Category: Election

By Lucas O’Connor/Two Cathedrals

“I’ve always felt that, if you think something should be changed, it’s your responsibility to actively pursue that change.” – Bob Filner

Bob Filner’s accidental announcement in March that he was running for mayor didn’t shock too many local insiders. That it took place at an airing of a recent 50th anniversary Freedom Riders documentary was perhaps more provocative, mostly along the lines of ‘I had no idea he was a Freedom Rider.’ Most people still have no idea, though that’s likely to change in the next year. Usually though, it comes with a vague idea of what the Freedom Riders did, but not a deep understanding. So what’s the full breadth of what it meant to be a Freedom Rider?

Imagine my surprise when I found out earlier this week on the Rachel Maddow show that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney registered his domicile for voting purposes as the unfinished basement of his son’s Massachusetts home, a few blocks from the home that the Romney’s sold earlier. She went on to say that Romney also has a home in La Jolla, which is a community of San Diego, and a cabin in New Hampshire. Her guest Fred Karger, who didn’t make the Republican cut for the New Hampshire debate last week, maintains that Romney hasn’t really been living in his son’s basement but rather in La Jolla for the past couple of years and may have committed voter fraud in the Massachusetts election of 2010.

I read the HEADLINES this morning that Anthony Weiner has resigned from his House seat. Thank goodness that “distraction” is now over and the Dems can resume their laser focus on creating jobs-hopefully in this country; protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; and continuing their unwavering support for working people. Democrats have purged their party of a lying jackass who is admired for his fiery policy positions by progressives but not so much by his congressional colleagues. Their moral compass has been reset– to campaigning and fund raising 24/7 and I’m sure it’s going to be nothing but distraction free sailing to November 2012.

After a series of public meetings that began in February, the County’s Redistricting Advisory Committee voted Monday [June 13] to forward three proposed redistricting plans to the Board of Supervisors. The citizen’s committee was tasked with gathering public input and forwarding no more than three plans for the Board’s consideration. The Redistricting Advisory Committee finished that work and held its final meeting Monday.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to hear the committee’s proposed plans at its regular Board meeting at 9 a.m. on June 28.

by Lucas O’Connor / Two Cathedrals

The first draft of state redistricting maps were released and approved [June 10th]. There will still be revisions, but this should be relatively close to what we’re dealing with. Flash analysis, roughly based on current numbering and roughly South to North.

For a week the OB Rag ran a poll on the mayor’s race, listing declared and undeclared candidates for San Diego’s top executive post. With nearly 200 respondents, current Congressman Bob Filner – who has now declared – came out on the very top with 58 votes or 30%. Former Councilmember Donna Frye – who has not declared – came in second with 43 votes, or 22%. In third place, was Democratic State Senator Christine Kehoe, 38 votes and 20% of the total. Kehoe has begun a process to set up her campaign although some pundits do not consider her a “declared” candidate as yet.

As the mayor’s race continues to unfold, the election season rite of local Republicans trying to morph themselves into “moderates” palatable to the ever-malleable Democratic electorate in San Diego continues. The most recent example of this is Nathan Fletcher’s announcement that he is coming back from Sacramento to save San Diego.

As reported in the Union Tribune and KPBS Fletcher has a vision:

“When I look at the city I see an amazing potential for the future of San Diego over the next decade and I believe I represent a new generation of leadership that can get us there . . . “

The next meeting of the San Diego Redistricting Commission is Thursday, June 9th. The Commission will meet at 4:00 pm in the auditorium of the City’s Metro Operations Center in Kearny Mesa, 9192 Topaz Way.

The Commission is in the process of re-drawing the City of San Diego’s council districts and adding one. There are currently eight districts, and the voters elected to add one additional district to make 9. Having nine districts in a strong-mayor city government system aids the council-branch in its deliberations with the mayor over policy, budgets, and other issues, such as land use.

by Lucas O’Connor / Two Cathedrals

It certainly looks like councilman and aspiring mayor Carl DeMaio got caught with his hand in the cookie jar [recently], soliciting contributions for his mayoral campaign earlier than permitted by law. An invitation for his campaign launch reception went live over Memorial Day weekend, according to a release from the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council. The trouble with all of that is… it violates San Diego’s election law.

by Lucas O’Connor / Two Cathedrals

It was perhaps with a certain perverse pleasure that political watchers in San Diego pounced in late March on Congressman Bob Filner’s seemingly accidental entrance into the mayor’s race. Not only was it easy to comment on—it was anything to comment on in the decidedly un-fun wasteland of redevelopment, budget cuts and pension reform.

Everybody – even yahoo news – now knows that the birther movement is a racist movement. We on the left of the center divide have been aware of the birther’s racism for some time now. Their unwillingness to accept a Black man as president has exposed the racist core of their two and half year campaign.

But the birther movement is something else, something else that no one is talking about: the birther movement is also a fascist movement. Yes, that’s right, I said “fascist”, and it’s not hyperbole. Let me explain.

First, with President Obama proving (again) his place of birth by handing out his long-f0rm birth certificate, the white supremacist underpinnings of the birthers has so been totally demonstrated that even mainstream corporate media are calling them racist.

by Nate Silver / New York Times / April 26, 2011

A new Gallup/USA Today poll finds significant doubt about whether Donald Trump, the real estate mogul and television personality who is considering a bid for presidency, was born in the United States.

According to the survey, just 43 percent of Americans believe that Mr. Trump was definitely born in the United States. Another 20 percent believe that he was probably born here. Some 7 percent of respondents told Gallup that Mr. Trump was probably or definitely born in another country, while 30 percent were uncertain.