Category: Election

When Papa Doug Manchester bought the San Diego Union-Tribune late last year, there was a hint that the “new” U-T would be different.

But with the daily’s total black-out of a rally on Saturday by hundreds of San Diegans against corporate monies in politics and elections, we can now see that the “new” U-T is the same as the old U-T: both ignore as best as they can progressive gatherings against causes the owners and editors like.

The “old” U-T was adept at ignoring rallies by several thousand labor supporters for example – all the while high-lighting a tiny gathering of tea party types. We documented this in the past.

At least 250 San Diegans rallied on Friday, January 20th, in downtown San Diego against the US Supreme Court case known as “Citizens United”. It was the one year anniversary of the court decision that gutted campaign finance reform and that has eroded citizens’ rights of freedom of speech.

Organized by Women Occupy San Diego and Common Cause in conjunction with a national group called Move to Amend, the well-attended gathering next to the Federal Building was the largest protest in this city against the Supreme Court decision that has come to represent everything bad in modern American elections.

By Gail Powell

D.A. DUMANIS, once dis-invited from the City College campus due to students irate over her perceived mishandling of the Diana Gonzalez murder case, has turned up again at a San Diego school.

This time, the Republican mayoral candidate managed to weasel herself into a class at Point Loma High School, alma mata of a number of people at the OB Rag including this author. Dumanis spoke in Room 301, according to the Point Loma High School Daily Bulletin, on Wednesday, January 11th from 12:30-1:30 with teacher Palmiotto hosting.

This bit of campaigning disguised as a school visit did not sit well with some parents. @Bonnie Dumanis on Twitter actually posted a picture of this adventure and it claimed, according to the caption, that Bonnie Dumanis was there to “meet with students at Pt. Loma High School and discuss her ‘Blueprint for America’s Finest Schools.’ http://twitpic.com/89b2nf

by Ralph Lopez / truthout / January 19, 2012

It’s a quid pro quo. Only the most gullible rube ready to buy swampland in Florida could think otherwise. The citizen’s watchdog MAPlight.org found that congressmen who voted for TARP, the “Troubled Assets Relief Program,” received nearly 50 percent more in campaign contributions from the financial services industry (an average of about $149,000) than congressmen who voted no.

And House Energy and Commerce Committee members who voted yes on an amendment in 2009 favored by the forest products industry, to allow heavier cutting of trees, received an average of $25,745 from the forestry and paper products industry. This was ten times more than each member voting no. The pattern repeats itself over and over, ditto for why wars go on when polls show most of the population is against them.

By Lucas O’Connor / Two Cathedrals / January 17, 2012

The in-depth fact checking, parsing of policy, and search for substance will carry on here and elsewhere for quite some time following Friday’s first mayoral debate to feature all four leading candidates. In the meantime though, an initial round of horse-race impressions.

No love for Mayor Sanders

It was just hours before the debate that updated pension numbers narrowed the city’s deficit to $12.2 million, but nobody seemed to be in a laudatory mood with the mayor. Indeed, the new numbers were hardly acknowledged by candidates or panelists. There was little enthusiasm for public funds going to a Convention Center expansion or a new Chargers stadium (two Sanders priorities) and the closest the candidates came to full agreement was in their rejection of felony charges for Occupy protesters arrested at the State of the City address.

Candidates Differ on treating Occupy protesters and whether they’d retain Police Chief Lansdowne.

Editor: Last Friday the 13th of January, the four major candidates for San Diego mayor held a debate. It was the very first time that all four major candidates appeared on the stage together as Bonnie Dumanis and DeMaio had been avoiding earlier debate opportunities (they both declined to attend the debate held by the San Diego Labor Council in November of 2011). But it was a debate – held at the Grant Hotel – that was a ‘pay for play’ debate, as it charged an entry fee. This meant, of course, that ordinary San Diego citizens and voters weren’t there.

So, to remedy that, here are two versions of the debate to consider, the first from the Daily Transcript and the other from the U-T:

Four mayoral candidates spar over plans and policies

By Claire Trageser / The Daily Transcript / January 14, 2012

All four major San Diego mayoral candidates squared off in a debate for the first time Friday, answering pointed questions from members of the local media about their plans and policies.

By Nadin Abbott / East County Magazine / Jan. 15, 2012

On Thursday January 11th, 2012 Mr. Derek Casady of La Jolla brought a proposal for the June Ballot allowing for voluntary public financing of elections in the City of San Diego. We are just starting to see the toxic effects of the Citizens United Supreme Court Decision on our democracy. In that decision, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could pour virtually unlimited amounts into funding campaigns for candidates and political initiatives, opening wide the floodgates for corruption and undue influence on public officials.

Here are some interesting local stories that you may have missed this past week or so, stories we found interesting enough to link to them via the following headlines:

SDSU Student Republicans Go After Teachers They Don’t Like – and Teachers Respond

• College Republicans Rate Professors as “Teachers or Preachers” – San Diego Reader by Dave Rice
• U-T San Diego version

• Professors Respond to Student GOP Attacks – Call Them Unfair – Channel 10News

Editor: As the GOP primaries pull into an open season, Newt Gingrich is still waging his one-man campaign either to derail Mitt Romney or to garner the real “conservative” votes. And he still touts himself as the “savior of immigration reform”. Here to refute that image is an article by San Diego immigration lawyer Carlos Batara written just before Christmas, but obviously still relevant. Batara also takes a swipe at President Obama’s policies as well.

Newt Gingrich: The Grinch Who Stole Immigration Reform

By Carlos Batara

Bah! Humbug! Having practiced deportation defense in the 1990s, I am no Johnny-come-lately to immigration issues.

I remember the xenophobic backlash led by Gingrich against the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) signed into law by a staunch conservative, Ronald Reagan.

I remember Gingrich as the Gin-Grinch who stole immigration reform.

Hey, local politics geeks, to celebrate this New-Hampshire-primary Tuesday, let’s morph the candidates for mayor of San Diego with the candidates for president of the United States!

Carl DeMaio seems akin to Ron Paul: a conservative outsider with a quirky personality who seems to enjoy rattling cages on both sides of the aisle.

As a candidate, CarlPaul would sport a perpetual disdain for the effectiveness of government, an admittedly eyebrow-raising characteristic for someone seeking more time as a government employee. Because government sometimes is ineffective, and sometimes worse, CarlPaul’s cranky message would carry more than a little truth and earn the support of a diverse range of disenfranchised folks with axes to grind, including many axes of the not-very-sharp variety.

Across the country, state legislatures and governors are pushing laws that seek to restrict access to the voting booth.

By Amy Goodman / AlterNet / December 28, 2011

All eyes are on Iowa this week, as the hodgepodge field of Republican contenders gallivants across that farm state seeking a win, or at least “momentum,” in the campaign for the party’s presidential nomination. But behind the scenes, a battle is being waged by Republicans—not against each other, but against American voters. Across the country, state legislatures and governors are pushing laws that seek to restrict access to the voting booth, laws that will disproportionately harm people of color, low-income people, and young and elderly voters.

By Miriam Raftery / East County Magazine / December 27, 2011

Starting January 1, new California laws take effect. Some give new protections to the public. Buying a used car? You now have a right to know its history. The government can’t snoop into your online reading habits. Your employer can’t peek at your credit report, in most cases. New laws also benefit pregnant employees, organ donors, renters, domestic partners, and bullied gay students.

Other laws impose restrictions. Want to buy popular cough syrups? You’ll need a prescription. If you order items online, you’ll be charged state sales tax. Shark fin soup and beer spiked with caffeine are banned. Employers have new requirements for notifying employees about pay and more. Kids must ride in a booster seat until age 8. Openly carrying a handgun is illegal, even if it isn’t loaded.