I finally got a chance this morning to catch up with Floyd Morrow, the Democratic former city councilman who recently jumped into the race for mayor.
In our half-hour conversation, the 75-year-old Morrow took me through his interesting history. Although he once served in a number of prominent political positions, Morrow’s been out of the game for a while, so it’s good to go through his past.
The graduate of the University of Texas ended up in San Diego because of his military service; he was a platoon sergeant in the Korean War. He then worked as a lawyer.
What kind of law did he practice? I asked.
“Damn good law,” he said.
Morrow said he did patent law with Ryan Aeronautical and then moved to the San Diego City Attorney’s Office for two years, where he was a deputy city attorney. After that, Morrow founded a law firm (Morrow, Young, Hargrove & Booth).
In 1965, he was elected to the City Council and he served there until 1978, he said.
“The biggest issue and the one that I’m probably longest known for is my fight with San Diego Gas & Electric,” Morrow said, saying that he’d helped found the Utilities Consumers’ Action Network when the company’s franchise was set to expire around 1970.
Morrow also said he worked heavily on open space, including the creation of Mission Trails Regional Park.
Council members were chosen differently in those days. First, candidates battled in district primaries for the right to advance to the general election. Then, they competed citywide in the general. He said the district he came out of then basically matched that of the current District 5, which is represented by Councilman Brian Maienschein.
Since leaving the council, Morrow has served as the chairman of the local Democratic Party and dabbled in television entrepreneurship. Through a lottery system, he won two local television licenses. He sold one of them immediately to the University of California, San Diego, which it uses for its television station, he said. With the other, Morrow started KBNP Channel 17, which is the Spanish-language channel Univision out of Tijuana. He later sold the channel to Viejas for $5 million, he said.
Today, he’s the co-owner of a manufacturing outfit, Morrow Mobiles, in Tijuana that makes manufactured homes.
Just two weeks ago he found out more about his early life. Morrow and his twin brother, Lloyd Morrow, were put up for adoption during the Great Depression, he said. Two weeks ago, he became in contact with a long-lost brother in Oklahoma City, who told him his father was Native American.
So that’s his brief life story, as told to me.
I’ll get more into his political stances and goals as mayor in a later post. For now, check out his campaign website www.morrowformayor.com.