By Mat Wahlstrom
It’s astonishing, the extent to which political norms and the rule of law have been perverted by an elected official who imagines himself a king and has a cabal of cronies and an entire political party enabling his madness.
There’s no level of government or public policy where he won’t intrude for personal gain, no grievance too petty to express, no punishment too harsh for those who oppose him. Any engagement with him that is less than fawning is met with insult (if not also litigious and/or paramilitary measures).
No one is allowed to tell him “No.”
But while a majority of Americans disapprove of the current federal regime for these reasons, what is interesting is how long it has taken people in San Diego to recognize a variant of this
same derangement in our “strong-arm mayor” form of government and his neoliberal party machine.
While I am certain that there are those at this point thinking this comparison is hyperbole, I contend that any difference in lawlessness is one of degree not of kind.
The rumblings were abundant in 2024. Todd Gloria’s ‘irrational exuberance’ in going on a hiring spree to fund a redundant layer of YIMBY-identifying city staffers as his personal enforcers finally ran into the iceberg of budget reality. Middle-manager positions swelled from 70 in 2011 to 393 today; and the personal cost of city services to individual San Diegans increased by 29% -or $346 more per year.
Protracted negotiations with the City Council on the 2025 budget that year included at least a token reduction of six positions in mayoral and other staff as a requirement. Although the
mayor’s veto was overridden and the cuts were made mandatory, Todd Gloria simply refused to remove anyone. (And this year, there was no comparable City Council effort to make any staffing cuts at all. Lesson learned!)
Gloria bet it would all sort itself — with treads greased from bait-and-switch trash fees — when San Diego voters went to the polls last November and approved the Measure E tax increase. It would have doubled the existing percentage of municipal sales tax revenue collected going into the General Fund and hand him a blank check. When he lost at the ballot box, he acted out less as a leader than as a spurned mafia don.
In January — for the first time since it was established over a century ago and in arguable violation of the City Charter — he pushed through paid parking in Balboa Park.
After interminable claims on the people’s business, the needless pain inflicted on Balboa Park institutions and the public will end — but not until after December Nights this year; and the ‘compromise’ trash fee rates all start at almost 40% baseline higher than what was sold to voters.
Which is what makes his closing of half of the Mission Beach restrooms at the height of the summer crowds — and rebuffing the offers of freed public monies to reopen them — more than
a little bitchy. He didn’t get what he wanted; and so we got a hissy fit that wasn’t a segment on CNN but definitely left a reel in Odorama.
And speaking of stinky, we also have the mayor’s refusal to accept ‘no’ on his crooked Midway Rising scheme to give a free hand over public land to his single largest campaign contributor.
After finally being shut down by the California Supreme Court, Gloria activated his network of other developer-beholden politicos to carry his water in the Leg.
His first effort was to get Senator Akila Weber Pierson to sponsor SB 958, which apparently he wrote. (The senator has refused to answer questions from the public or the press about Gloria’s involvement in this bill, other than to say ‘it is not a Midway Rising bill’. Remember the high hopes voters had for her?)
Allegedly written to specifically exempt Midway Rising from a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review that the courts determined was improper if not also shabbily cynical, it would also “prohibit the environmental impacts that are associated with increased building height alone from being considered significant impacts on the environment”; on all statewide projects going forward — with few exceptions.
As the legislative session drew to a close, Gloria worried that SB 958 might be a bridge too far for even the current Dem supermajority, so he had State Senators Steve Padilla and Chris Ward “gut and amend” an unrelated bill, SB 344, to pretend that the Midway scheme “has fully satisfied all CEQA requirements”. This is arguably with the intent of shielding the developers and the city from future lawsuits related to CEQA, such as from inadequate planning for tidal flooding, soil subsidence or seismic liquefaction.
Even though it was ruled that no CEQA analysis had been adequately performed on the Midway Rising project — and that the 2018 community plan update never considered any structures above the 30-foot coastal height limit — Gloria continues to insist that community plan update’s CEQA-required environmental impact report remains “adequate” for his Midway scheme.
This whole misadventure smacks of Gloria’s 2022 runaround purchase of 101 Ash to prevent his being subpoenaed about his role in its original 2016 rent-to-own asbestos fiasco, which has put taxpayers on the hook for another $86 million and the city’s assumption of developer liability in a similarly shifty real estate deal.
Again, it’s a difference of degree not of kind. Corruption is corruption. It’s the same pattern of making outrageous claims to attempt some illegal or extralegal power grab, having the courts rebuff it, only for him to pivot to a more preposterous attempt to rewrite black-letter law to accomplish the same objective. All abetted by a party machinery acting in lockstep on behalf of their big money donors to evade accountability for any of his —or their — malfeasance.
Gentle Reader, I’m not telling you how to vote or for whom. whether or how to agitate or what to believe. I simply ask that you consider the insidious symmetries at work in our hyper-
connected new domestic order — and whether we as citizens can continue to allow rapacity by our electeds at any level for any reason.
We can go further, with fingers in the 1.5 billion Pure water project, our municipal water rates, the mega homeless shelter, the pension reform being undermined, and MTS finally ever so modestly raising rates after projected budget shortfalls. All above and beyond the ongoing ADU fiasco and even a potential arena swept under the rug adjacent to Snapdragon. Yes, two supposed opposite sides of the spectrum look strangely the same.
Mat – You point out quite well how much Todd Gloria has been able to feather his nest and that of his syndicate in San Diego, at the expense of the citizens.
Our system of checks and balances has failed to hold him and his cronies at bay, just as they fail at the national level to keep the president from enforcing his personal beliefs instead of embracing representative policy, sometimes referred to as “the will of the people”.
The will of the people – what a joke that has become ! Instead of finding ways to ascertain the true will of the people, our political system has instead embraced the approach of marketeering, turning our political process into a “Coke vs Pepsi” marketing war of who can sell the most product while using the least amount of truth.
I would like to make note that Gloria is following the California playbook as forced upon us by the small autocratic group that wields political and administrative control of our city, county, and state – the political machine of San Francisco.
And as you pointed out – no one is allowed to say “No.”
No better example of this is how the zoning laws of the entire state were cast aside with Senate Bill 79.
100% without citizen input, every municipality in the state, on the 4th try by Rep Scott Wiener (from guess where ? Yep. SF), the Legislature narrowly passed SB-79, and Newsom’s comment as he signed it ? “Go YIMBYs” So there you have it. King Gavin issues his proclamation and it is fait accompli.
Someone explain to me how this differs from Trump’s playbook ?
No Kings, indeed.
“A spurned Mafia don” — Mat, you have captured him exactly! Thank you for an outstanding post and a great read. The parallels between our contemptible president and our contemptible mayor are too depressing. The good news is that both are headed for the same humiliating fall from power. And you are so right about Weber Pierson. I’ve never seen a newly elected official sell out so quickly and so brazenly.
Thx so much, Mat, for your honest, accurate, insightful, and well-written analysis of our Mayor’s sellout to billionaire champaign contributors and his shameful efforts to negate legitimate challenges to the Midway Rising project.
Keep up the good work!
My deep appreciation to all of you for your comments. I asked Editordude if anyone had written a piece exploring the similarities between them, and apparently no one had. Because ever since we ended up in Dipshitler 2.0, I’ve felt like the Will Farrell character in the movie Zoolander, when he says, “Doesn’t anybody else see it?! I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!”
Madelyn Bennet left this comment to the post:
They are two sides of the same coin. Both are completely in the pocket of the pernicious wealthy people who, in their quest to be as ridiculously wealthy as possible despite already having enough money to subsidize the vulgar excesses of their lifestyles for a thousand years, are akin to a tapeworm that continually feeds off its host, much to the detriment of said host.
Neither have any particular allegiance to their party, but instead pay homage to their god – the almighty dollar or crypto or gold. Both are spiteful, vengeful bullies. Trump prosecuted his enemies, knowing full well that they won’t be found guilty, because the prosecution is the punishment. He is doing his level best to destroy our democracy. Gloria punishes his entire constituency for not approving his tax increase (his alter-ego got the Congress to rubber stamp his big bilious bill and Gloria the toad has his toadies writing and submitting bills) by destroying our neighborhoods with ADUs that nobody wants or needs, making parking nearly impossible because of the mostly unused bike lanes, charging for parking at our public amenities and raising the price of on-street parking to $10 per hour.
They both are renters who have no allegiance to the homes they are destroying, as they will both leave their respective arenas and homes as soon as they are out of office.
The city figured out a “work around”, to not do a CEQA, per Everett Hauser, re: the bike lanes on 30th. even though they did reconfigure the street. No environmental report on the added toxins to the air created by the decreasing traffic lanes, and consequently the traffic now idles, rather than keep moving.
It will all be revealed when this group terms out.
Mat –> BRAVO!! Thanks for writing a clear, concise piece that represents how so many of us in this city and this country are feeling right now.
Asking the question “Consider this…” is such a powerful tool when the person asking is well informed and articulate then thoughtfully makes the case without emotional pleas and dog whistles. Much respect Mat, for both the framing and the content.
I recently told my D7 CM that we were at the point where citizens next move needed to be a frontal assault on the Mayor and his CV of failures. (Ash St will end up costing the City more than the sales tax would have raised.) Nothing less will have any effect.
Orange man west has a very public national position now and citizen payback, since we are playing Moscow rules, has a brightly illuminated target for the taking.
The number of citizen initiated lawsuits against development projects successfully entering the Court system is encouraging. We need to build on this ability to finance these efforts with the qualified professional voices, like Mat’s and so many more, that have had enough and say so loudly. Paint a Van Gogh of mental health challenges driving bad decision making, commonly known as Corruption, and steer the anger of the masses (which is evident in spades) directly at City Hall and his cast of thousands.
The time is now. The coming election is the juice. The Streets of San Diego are the venue.
The hangover during the holidays will be unbearable if nothing is done.
Game On!
You and Mat W have nailed it!!! Thanks.
Maybe we need to look beyond the political parties and start to distinguish between representatives and politicians. Politicians as a group follow the money and political identity of least resistance. Todd and Trump represent this. Todd only identities as a Democrat because it is more marketable.
Brilliant! I have been saying for years that Todd is absolutely Trumpian but Mat has articulated my thoughts so much better than I could have. This kind of brazen bullying corruption is beyond imagination. We cannot tolerate it.
Voters asked for this. They hate Trump so much, that they voted for Todd Gloria because he is a Democrat, period. Also, because his opponent was a middle aged white man (eww!), while Todd Gloria is an ethnic gay man. The “feel good” voter gave Todd Gloria four more years.
Bingo!!!! A middle aged white guy AND a cop. All kinds of reasons haters voted for a D.
Joe – “Voters asked for this” – the preferred cop-out of those too lazy or not smart enough to look for the real causes behind our problems.
Blame the voters, they asked for it !
Tell me, does that include the more than a quarter of a million who voted for Larry Turner ?
There may be a lot of reasons why people voted for Gloria, and hatred of Trump may be among them, but by no means is it a primary consideration.
First, let’s clear the palate with some factual numbers from the Mayor’s 2024 election:
(All numbers from the Registrar of Voters except calculated number of those who did not vote)
2024 SAN DIEGO MAYORAL PRIMARY
# votes Candidate
132,055 Todd Gloria (incumbent)
60,931 Larry Turner
42,196 Geneviéve Jones-Wright
18,990 Jane Glasson
9,973 Daniel Smiechowski
264,145 Total votes cast
829,288 Total registered voters
565,143 Total who did NOT vote
You can see that more than 68% of eligible voters did not bother to vote in the primary. Again, there are likely many reasons for this, but Trump ain’t one of them.
2024 SAN DIEGO MAYORAL ELECTION
317,015 Gloria
255,782 Turner
572,797 Total votes cast
829,288 Total registered voters
256,491 Total who did NOT vote
Turnout numbers reverse here for “the real thing” – 68% voted vs the primary’s 32%, yet that still leaves still nearly 1/3 of all registered voters failing to vote.
Gloria won by 61,233 votes.
So who “asked for this” ?
Those 61,233 who made the winning difference ? Or is it the 317,015 who voted for Gloria ? Or maybe it’s the 256,491 who did NOT vote ?
What about Gloria’s endorsers/supporters in that 2024 election (per wikipedia), don’t they bear any responsibility ?
Local officials:
Nicole Murray-Ramirez, San Diego Human Rights Commissioner (2004–present) and honorary mayor for life of Hillcrest, San Diego
Labor unions:
San Diego & Imperial Counties AFL-CIO
San Diego County Democratic Party
Newspapers:
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Organizations:
Equality California
LGBTQ Victory Fund
San Diego Democrats for Equality
San Diego County Young Democrats
And what about campaign spending, the most reliable predictor of who will win an election ?
Campaign Spending
$2,280,572 Gloria
$1,686,326 Turner
The point of this story (as I read it) is that Gloria, in his position as “strong mayor” has made a real mess of our city, much in the same way a mess has been made of our nation.
Perhaps it is time to move away from the “strong mayor” system. We seem to be unable to find and vote for someone who is capable of handling the job while keeping the citizens’ well-being the top priority.
Robert, well said and what the voters really need to do is stop voting by party, race, gender, religion, smiles and all the other none qualifying adjectives. Lack of qualifications is what got SD so deep in the red.
SD needs a Mayor who is educated in and knows finance like the back of their hand, is a leader, and will not bow down to special interest groups. Is willing to stand in front of an audience and let them know what is going on.
I’m sure it would be helpful to the Mayor to have office staff that are allowed freedom of speech so the Mayor and the Clowncil have listened to both sides of a controversial subject, rather than hide themselves and their plans from the voters that put them in those seats.
The whole truth will come out after the next election, when the truth to many questions will be revealed to the public.
Agreed.
My own, somewhat cynical take is that we are doomed to more of the same, because we will not take politics seriously.
We learned it back in grade school – the essence of our “democracy” is a popularity contest, plain and simple. Did anyone actually believe the “Class President” was going to get us free sodas and a ban on homework ? Of course not. And while one may say that it was a harmless exercise that hoped to teach us the mechanics of democracy, I suggest that it worked far too well and showed us indeed what our democracy would become.
Time after time, local, state and federal elections show a consistent refusal by the voters to address specific issues. Instead they vote parties, labor unions, general politics (ie left vs right) – anything but actual issues.
Hell, a full one third of eligible voters simply did not vote in the 2024 mayoral election !
Until we can fix this, special interest groups and their funding are going to control who gets elected. And elections will be decided by who panders best to the “cause du jour”
I wish I had an answer for this. I would vote for a tax on anyone who fails to vote. But before that I would insist that some option of rejection be placed on the ballot so you weren’t forced to choose between two pieces of crap.
“None Of The Above” for mayor in 2028 ! (only half kidding)
Yes, totally agree. Political elections should not be considered the same as High School President, or Mr. or Miss America. It is NOT a popularity contest people. So vote for qualifications for the job they’re applying for only.
Excellent analysis Joe! This crop of “Progressives” is bent on destroying the CEQA, height limit, and other environmental/quality of life we made in the 70s,
I guess I can say I feel the same way about Gloria as I do about Trump. I never voted for either of them, and I have watched in dismay as they have proceeded to destroy everything within their grasp. Sometimes I want to say “well , you idiots who voted for them got what you deserve, but then I realize, I share in the suffering their stupidity hath wrought.
I haven’t lived in the OB area since 1980 and to be fair I was 19 and surfing and didn’t care about politics. My question to you folks is who was the last mayor that you liked ?
Marston
My take on Gloria is that his political career is based upon his ability to check useful boxes regarding identity politics and his willingness to do the heavy lifting for the rich and powerful interests that see San Diego as place to increase their wealth. Most people who live here see San Diego as their home and a place they love. San Diego has an affordable housing crisis and a careless/greedy development crisis. While those two ways of looking at San Diego aren’t necessarily in conflict, they easily can be. Under the guise of the very real affordable housing crisis Gloria, and those who work behind and beside him, doors of greed have been unleashed on our city. My guess is that Gloria is both focused on fulfilling promises he made to his billionaire supporters and also counting number of units to put on his CV while he was mayor, regardless if they address the affordability we desperately need. Nor if they irrevocably damage the city. Creating a dead block long wall like happened on 6th Ave where there once was vibrant businesses and social activity is not ok. And it didn’t, and doesn’t, have to be that way.
Excellent and very insightful comment, Roy. Thx very much for sharing this very accurate analysis.
Roy – thanks for a great analysis !
I was looking through a list of San Diego Mayors, trying to see what led to Gloria’s rise.
In his first election of 2020, (I’m not counting the 6 months he served when Filner resigned in disgrace), it seems that his primary claim to fame was that he would be “the first person of color and the first openly gay person to serve as San Diego’s mayor.”
While that may have social significance, it does nothing to qualify him as a Mayor.
And as we have seen, he still displays a lack of competence in the position. Given the “strong mayor” approach San Diego has embraced, it has been especially disastrous>
Until we can find a competent candidate, which our recent 40 year history says we cannot, we need to go back to the “weak mayor” system and “take the razor blades away from the children”
Those that bothered to vote wanted the “feel good” sensation of giving a chance to an ethnic gay man, of being the ones behind a “historic election” ( as the UT put it when he was first elected). Its just such a feel good story, an ethnic gay man, beating a white (eww!) straight (eww!) middle aged (eww!) former police officer (eww! eww!) male (eww! eww!). So, all these feel good people are the ones responsible for this. You combine these with (1) those that hate Trump and for some wacky reason felt that a vote for the other candidate was a vote for Trump, (2) those that think that single family neighborhoods are bastions of prejudice, (3) socialists, and (4) the lgbtq+ vote (notwithstanding the destruction of Hillcrest, they rather vote for a gay candidate because hes gay). These combination gave Todd Gloria the renewed four-year term
Joe Robertson –
I pointed out the numbers behind the 2024 election as reported by The Registrar of Voters
Todd Gloria won with 317,015 votes.
Now if you wish to claim that all 317,015 of those votes came Trump-hating, gay loving, WASP bashing, LGBTQ socialists – well, no rational discussion is likely to dissuade you from that.
I would suggest that you wrap the tinfoil a little tighter around your head as there appears to be some leakage.
Your labels are no more productive than the “woke folk” labels employed by the yimby-crats.
I voted for Turner, for what it’s worth, but he was outspent and had little name recognition. Meanwhile, Gloria was an incumbent, traditionally difficult to unseat.
To unseat him would have taken a concerted effort by people who cared and were committed.
Well where the hell were they ?
Did you campaign for Turner ? Did you campaign in any way against Gloria ? Or are you simply content with taking half-baked crackpot pot shots at people from the saftey of your comfy keyboard ?
Like ’em or not, the LGBTQ community gets out and votes. Like ’em or not, the labor unions get out and vote. Like ’em or not, the yimby-crats and developer-crats get out their portion of the vote along with some decent sized campaign contributions. Additionally, Gloria had the backing of the Democrat party (as long as he toes their line) and all the voters who vote the straight “party line”.
Now how do you expect to defeat that ? – by sitting on your duff and emailing in your inane half-thoughts ?
People who strongly disagree with Gloria’s policies have got to take action, or the same-old, same-old is going to be on the menu for the foreseeable future.
As long as we sit back and do nothing, the “doers” are going to continue to “do it” to us
In case you forgot –
2024 SAN DIEGO MAYORAL ELECTION
317,015 Gloria
255,782 Turner
61,233 Margin of victory
572,797 Total votes cast
829,288 Total registered voters
256,491 Total who did NOT vote
If just 1 out of every 4 who did not vote had gone out and voted for Turner, we’d have been well rid of Gloria.
I agree with your logic. However I think Joe has submitted something to think about too. I for one worked on Larry Turner’s campaign and personally went to 43 out of 45 City wide Planning Committee Groups in the City of SD trying to get his word out. He was close, but not close enough. He would have been an excellent Mayor, and was a proven leader by his rank in the Marine Corp and personally knows some of the key people in the homeless folks on the sidewalks. But for whatever reasons more people voted for Toddle. So it is what it is. I just hope the voters have wised up, want someone who is a leader and knows finance inside and out. But the voters have done the same thing with Gavy Newsom. He tried to bankrupt San Fran, but destroyed it and they haven’t recovered yet and voters have elected him as Mayor, twice, as if he was going to somehow be smarter at some point. And look at CA and we’re the highest in the nation, on so many negatives he’s done TO the people.
You are so totally spot on. Thanks for spelling it out.
One thing to keep in mind, many of us who voted actually skipped over the mayoral part. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Gloria OR Turner.
I’m sorry: if you don’t claim the power you have, even in the limited circumstances allowed you, then I have no reason to give credence to your abstention.
Larry Turner may not have been able to turn things around as needed; but he would have thrown sand in the gears of the YIMBY juggernaut.
Exercising your privilege to renege on accountability is…disappointing.
Mat – I understand where you are coming from, it is a position that is often embraced when addressing disaffected voters.
However, I feel this is “victim blaming” to a certain extent.
Our system of selecting candidates is seriously flawed. But no one will undertake improving it. Lots of reasons why, but unfortunately the Primary Elections are the key step to getting candidates on the ballot. Yet, primary election turn-out was about 1/3 of the voting population for the 2024 mayoral campaign.
Did we simply not care ?
Two thirds of San Diego’s voting population did not bother to vote in that primary, not even to write in Mickey Mouse, which would at least make a statement of some sort.
So how can we get better candidates ? It’s such a mess of who is “electable”, who has name recognition, who looks good on TV/Media, who has funding, who can get funding.
And this is where the special interest groups really wield their influence. Because citizens like most of us really don’t pay too much attention to the primaries, and we don’t get a lot of information about the candidates either. By the time we hear about them, they already have funding and momentum, gained from the groups who use their size and influence to gain the support of the candidate they will back. Unquestionably there is some quid pro quo going on there, but its virtually undetectable at this stage because there is not much scrutiny.
Once again, lack of citizen involvement is the most likely root cause.
What I find frustrating, is that once you DO get citizens hot enough about an issue, it is already too late. Gloria’s housing policies are a prime example, and while so many of us decry the developer blight taking over our communities, the construction continues unabated with the exception of a few high profile projects.
We are fortunate that there are media like the Rag to alert us to many of the things coming that will shape San Diego’s future, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the schemers who would pull the wool over our eyes are not publicizing their plans.
We already know we’re getting rid of Gloria in the next mayoral election, 2 years away. Now is the time to start identifying who we want on the ballot for 2028
You are so right.
thank you Mat.
Come on Mat. Do you really believe “privilege” allowed me to make the choice I made and feel satisfied with it? These are two candidates I have equal disdain for so I mdae the choice I made.
As far as YIMBY goes (since you mentioned it), that’s a bit of a gray area for me. While I don’t agree with the idea that an explosion of dense housing is going to drive housing costs down like so many YIMBY supporters claim, I DO agree with some aspects of YIMBYism like making cities less car dependent and better/safer for car alternatives, whether or not people choose to use them. You already know this about me from other interactions we’ve had. if that makes me privileged than so be it.
making cities less car dependent and better/safer for car alternatives, whether or not people choose to use them
LOL, so bottlenecking traffic is moving forward. Increase one inefficient alternative by gumming up the other more efficient one, and have a choice of which one. Just like voting with two bad choices, huh?
Chris – I understand as I have often found myself in a similar voting position.
We desperately need a “None Of The Above” on the ballot.
It doesn’t have to be binding or affect the election in any way other than to document voter dissatisfaction with the choices.
At the very least it prevents the winner from claiming a “mandate” when there are large numbers of people who expressly say “I’m not voting for either of you”.
As it stands, a lack of votes is seen as apathy, which is a “blame” on the voters rather than the candidates.
Thanks. Sometimes LOTE isn’t the way to go for me.
We can all feel good that we have the first ethnic gay man to be our mayor. History is on our side to celebrate this equity milestone!
Oh, yeah, and when we elected the first gay / lesbian district attorney, we also felt good — until she fought the Marijuana legislation bill all the way to the Calif Supreme Court. Many of us once believed that Bonnia Dumanis would end “the boys’ club” — but of course did not.
Hmmmm, and that makes him qualified to be mayor of a large City?! He also has a nice smile, dresses well, good at word salads, looks nice at photo ops, doesn’t confront people of different opinions, uses good judgement in spending tax payer money, has been upfront and honest in presenting what he plans to do with the city of SD, and changes rules and regs to accomodate his donors wishes, and has trimmed his office staff members to something reasonable, right?
You guys seem to have turned off your scarcams radar.
Yes, Mat, you eloquently state the comparison that so many of us has been knowing and you make the case with convincing evidence. Thanks.
Reading the comments on your article, I want to reiterate a point you made: The strong-mayor experiment has failed.
Gloria, same as Trump, deserves blame as an individual who has wielded his executive power recklessly and selfishly, enabled by a claque of similarly blame-worthy individuals.
But those types will always be with us, so changing the institution that allows them to wreak such damage during their short tenures and redirecting the parties that have propped them up through repeat victories is our essential work to do after they are out of office.
With that effort ahead of us, blaming those who voted for Gloria & Trump instead of their opponents is not constructive. I’ve abstained from voting for specific individuals (including Chris Ward) in order to hope they feel a loss of support, and it’s felt like a cop-out. But it would be better for us to do that (perhaps as a mass public protest movement) rather than voting for “anybody but” when that “anybody” is pernicious in their own policies and allegiances.
We need better candidates, party reforms, and changes in our governing systems. Let’s work on that together!
“We need better candidates, party reforms, and changes in our governing systems. Let’s work on that together!”
Indeed. Problem is in order to have bettern canidates, we need better people who choose this line of work.
Chris – I think you have nailed a central part of why we continually have so much bad government.
Who decides that “they want to be a politician” ?
And when they decide that, is it already too late ? Meaning they have something in their background that would be used against them to prevent their election ?
We are all guilty of buying into that system I think. We find some pecadillio from 30 years ago, and we trumpet it as a reason this politician or that one should not be eligible to hold office.
Of those who went to college, who didn’t do something stupid and regrettable somewhere along the way ?
So the “clean records” by and large belong to those who have been grooming those records, and have the means to quash any stories that might tarnish the image.
Which precludes most of us.
To that extent, I DO believe that we the voters bear much of the blame. We allow ourselves to dismiss someone, not on their stand or commitment to current issues, but on distant, past behavior. I am not suggesting we ignore all past behavior, it is a prime measure of what to expect from any candidate, but there are patterns of behavior and there are simple mistakes of poor judgement, not the same things.
A willingness to take ownership and apologize goes a long way in my book.
There are also those who change their minds. I respect someone who will change their mind when provided with evidence sufficient to justify it. But the standard mud-slinging that takes place will lambast anyone who dares to admit top being wrong in the past.
As voters, we have to demand clear answers instead of character assassinations. Tell us what you plan to do, in a strategic and tactical manner and let us decide whether you represent our interests or not.
Who decides that “they want to be a politician” ?
Um, quite often it’s a lawyer.
Bingo!!! Several on the SD City Council are lawyers, in fact I think the majority are. BUT Toddler was a Political Science major, at USD, worked part time for a council member, when he graduated he were to work full time for a Council member, until he got elected as a Council member the first time. I think he got a taste of the shady dealings when he was a college student, or at the least saw where he could make some side money, or perks, and liked it.
For me it isn’t really someone’s past. We all have dirty laundry. No human being is truly above reproach. I guess you can say I just have a very pessimistic view on why anyone want’s to put themselves through all this. I’d like to say some do it because they truly care about the community but that optimism has sank.
We all hate to wash dirty laundry, but you’d never get clean clothes without doing it despite how much there is. And not doing it means more laundry in the end, no?
In this week’s email sent today by the mayor’s office, readers get this classic example of Gloria’s setting up someone else to take the fall for his handiwork:
“The State Legislature is finishing its session this week by discussing and voting on hundreds of bills. Two of those bills, Senate Bill 344 and Senate Bill 958, authored by San Diego Senator Akilah Weber Pierson, M.D., were approved over the weekend and head to Governor Newsom’s desk.”
Seems the freshman senator should have more closely scrutinized the habitual faithlessness of her “ally”.
First, let me thank everyone who substantiates this article underscoring what has become patently obvious to all who suffer through the current regime in City Hall. My take, based on 28-years in County, State, and Federal law is that the only course to future stability is to change the Charter back to the City Manager form of government and create a local ordinance that mandates State Attorney General investigation of local corruption and strong laws making what the Mayor and City Council do to operate clearly within the legal guardrails or face removal from office, conviction of felony charges and sent to prison.
Excellent!! Now to get that suggestion on the ballot!!!
Could not agree with you more!
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”
It was true in 1887 and still true now.