As noted last week, communications strategist Tony Manolatos is doing a series of interviews with the City of San Diego Mayoral candidates for San Diego Rostra.This is the secondin the series, runninglast weekend (here is the Rostra post):

DeMaio: ‘My real opponents are the government employee unions and powerful downtown interests’ by Tony Manolatos

We bring you exclusive Q & As with San Diego Mayoral candidates Carl DeMaio, Bonnie Dumanis and Nathan Fletcher.

We kicked off the series last week with Fletcher. We determined the order based on when the responses to our questions were received — first in, first up. Despite repeated attempts, no one from Bob… Read More

In a decision that can only be described as absurd, the Newport Beach City Council has unanimously decided to remove decades old fire pits from the beach. Citing complaints from residents, environmental hazards and health risks a collection of Nanny State Republicans have decided to ruin a unique recreational area of the beach.

For those readers unfamiliar with the Newport fire pits, they are located in a remote southern section away from the larger more populated main beach area. No reasonable argument can really be made for this decision other than pure government control on a local level. The fact that residents “complained” about the fire pits is even more absurd of excuse being cited. The resident complaint excuse is not even worthy of being described by the term NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) at least traditional NIMBYs are complaining about something that will be built, not something that was constructed decades ago.

Though this decision is outrageous and I could rant for pages about reasons these fire pits should remain, there is a silver lining. As I previously mentioned, the vote was of this ban was unanimous. That means that Councilwoman… Read More

Many of us have heard rumors about polling in the San Diego Mayors race. Some campaigns even claim to be surging based on rumors of polls. Here’s some legitimate, new polling in San Diego Mayor’s race:

Competitive Edge (March 1-4, 603 likely voters, +/-4)

Carl DeMaio 25

Bob Filner 20

Bonnie Dumanis 11

Nathan Fletcher 11

Other 2

As interesting, Carl DeMaio leads with Republicans, Decline to State voters, conservatives, and moderates.

Disclosure: Revolvis works for the DeMaio campaign.… Read More

Try to explain to a person on the street that Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown is captive of special interests that are out there to the left of him, and you are likely to get a look of pure disbelief. Yet, with the news today that Governor Brown stands ready to abandon his already massive proposal to increase sales and income taxes, and will instead work with the ultra liberal California Federation of Teachers on a measure that represents even more massive increases the size and duration of proposed tax increases (the CFT has been working to qualify their own tax increase measure that was larger than the one originally proposed by Brown) it’s pretty clear that this is exactly what is going on.

In what is being dubbed “compromise” by our friends in the main stream media, this new deal between “left and lefter” modifies Governor Brown’s previous proposal as follows (to quote Steve Harman of the Bay Area News Group) — “Brown’s revised plan would put a larger burden on individuals who earn $500,000 a year — raising their income tax rate by 3… Read More

This morning I delivered a major defense keynote address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. With increasing global threats that our nation faces, providing for our national defense is of critical importance. In case you missed my remarks, please take a moment to read the transcript:

Thank you for that warm introduction. And thank you for inviting me to this beautiful facility.

You know, one of the most famous campaign ads in history was President Reagan’s “Bear in the woods ad.”During the race, the Reagan campaign was having trouble explaining their “peace through strength” foreign policy to the… Read More

When it comes to public employee pension reform, San Diego’s city management needs to take a lesson from the U.S. Marine Corps and lead by example.

Let me explain. The pension initiative on the June ballot is an absolutely vital reform to put our city on a long-term path to fiscal health. With $2.1 billion in debt promised to current and past city employees, but no funding stream to pay for it, our pension obligations are cutting into funding for basic government services such as road repairs and maintenance of parks. The reforms being put before voters — asking city employees to pay a greater portion of their own pensions, capping the amount of an employee’s salary that counts toward a pension, and transitioning from defined benefit to defined contribution plans — are all the right thing to do. But there is more we can do.

As mayor, I will take pension reform even further.

In the Marine Corps, the commanding officer leads by example, never asking the troops to perform a task he or she is not willing to also perform. In this way, the commanding officer sets the standard and defines the culture for the entire organization. I will bring that… Read More

The California Fair Political Practices Commission has prepared a new four page “fact sheet” on its required advertising disclaimers, and the electronic version has hyperlinks to an additional four new “Disclaimer Charts” that go into detail on requirements for candidates and ballot measures, including independent expenditures. The FPPC can impose a penalty of up to $5,000 per violation for campaigns that fail to place the required notices on political advertising. Attached is a copy of the new fact sheet.

FPPCPoliticalAdvertisingDisclaimersFactSheet… Read More

It probably is counter-intuitive to the casual observer that it is newsworthy that the House Republican Whip, Kevin McCarthy, has endorsed one of his colleagues for re-election. After all, incumbent protection is a big part of the Beltway culture. That having been said, when Gary Miller announced his candidacy for reelection in the 31st Congressional District, which is adjacent to the geographical turf he has represented in his current district, he rolled out some big endorsements like Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Pete Sessions, the Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. One name that was missing at the time was… Read More