Far-Right Politicians Try to Muscle In on Citizens’ Revolt Over San Diego Housing Policies

Needless to say, but this summer witnessed a citizens’ revolt over San Diego housing policies, most noteworthy the showdown at the August 3 San Diego Planning Commission hearing on Senate Bill 10. (The Commission voted unanimously against the proposal and Mayor Gloria stated he was taking SB10 out of his housing package – although SB10 opponents won’t rest until it’s formally removed from the Housing Action Package.)

Yet, once the dust settled, one of San Diego’s most far-right politicians emerged to take credit for SB 10’s defeat. Enter Carl DeMaio. His team has since sent out an email to his followers which claimed:

We scored a huge win this week in our campaign to defend local control over housing decisions – but we still need your help to prevent a crime-infested welfare housing project from being placed in your neighborhood!

But anyone who followed this issue knows the “heavy lifting” — as they say — was done by the groups Neighbors For A Better San Diego and San Diegans For Responsible Growth, with help from neighborhood organizers throughout the city.

For instance, the Neighbors website and its links generated 2,000 emails to councilmembers and the mayor from San Diegans who oppose SB 10. Their volunteers delivered more than 1,000 “No on SB 10” yard signs across the city.

And key organizers of San Diegans for Responsible Growth from University City and Mission Hills mobilized hundreds at that very successful No on SB 10 rally outside Fashion Valley before the Planning Commission vote. Both groups helped organize the early May rallies across the city against the measure.

One organizer for Neighbors for a Better San Diego told me in an email that they’re angry that DeMaio is trying to take the credit for the SB10 defeat at the Planning Commission. All the rallies and pressure at the Planning Commission were done “without Carl DeMaio’s help, except perhaps for a mention or two on his radio show…”

He added:

But it’s irrefutable that Carl does not deserve credit for helping “angry voters rebel against these reckless efforts” to build “massive mega developments.” Even worse than his shameless and undeserved self-promotion is is effort to fundraise off the real work done by our all-volunteer, grass-roots effort.

And he does us all a terrible disservice by mischaracterizing high-density ADU projects and SB 10 as “welfare housing projects”, which they are not, and which only exposes us to inaccurate allegations that we want to oppose “integration”.

This is nothing new for DeMaio. He tried the same tactics during the fight against raising the height limit in the Midway area, Measure C. Then U-T columnist, Michael Smolens observed:

Carl DeMaio, the radio talk-show host and former San Diego City Council member, suddenly has become a leading opponent to Measure C. He has joined three community advocates in signing the ballot argument against lifting the 50-year-old height limit.

Some leaders of the No on C effort warily accept DeMaio’s involvement, while others working to defeat the measure are upset about the alignment. [Most notably, the OB Rag we have to add.]

DeMaio’s far-right credentials are very well-known, as he’s been around San Diego politics for 2 decades. During Trump’s presidency, DeMaio was a fervent supporter. And he still is. As late as August 23, 2023, DeMaio enthusiastically applauded what he saw as Trump’s blowout during a Tucker-Trump interview. DeMaio wrote on his Instagram:

We don’t need to wait for the cable ratings tomorrow. This was a blowout. Trump-Tucker CRUSHED the competition.

IF DeMaio is still a Trump supporter, then by osmosis, he’s an election-denier. His current group, Reform San Diego / California, is pushing for a voter ID law for the state. Carl stated on his site just recently:

“It is time to settle the debate over election integrity once and for all and implementing a Voter ID law is the best way to restore public trust and confidence in our elections.”

“The only people who don’t want a Voter ID law in California are our liberal politicians and their friends in the media.”

Your memory will serve you right if you remember that DeMaio was also a leader of the effort to recall Governor Newsom.

DeMaio is not the only far-right politician out there attempting to take credit for the city citizen revolt.

Amy Reichert. She just won the second position in the special election to fill Nathan Fletcher’s seat at the Board of Supervisors and goes up against Monica Montgomery Steppe in November.

Amy accused her Democrat opponents, Monica Montgomery-Steppe and Janessa Goldbeck of both having a “far-left ideology,” and that both were even more left than Fletcher.

Reichert did make opposition to SB 10 part of her “platform” in this latest election go-around for her. And she did attend the Fashion Valley protest. But if you read her Special Election campaign material, there was no mention of ReOpen San Diego.

During the height of the pandemic, ReOpen San Diego was a leading voice against shutdowns of businesses and schools, as well as masking and vaccine mandates even before vaccines and treatments were widely available. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 San Diegans have died of COVID, and no doubt there would have been more without those mandates, though the mandates undoubtedly came at a cost to those who were impacted.

Her group’s mantra:

• Every citizen and every family in San Diego County is entitled to make their own decisions about their personal health and wellbeing. (sic)
• The government does not have the authority to arbitrarily decide which businesses or livelihoods are essential or not.
• Lockdowns destroy lives.

Plainly then, Reichert is an anti-vaxxer and Covid-denier.

While much of the city and its citizens were trying to avoid COVID, Reichert was out there harassing the Board of Supervisors and leading rallies of some first-responders who refused to take vaccines. And for pushing police officers to get vaccinated, Reichert accused Mayor Gloria of purging people of faith.

During an interview with East County Magazine in October 2022, Reichert explained in a rambling response her group’s stance:

We had a nuanced stance… we knew COVID was real. But we also took the position that rather than shutting down 100% of society we should shift and protect the most vulnerable, the 10% in our society who is most hit by this… 80% of the people who died with COVID were obese. We know that the people most likely to pass away from COVID sadly in San Diego the average age was 76 years ago which is close to the average life span. We failed to protect the most vulnerable…

Certainly this was news to medical professionals that ” 80% of the people who died with COVID were obese.”

On the question of abortion during that same interview, Reichert claimed she was against Proposition 1 that passed in November 2022, which explicitly added abortion and contraception rights to the state constitution.

Let me explain to you why I’m against Proposition 1…because it doesn’t just protect abortion rights, it expands it….if Proposition 1 passes a baby would be eligible to be aborted the day before it’s born…if a child is about to be born, that child being taken out of it’s mother’s womb is viable and would survive…I am against Proposition 1 and going beyond what’s viable.

Reichert also called for the recall of Governor Newsom.

Many may have forgotten that Reichert first ran against Nathan Fletcher for that same seat – and during that campaign she was endorsed by Carl DeMaio and Reform San Diego, as well as other right-wing notables. During that campaign cycle she was endorsed by the local gun lobby as well as by a group called Equal Rights for All, run by a guy by the name of Ward Connerly.

Connerly has been around for a while. He was a University of California Regent (1993–2005) but is perhaps best known as an anti-affirmative action activist, founder and the chair of a national group that opposes racial and gender preferences, and the president of Californians for Equal Rights, a group active in the state of California with a similar mission.

He is considered to be the man behind California’s Proposition 209 prohibiting race- and gender-based preferences in state hiring, contracting and state university admissions, a program known as affirmative action.

Reichert did not disavow any of these endorsements.

So, between DeMaio and Reichert – we see a pattern. Extreme right-wing politicians attempting to veil themselves in more popular issues than their far-right politics and trying to take credit for the current upswell of citizen dissatisfaction with the city. And residents active in this grand effort need to take note of the wolves pacing around the campfires of dissent.

The above notes are part of our continuing efforts to keep track of local Trumpists and their acolytes in these days of peril for our frail democracy. Stay tuned.