Mike Aguirre has won an endorsement from the Cement Masons Local 500/Area 744, a local union that represents cement masons and finishers.
The incumbent city attorney also has the backing of three other local unions, the Laborers International Union of North America, Local 89, the United Auto Workers and the United Farm Workers.
"The Cement Masons know that Mike Aguirre is the best choice for the working men and women of San Diego," union leader Jamie Barton said in a release issued by the Aguirre campaign.
Incidentally, the press release for the cement masons endorsement is the first press release to be sent out by Aguirre's new campaign manager, Steve Rivera, who I met with this morning.
Actually sending out press releases when Aguirre wins an endorsement is just one of many improvements Rivera promised would be coming out of Aguirre's campaign in coming months. Previously, I've just gotten a breathless phone call from Aguirre telling me he's won an endorsement.
That's quite a contrast to Jan Goldsmith's campaign, which sends me a press release for each endorsement, usually e-mailing me the same press release two or three times.
Friday, September 5 -- 4:05 pm
The left-leaning Progressive San Diego has decided to endorse both Democrats Todd Gloria and Stephen Whitburn in the race for the District 3 San Diego City Council seat. The organization did not offer an endorsement in the June primary.
In November, the organization is "leaving it to the voters in District 3 to make up their own minds about who would best represent them."
The organization cited minor issues with both candidates. It is concerned with Whitburn's lack of experience in organizing progressive coalitions; and worried that Gloria might compromise his progressive principals in order to maintain good relations with politicians and community leaders.
But "Stephen and Todd both bring a wealth of policy knowledge and personal affability to the job," the statement said.
Friday, September 5 -- 12:51 pm
Mike Aguirre just told me he will be putting out television commercials shortly soon in his effort to remain in the City Attorney's Office. The commercials will appear on television as soon as two weeks from now, Aguirre said.
Aguirre said he will also be putting his own money into the campaign, a tactic that helped him win the City Attorney's Office in 2004. To date, Aguirre's campaign has been a shadow of his 2004 efforts.
"Our message is that we've made tremendous strides to convert the City Attorney's Office into an arm of the community, to serve the public, and that we're under assault by special interest that want to return the City Attorney's Office into a rubber stamp for their special interest agendas," Aguirre said.
Thursday, September 4 -- 6:20 pm
The San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, an umbrella organization that represents more than 100 local unions, won't endorse either of the candidates for city attorney, the group's political director, Evan McLaughlin, just told me.
McLaughlin said the organization doesn't find either of the candidates -- incumbent Mike Aguirre or Superior Court Judge Jan Goldsmith -- acceptable so it will not be endorsing either.
"Aguirre has made an unprecedented attack on pension benefits and Goldsmith attacked the prevailing wage as a legislator, so neither is acceptable to us," McLaughlin told me.
Organized labor is a powerful political force in the county and the Labor Council has been closely watched for its endorsement in the city attorney's race. The organization did not go to great lengths to publicize its non-endorsement, which was buried in a press release about other Labor Council endorsements in unrelated races.
Goldsmith has campaigned on an apolitical platform, vowing to sweep politics out of the City Attorney's Office. He has won over some prominent local Democrats in the process, including winning the endorsement of organized labor's favored candidate in the June primary election, Council President Scott Peters.
But Goldsmith's rhetoric has not won over the members of the Labor Council, McLaughlin told me. His attacks on the state's prevailing wage whilst serving as a state legislator are still etched in the minds of many Labor Council members, McLaughlin said.
"That's definitely an issue. Any time you try to weaken the standard of living for workers, our members will take notice," he said.
Thursday, September 4 -- 11:18 am
City Attorney Mike Aguirre just called to say that the Democrats who lined up this afternoon in support of his opponent, Superior Court Judge Jan Goldsmith, need to get over the fact that their candidate lost in the primary election in June, and need to show some unity for the Democratic Party.
Aguirre was referring to the supporters of Council President Scott Peters, who came in third in the primary and missed out on a place in the runoff election. Peters had the endorsement of many heavy hitters in the local Democratic community, including the city's powerful public safety unions and the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, an umbrella group that represents more than 100 local unions.
Aguirre chided the Democrats who supported Goldsmith for failing to unify behind his candidacy in the city attorney's race. Using a theme he's been developing of late, Aguirre compared the race to the national political arena, saying that Goldsmith's press conference today is a far cry from Hillary Clinton's recent speech calling for Democrats to rally behind Obama.
"The core of the Democratic Party is behind me," Aguirre said. "The people who are Barack Obama Democrats -- Goldsmith's got nothing to say to them."
"Hillary Clinton is a true statesperson. Dede Alpert's more of a lobbyist," he added, referring to the former Democratic politician that supported Goldsmith today.
Aguirre said that progressive Democrats in San Diego are united in support of his tenure at the City Attorney's Office. And he reiterated what he has claimed since Goldsmith won June's primary election: That the judge represents a return to "business as usual" at City Hall.
"No matter how much they try to dress it up, what this stacks up to is a return to the past," Aguirre said.
Tuesday, September 2 -- 4:04 pm
A group of prominent local Democrats gathered in a shady patch of the Civic Center courtyard this afternoon to rally support for city attorney candidate and Superior Court Judge Jan Goldsmith.
Goldsmith was joined by a cavalcade of endorsers and supporters, many of whom carried placards proclaiming "Aguirre must go" and "Aguirre is not a Democrat." The crowd of about 90 people included City Council members Ben Hueso and Scott Peters and ex-state Sens. Dede Alpert and Wadie Deddeh, all of whom stroke strongly in support of Goldsmith's run against incumbent Mike Aguirre.
There was also plenty of criticism of Aguirre to go around, including from Hueso and Peters, both notable nemeses of the incumbent.
"I get a sense that there's a groundswell of support building for Judge Goldsmith," Hueso said. "This is not a personal or a partisan issue for me, I'm simply going out and doing what I think is best for my city."
Joining the sizable crowd supporting Goldsmith were a few dozen representatives of the Municipal Employees' Association, a union that represents City Hall's white-collar workers. The union endorsed Goldsmith in July.
Goldsmith told me prior to the press conference that the rally effectively marks the kick-off point for his fall campaign. He said the support of so many Democrats enforces his campaign message that Goldsmith is about the law and nothing but the law and that he will rid the City Attorney's Office of political partisanship and personal politics.
"I realize that many Democrats would not support me if I was running for the state legislature," Goldsmith said. "'But that's not what this office is about. I'm not running for a legislative position and I won't. I don't want another political career."
The first time I interviewed -- indeed, the first time I met -- Goldsmith, was in a small room at the Westgate Hotel where he had just received endorsements from District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Sheriff Bill Kolender, both prominent local Republicans.
Since then, Goldsmith came first in the June primary election that featured a slew of candidates, including Peters and City Councilman Brian Maienschein. The judge has also been working hard to dispel any notion that he is the token Republican candidate for the City Attorney's Office. His message that he is a nonpartisan lawyer who will not jump into what he calls the "sandbox of politics" was enough to entice Peters, and Hueso earlier this year.
But while Hueso and Peters have both backed Goldsmith wholeheartedly, they both told me that they hope the judge stays true to his commitment to be apolitical. They both told me Goldsmith has promised them he will not let his Republican ideology interfere with the running of the City Attorney's Office.
"That’s what he's promised me and over time I’ve come to believe him," Peters told me last month.
"I hope together, we as a community, can hold him to that promise," Hueso told me in June.
For his part, Aguirre has sought to portray Goldsmith as an arch-Republican in disguise. As soon as he gets into office, Aguirre has claimed, Goldsmith will reveal himself for the establishment ultra-conservative he really is.
I called Aguirre to get his take on today's news conference. I haven't heard back yet.
You can read more about Goldsmith here in an in-depth profile I did on his professional career during the primary election, and more about Aguirre's career as a lawyer here.
Tuesday, September 2 -- 4:05 pm
Now that the June 3 primary has passed, the campaign trail for city of San Diego races will likely be relatively quiet until Labor Day. That's when the fall campaigns traditionally heat up again.
So, Election Central will be shutting down shop for a while until campaign activity becomes a daily thing again. Until then, keep an eye on our news blog This Just In for any running election news, along with the general TJI fare.
The fall promises to be a busy one in San Diego. First, of course, there's the city attorney's race. The Democratic Party's majority in the City Council could be upended; if Republicans win seats in Districts 1 and 7, the council will be deadlocked at 4-4.
Thursday, June 12 -- 10:50 am
I just spoke to Councilman Brian Maienschein for the first time since he came in fourth in the city attorney's race last week.
Maienschein told me he's not sure what he's going to do next after his City Council term expires in December.
"I've really enjoyed my time in office, I'm excited about just getting back to work," he said.
I asked Maienschein if he plans on endorsing either incumbent City Attorney Mike Aguirre or challenger Jan Goldsmith in November's runoff election, but he said it's too soon after the election to think about those sorts of things.
"I'm just getting back to work and getting caught up," he said.
Tuesday, June 10 -- 1:44 pm
After his loss in the mayor's race a week ago, Steve Francis sat down to talk with NBC's Gene Cubbison. As he did in our discussion with him, Francis vowed not to disappear from San Diego's political scene. He said:
I'm not going to retreat. I didn't retreat last time, and I'm not going to retreat this time. But I'm not sure where that's going to take me. Whether I'll run for office again, I'm not sure.
Check out the video from our news partner, NBC 7/39:
Tuesday, June 10 -- 10:57 am I just got off the phone with City Attorney Mike Aguirre. He had a pitch for me.
Aguirre says his challenger for city attorney, Jan Goldsmith, is the "most political" of the various candidates who ran for city attorney.
Goldsmith, as I wrote in this article, has previously been a Poway city councilman, Poway mayor and a state legislator. He also ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer.
Goldsmith has run his campaign so far on being a non-political lawyer who would wipe policymaking out of the City Attorney's Office. But Aguirre said the judge's past shows he's actually a skilled and divisive politician with a record of arch-conservatism.
Aguirre said he plans to dig deep into Goldsmith's past to show that the judge is a conservative Republican and that he's been deeply divisive and political in his past career.
"He's not a labor person, he's certainly not progressive, and he resurfaced as a politician supported by an intensely political group," Aguirre said.
I called Goldsmith for a response. I haven't heard back yet.
At last Tuesday's primary election, I interviewed Goldsmith late at night when it was clear that he had finished first place in the primary. He said that he fully expects Aguirre to dig up legislative votes from 10 years ago as the two proceed to a runoff election. Bring it on, he said.
Correction: The original version of this post incorrectly stated that Goldsmith had run for attorney general. We regret the error.
Tuesday, June 10 -- 1:13 pm
Jess Durfee, the chairman of the local Democratic Party, was voted off the Democratic Central Committee on Tuesday. His 7,082 votes were only good enough for an eighth-place finish among 11 candidates vying for a seat on the committee. Seats go to the top six vote-getters.
Durfee, however, said he can stay on as the local chairman by being appointed to the committee as an alternate and then re-elected chairman when the committee reorganizes in January.
"I am a little disappointed, obviously, but I'm not worried about it," Durfee said. "A lot of people don’t connect the central committee with the Democratic Party."
A hat-tip to the Red County blog for first reporting this.
Thursday, June 5 -- 1:23 pm
After spending an unprecedented $4,794,256 on his mayoral campaign, Steve Francis got 59,846 votes.
Doing the math, that means he spent $80.10 for each vote.
By comparison, Mayor Jerry Sanders spent $8.34 per vote. (He received 91,850 votes and has spent $766,000 to date.) The calculation doesn't include donations received after May 17.
Thursday, June 5 -- 1:19 pm
Steve Francis said today that he did not regret spending an unprecedented $4.7 million on his unsuccessful mayoral campaign, but also said that spending any more would not have made a difference.
In a sit-down talk this afternoon, Francis described his future uncertainly. He said he wanted to spend more time on business-related issues and working on several boards he serves on. And he wants to take a vacation.
"I'm not going to go away," he said, promising to rally around Sanders. "At this juncture, it's a good idea to step back and not be critical of the mayor. He won the race fair and square. I'm not going to criticize him from the sidelines."
Francis ruled out any run for elected office in the short-term, and similarly said he would not ever run for City Council or the state Assembly. He didn't rule out a future run for mayor or the county Board of Supervisors, but said it was way too early to consider another election.
Francis didn't fault his campaign for the loss and said he wouldn't have done things differently. Instead, he blamed the result on low voter turnout. He said his campaign's polls had put Sanders in the mid-40 percent range before last night; Francis had been polling in the low 30s. But Francis said the news shifted toward Sanders in the waning weeks of the campaign, as voters increasingly believed Sanders had the city on the right track -- the result of the city's restored credit rating and his Sunroad exoneration by the state Attorney General.
In the end, the undecided voters that Francis had actively sought turned to Sanders. Charles Gallagher, Francis' campaign manager, said the campaign had hoped to capture two-thirds of the city's undecideds. They did not.
Francis credited the campaign with educating him and renewing his interest in a wide swath of issues. During the race, he focused on progressive issues, a shift that opened him up to criticism of being a "flip-flopper" after having run a strictly right-leaning race in 2005. Some labor unions and progressive groups did not endorse Francis because of concerns that he was not genuinely a champion of those issues.
He acknowledged that perception may have affected some voters. But he largely dismissed such criticism as "inside baseball" that did not resonate with most poll-goers.
He said he believed he still had a good relationship with the Republican Party and its leaders. Running against Sanders, a fellow Republican, wasn't a miscalculation, he said. While he may have had the chance to garner the GOP endorsement in a 2012 election -- without Sanders in the picture -- he said he felt compelled to run now to help solve pressing issues at the city.
Francis said he was willing to help Sanders in any way he could. At the same time, he said he had absolutely no expectation that the mayor would seek any counsel.
I asked Francis what advice he would offer the mayor, what three things he believed the mayor should focus on in his new term. He initially demurred -- he said there was no chance the mayor would be calling him -- but addressed the question hypothetically.
He picked one issue. The mayor needs to address the city's structural budget problems, Francis said. "Now they have to start doing the really heavy lifting," he said. "It's time to level about cuts or revenue increases. Get it out there, and start dealing with it. If he doesn't, that's a terribly missed opportunity for him."
Wednesday, June 4 -- 3:56 pm
Mayor Jerry Sanders chose an ongoing street repair effort at the corner of a Tierrasanta intersection today to launch his second term in office. There, as city workers poured hot, pungent asphalt onto Santo Road, he said San Diegans can expect him to continue repairing the city's infrastructure and improving its financial controls.
He also wasted no time taking a dig at City Attorney Mike Aguirre. Noting that more than 70 percent of voters selected someone other than Aguirre, Sanders said San Diegans had sent the incumbent a message to stop obstructing progress at the city. "For the incumbent to get only 29 percent, I think that is very telling," he said.
Sanders, however, stopped short of endorsing Judge Jan Goldsmith, who advanced along with Aguirre to the two-person November runoff last night. The mayor had previously taken an anyone-but-Aguirre stance. While he said he wasn't prepared to endorse today, he did give the impression that an endorsement of Goldsmith wasn't too far away.
The former police chief also said he would now be studying the remaining three City Council races to better get to know the candidates and likely endorse in those races.
A television reporter asked if Sanders planned any role for his former challenger, Steve Francis, in his administration. "No, I don't plan on bringing him aboard," Sanders said.
The mayor said it was time to "return the city to greatness." His most immediate goals are to have the City Council pass his 2009 budget and have it put his proposal for a new pension system on the November ballot.
In the coming days, he said, he and his team will sit down and plot their goals for the next four years. For now, Sanders said, he hasn't had the time. He said he'll run the city the way he has previously and carry a message of fiscal discipline.
"I think people saw steady progress at the city -- not flashy progress, but steady progress," Sanders said of his Tuesday victory at the polls.
He said he expects the coming four years to be as difficult as the previous three. Sanders said he will keep his previous stance on taxes, saying that he wouldn't rule them out but wouldn't encourage them while still streamlining. That actually sounded like a return to an old stance from the 2005 election rather than the continuing of a strong and steady stance. He also said he didn't see how his stance on the Chargers would change. He won't give any taxpayer money, but supports the Chargers efforts in Chula Vista and has offered to help out.
Wednesday, June 4 -- 2:45 pm Mike Aguirre just got off a plane from Princeton, N.J., where he has been for the last few days attending his daughter’s graduation ceremony.
He gave me a call and said he’s having a press conference tonight to talk about what happens next in the city attorney’s race. In a surprise result, Aguirre came second in last night’s primary election to Superior Court Judge Jan Goldsmith. The two now proceed to a runoff election in November.
Councilmen Scott Peters and Brian Maienschein finished third and fourth, respectively. Amy Lepine finished fifth.
“I called Jan this morning and congratulated him,” Aguirre said. “I think Scott Peters is the real shocker.”
I asked Aguirre if he’s going to start ramping up his reelection campaign, which has been markedly lackluster for the last few months.
“Yes,” he said laughing. “I’m actually going to start running a campaign now. I’m going to have a paid campaign manager and everything.”
Wednesday, June 4 -- 11:17 am
|
Outside attorney hired by CCDC recommends ending 7th and Market project because of Nancy Graham's relationships.
Friday, September 5 -- 4:53 pm
The mayor announces another appointment to the board of the troubled agency.
Friday, September 5 -- 4:17 pm
Judge ruled that ballot initiative for commercial development can go forward.
Friday, September 5 -- 11:21 am
SURVIVAL IN SAN DIEGO
A take from a guy who pulled out of the building.
Friday, September 5 -- 11:50 am
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Props to Whitburn for taking a closer look at building proposal
Friday, September 5 -- 3:24 pm
CAFÉ SAN DIEGO
Prop S will cast its heaviest financial burdens on those least-equipped to deal with it -- young first-time homebuyers.
Thursday, September 4 -- 1:28 pm
COMMENTARY: SLOP
What CCDC wants from its next prez.
Friday, September 5 -- 2:24 pm
COMMENTARY: RICH TOSCANO
Monthly payments are less out of whack than home prices themselves -- but this could be deceiving.
Thursday, September 4 -- 9:49 pm
|
|
|
 |
E-MAIL POST