Fletcher Scores Entire Escondido City Council… In what may be the first time the mayor and councilmembers have ever agreed on anything, the Escondido five have all endorsed Nathan Fletcher in George Plescia’s term-limited 75th A.D. seat.
Ok, that’s not completely fair…even the most divided city councils still tend to vote together a significant majority of the time. It’s the minority-of-the-time controversial votes that are the source of rifts and media play. The same is true in Escondido. It follows, then, that there must be nothing controversial about supporting Fletcher for Assembly. A no-brainer, in fact.
Rose Bird in the Hand is Worth an Analogous PAC… Broadsheet and electronic coverage was pretty heavy re: last Tuesday’s East County press conference (see the SDUT story) in response to SD Mayor Jerry Sanders’ double-pike-with-a-full-twist on same-sex marriage. Santee Councilman and candidate for Congress Brian Jones used the event to announce the formation of Californians for Judicial Integrity, in an effort to hold California Supreme Court Justices accountable for their support or opposition to Prop 22.
In the 1980s, said Jones, "Californians organized to oppose the confirmation of State Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird and to remove her from office. We intend to use this model to organize against other activist judges to ensure that the will of California voters is upheld both on Prop 22 and on other issues that the voters have overwhelmingly spoken on.
“Opponents of traditional marriage have been organizing for years to thwart the will of the voters by challenging Proposition 22. It’s time that the supporters get organized, inform the electorate and create accountability for Judges who ignore the decisions of the electorate. That’s why the formation of this political action committee today is so important,” Jones said.
More to follow on the PAC and its progress.
Speaking of Sanders… No PAC announcements, apparently, on the Western horizon, but the County Party did meet during the week to hear the first-hand explanation behind the Sanders change-of-heart on Prop 22 and to discuss his already-received GOP endorsement. All has been quiet on the issue, not that folks are mum about the meeting, just that there’s been no grist. If experience serves, that means nothing of substance happened. However, just a few minutes ago, GOP Chairman Tony Krvaric sent out the following as part of his Republican Political Report…
Getting back to business in the City of San Diego!
Two weeks ago, the City of San Diego decided to waste taxpayer dollars by submitting a friend-of-the- court legal brief in direct contradiction to the will of San Diego voters – who passed Prop. 22 with over 62% of the vote.
Having grown up in Sweden, I have seen first-hand the devastating effects of watering down the traditional definition of marriage; fewer people choose to get married, more out of wedlock children, children growing up without male role models, etc
The Republican Party of San Diego County strongly disagrees with the city wasting taxpayer dollars like this, and urges Mayor Sanders and the City Council to get back to working on Mayor Sanders’ much needed reform agenda for the city.
Let’s get back to work folks!
Tony Krvaric
CHAIRMAN
Republican Party of San Diego County
PS: The silver lining of this sad chapter is that apparently Mike ‘Nifong’ Aguirre had a hand in preparing the friend-of-court-brief. Considering his miserable track record, that probably means that the case IN DEFENSE OF PROP. 22 got a real boost with this brief.
Strong, carefully crafted, and some may say about time. It remains to be seen whether a statement alone that partly diverts responsibility into the lap of the city attorney is enough to assuage some of the upset that remains over this issue.
In the meantime, there’s been plenty of mostly anonymous fodder in the Red County/San Diego blog, however:
Speaking of War… As San Diegans may have noticed, the gloves are now off between Mayor Sanders and City Attorney Mike Aguirre (frankly, I’m surprised it took this long). Evan McLaughlin noted in Voice of San Diego the natural media inquiry resulting from Aguirre’s recent debate challenge to Sanders:
Aguirre’s idea begged the question, so one reporter in the City Hall press gallery asked him: Why doesn’t he just run against Sanders in next year’s mayor’s race?
Aguirre said he didn’t want to be mayor.
"I’m doing what I believe is the duty of the city attorney," he said. "I love being city attorney."
Read the VoSD post.
Hollingsworth on Health Care Reform… Friday guests at the monthly breakfast meeting of SD’s Adam Smith of California may have had an earlier morning precursor of Senator Dennis Hollingsworth’s pending remarks by reading the morning’s Union-Tribune. Hollingsworth’s cautionary op-ed, "Pursue health care reform carefully," provided insights as to the roadblocks faced by the GOP’s CalCare during the now-ended regular session, as well as some of the key free-market solutions being ignored by powers-that-be. Hollingsworth writes:
Unfortunately, neither Democrats nor the governor have paid these modest proposals much heed. (Speaker Fabian) Núñez even has the gall to appoint only Democrat legislators to his recently announced health care reform working group. Instead of taking a realistic step forward and establishing some common ground, they appear determined to push through radical action as a last-ditch attempt to demonstrate progress.
The recently concluded budget stalemate undoubtedly left everyone in Sacramento a little bruised and worse for wear, and the lack of a comprehensive health care reform package before the end of session left many disillusioned with state government. The passage of such a deal during this special session would certainly help the governor and some legislative leaders save face. It would be a terrible mistake, however, to pass a flawed and half-baked proposal just to say something – anything – was done this year.
Read the entire article.
DeVore’s Nuclear Power Proposal Picking Up Steam… If media attention in San Diego is any indication, OC Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has hit on something. The North County Times not only ran a story on the issue last Monday, "Initiative seeks more nuclear plants in region" (also hi-lited on the FR main page that day), but I also noticed a mention of DeVore and his legislation on KUSI-TV last night. Given the SD media’s fairly lackluster coverage of state politics, some area legislators would love the attention an "out-of-towner" is getting in recent days.
That’s all folks. Have a great week!