding areas are more so. I still love to spend time in OB but over the years I’ve seen some ugly incidents that would surprise most people. A couple drunken bar fights at Cheswicks and the Tilted Stick over heated political arguments. Well not so much fights as actual assault.

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melpomene August 28, 2021 at 6:46 pm

A point of clarification here – while I was indeed surprised by the number of conservatives I’ve encountered here based on OB’s reputation, I wasn’t disappointed by the fact that conservatives exist in this community. I HAVE, however, been disappointed by the racism and other intolerance I’ve observed in this community. I think my prior comment could be read as conflating racism/intolerance with conservatism and that was wrong of me. I should have been more clear.

My point, though, was about the assumption that OB is a liberal, tolerant community. As a progressive myself, I think it’s important for progressive advocates and activists to be clear-eyed about where things stand so we can advocate most effectively. It’s not necessarily 100% pertinent to the OBTC election but more of a general comment about OB.

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Frank Gormlie August 29, 2021 at 7:44 pm

Just for the record: OB voted overwhelmingly for Clinton; OB is one of the bluest communities in San Diego; OB staged one of the first demonstrations in support of trump’s impeachment; voted overwhelmingly for gay rights, marijuana legislation and just about every progressive initiative that’s come down the pike. OB was one of the city’s staging grounds for two anti-war movements: Vietnam and Iraq.

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melpomene August 29, 2021 at 8:49 pm

Thanks, Frank. Those are all good points. I wonder from your perspective, do you feel like there has been a shift in the community in the past decade or so? I mean, is it different from the Clinton era and pre-Clinton (Vietnam, etc.) in terms of political makeup? I know OB always goes blue, but you only need 51% for that to happen… I also feel like there’s an issue of relativity at play. I’ve lived in very progressive cities and very conservative towns. I was expecting the OB experience to be a lot more like the former than I’ve found it to be. It’s not like the latter, either, but there’s just a lot more of that conservative element than I expected. But I do recognize that compared to San Diego as a whole, OB is far more progressive leaning than the city overall. Would be interested in your thoughts about all of that and the question of whether things are different now than they were before my time.

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kh August 28, 2021 at 10:36 am

Perhaps we need an inquisition on everyone else’s political views before deciding who to vote on.

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retired botanist August 28, 2021 at 5:29 pm

Hmm, its one thing to have a different, or perhaps more conservative, point of view. its another thing, whether conservative or liberal, to not be collaborative. That seems to be the criteria question here. Does this individual strike one as someone who is willing and receptive to collaboration within a diverse community?

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kh August 28, 2021 at 6:21 pm

I don’t know the answer to that question but he does seem to have support among longtime OBceans I trust. It would be nice if there were more candidates with roots in the community and without cringe-worthy profiles. But alas, this is where we’re at.

Perhaps certain OBTC directors should’ve considered all this before forcing out a valuable, seasoned, and collaborative team member, and alienating other board members in the process.

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sealintheSelkirks August 29, 2021 at 11:07 pm

San Diego (in general) has always been a bastion of conservative thinking (and voting) because it’s been nothing more than a giant military base surrounded by military retirees and those that feed on lucrative federal contracts as ‘defense’ industries with many many people employed by them. People don’t vote against their paychecks or against their retirement benefits for that matter no matter how criminal the behavior or how awash in corruption it is.

This is a city that has always fit well in Pres. Eisenhower’s MIC in other words because it directly benefited/enriched a very conservative segment of the population. Three out of four of my grandfathers stayed here after being in wars (WW I & II) as did my father after Korea when he met my mom while demobilizing. OB and MB were definitely two alternate-thinking beach towns as I grew into adulthood but OB was the only one that had marches against Viet Nam. Middle and North Mission were far more ‘left thinking’ than South Mission in the 60s to mid-late 70s then it died. Now it’s nothing but a big STVR-filled sandbar… I still have hope that OB won’t get completely lost…
____

As for OBTC, what is happening may likely be exactly what these people are trying to do. It’s like the Newsom recall and realizing that noted right winger racist/Trump’s brain Steve Bannon’s(sp?) direct mentor is the Republican ahead of the pack who will be governor if the recall goes through and all he has to get is 18% of the vote…

Sure are a lot of stinky-ass shenanigans going on in this country. But what else is new, eh?

sealintheSelkirks

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