Richard Bailey, one of the newest candidates to have thrown their hat into the ring for the District 2 City Council race, has now changed his party affiliation from Republican to No Party Preference.
Bailey has asked for a retraction from the Rag, but there is nothing to retract. At the time the Rag viewed a Registrar of Voters document that displayed his party registration, it was still “Republican.” That was at 2:22 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 20. Bailey then changed his party to NPP by 10:28 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21. We can only surmise it took some time for the Registrar to make the change.
Anyhow, we wish to congratulate Bailey on changing his party registration. We are happy that he has quit the Republican Party, for it truly has become the Party of Trump, and that he has reached some clarity.
That clarity also is assuredly based on the understanding that Democrats out-number Republicans in District 2 by 2 to 1.
Excellent investigative journalism Frank!
And VOSD is running an interview with Mr Bailey where he completely ducks the Trump question.
https://voiceofsandiego.org/2026/02/23/richard-bailey-the-latest-to-leave-gop-a-qa/
Notice in his rebuttal comment to your first article he did not deny his association with extremist church or Amy Reichart either
sarcasm or character assassination? mouse clicks are great journalism I guess.
Genuine compliment actually. After the Rag published the voter registration the candidate changed it the next day. Without journalists asking tough questions people expect you to believe any old drivel
Yeah, ok, if you believe it.
A definition of “dodge” from the Britannica Dictionary: “to get away from or avoid (someone or something) in a skillful or dishonest way, e.g., ‘She dodged [=evaded] the question by changing the subject.'” Our city government has been left in ruins by politicians who never answer simple questions with straight answers. That should be a litmus test going forward.
His comment when asked to disclose his position on trump — “I think that voters want to talk about San Diego” — is exactly what I expected to hear from someone who supports trump. trump supporters need to be expelled from public office at EVERY level, from school board to US Senate and everywhere in between. That’s how we restore democracy.
NO to carpetbagger trump supporters.
You could report the facts. Clearly, you’re already trying to smear this candidate so we can keep going down the toilet with another Far Left loser in office. You people never learn.
The losers you are referring to are Democratic Centrists, pro-Corporate Real Estate Monopolists that have NOTHING to do with the “Far Left” nor possess any REAL Progressive values. Ken, can you please explain how is it not unprofessional to inaccurately use the term “far left Loser”?
Carpetbagger is, as carpetbagger does. A real “Independent” is independent. Not to be confused with a duplicitous registered Republican seeking party backing $$ nor a registered Democrat seeking party backing $$ for that matter, all the while talking out the side of his mouth falsely his claiming wholly fabricated Independence from either party.
Mister, no one said anything about a far-left loser. The facts were reported. Produce alternative facts.
OK, here are two facts: Richard Bailey set up an anonymous website to scrape names and email addresses for his campaign, disguised as a “petition” on the trash fees, And before he “announced” his candidacy for D2, Richard Bailey sent out a campaign mailer with his big ol’ picture on it introducing himself to D2 voters without the required paid-for text. Both of these should result in fines under the state FPPC. Just another dishonest MAGA Republican.
No, I knew my info was being sent to Bailey for his petition. Bailey has sent nothing to me outside of a petition update. So you are suspect in your accusations.
How did you “know” that? Through gossip on social media, or because it was disclosed on the website?
How did you know it wasn’t? You think gossip affected a personal decision? You think social media affected a personal decision? You think disclosure affected a personal decision? Um, duh!
You’re not paying attention, Chris Schulz. Bailey set up a website to scrape voter info for his future campaign without identifying it as such. The website didn’t say who was paying for it as the FPPC requires. Yet you claim you somehow knew this anyway. I asked how you knew your information was going to Bailey, which you still haven’t answered.
TG fits no one’s definition of far left, not even yours Ken what why make such a comment?
This guy is being a weasel. I wouldn’t trust him.
And again, for the third time, it was a Trump MAGA supporter with a shotgun and a can of gasoline caught creeping into the DJT Pink Florida Palace and was shot to death by Secret Service and a Florida cop.
This is actual proof of what ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ actually is and it ISN’T democrats; it’s the damned Fascists getting their faces eaten by Leopards…. Funny that, so far, all three MAGATS assassins were completely incompetent. But then they have a bunch of examples to follow, don’t they?
https://www.newsweek.com/austin-tucker-martin-killed-secret-service-donald-trump-11563296
There were a lot of people who identified as ‘conservative” prior to Trump in San Diego. TDS is now trying to discount that half of the country regardless of their opinion of him. The City and County Democrats now in full control have managed the worst leadership of this region to date. Politics have changed on both sides for the worst so maybe we should pay attention to new ideas. Good govenrence is usually based in a balance of power that leads to spirited debates and little action.
2 things JD: more like a third of the country, not close to half; and you either are a newcomer to SD or have a short memory, but there was a time not too long ago when the GOP controlled both the city council and the Board of Sups. A lot of the problems the city and county now have stem from that era. Good ideas are great, but they have to be accompanied by a high level of transparency. And where one stands in relation to the Trump regime is significant, telling and cannot be glossed over by generalizations to some greater stance.
A lot of the problems the city and county now have stem from that era.
Yeah, like a bunch of Dems voted in doing nothing better.
Agreed, Frank. It was all Republican all the time as I grew up. We lived surrounded by giant military bases and never-ending propaganda that had HUGE impacts on the politics that played out. For a city that made its fortune from the military-industrial complex that infested this city with government contract money and politicians that knew who and where their paychecks came from, what could we really expect? Hell, I was a janitor at General Atomics in La Jolla in 1980! Did that make me complicit?? I worked for the company that would go on to invent the murderous Predator Drones by cleaning the offices of those that worked inventing even more deadly weapons to kill others with.
The politicians knew which side of their bread was buttered which meant that San Diego was never exactly the best field to plant big dreams of a better world, ya know?
JD: to be perfectly honest, the few dems that showed up in politics were mostly Republican-lite because the mindset was not conducive to getting elected if you weren’t. This city was part of the Empire. These pols were what we called Neo-Liberal Dems, like both Bill Clinton in the 1990s and Barack Obama in 2008 who were perfect examples of that rightwing influence.
I don’t consider the current mayor (or any others back in time) to have ever been a real Democrat, just various shades of gray GOPers in drag. Their policies are so rooted in right-wing politics that, in my opinion, they just don’t qualify.
sealintheSelkirks