Some Responses

To Make Up Your Mind:

Many of the donors to Sanders and other Republican incumbents on the City Council gave money to Carl, so it’s a bit duplicitous for him to tell voters that he’s an “outsider.” Nevertheless, if I was running his campaign, I would advise him to run as an “outsider,” because that’s his best message and the way to win.

Conversely, of those who gave to Sanders, a number have not chosen to donate for DeMaio. They believe he’ll wreak havoc on the City.

Neither Mitz Lee, who red-meat Republicans call a RINO (Republican In Name Only), nor Bob Ilko have shown much of anything that would indicate they’ll be able to challenge DeMaio and his money machine. However, the nature of Independent Expenditures and other anti-anything campaigns is that they hit in the last weeks of an election. So of course you don’t see the money yet. That’s kind of the point.

To Republican Grassroots:

First of all, I have no interest in the local Republican Party or what they’ve been up to.

Second, what Carl has or has not done for or with the party will not necessarily translate to votes. The job of a precinct coordinator is to tell volunteers where to go to knock on doors of voters who have been identified by a campaign consultant with a message that the consultant has determined will move those voters to cast their ballots for the candidate or issue that is before them. None of those people have ever been asked to agree with Carl or even like Carl. They have simply followed instructions that were handed down to him by someone else.

To say they will now vote for him is like saying all the employees at Steve Francis’ company will all vote for him. It simply doesn’t track.

To La Jolla Voter:

D.A. Bonnie Dumanis investigated San Diego Data Processing and found “serious violations of the public trust.” So much for that theory.

To Really? No Money?:

Labor unions give money to Democratic campaigns? Well, that’s news. Of course I’ve run IEs for Labor. Labor represents people. Corporations, on the other hand, are only in it for themselves. Let’s take a look at some businesses that give to Republicans and the amounts (for 2006):

AT&T ($2,676,447), General Electric, ($2,456,905), United Parcel Service ($2,344,923), Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu ($2,027,309), Lockheed Martin ($1,975,320), Verizon ($1,908,676), Blue Cross/Blue Shield ($1,863,791), Pfizer ($1,684,689) …

To Captain:

Francis wants to be an elected official and he’s proven that he’s willing to spend a lot of his own money to get elected. Unless there is a catastrophic Sanders collapse, Francis will go the way of other self-funded candidates in San Diego (Peter Q. Davis) and in California (Michael Huffington).

To Erik:

Hey, John, how are you? The polling is good. But, when we’re discussing elections, I prefer to know what voters think. And, yes, I believe that San Diego should have its version of something like PPIC’s monthly poll. Let’s test affordable health care and the money companies like Steve Francis’ are making off of the existing health care crisis.

— CHRIS CROTTY