Sanders on Radio

Mayor Jerry Sanders will hit the radio today with the first two spots of his reelection campaign.

They come nearly two weeks after Steve Francis, Sanders’ most prominent challenger, went up on television, where he plans to stay daily until the June 3 primary.

You can listen to the Sanders ads below or just read transcripts:

AUDIO: Sanders’ 60-Second Spot

Here’s a transcript of the 60-second spot:

(Menacing music)

NARRATOR: Federal securities law violations. Budget shell games. Enron by the Sea. That was San Diego City Hall three years ago.

In the midst of this meltdown (music changes to upbeat) we elected Mayor Jerry Sanders to get our city back on track.

SANDERS: My priorities were to address long-term obligations that had been swept under the rug. To put controls in place so sure these mistakes could never happened again. To cut city bureaucracy and to restore our credit rating. We increased funding for deferred maintenance and infrastructure by over 4,000 percent. We put in place tough new fiscal controls. We cut over $50 million and 670 positions and completed long-delayed audits. We’re well on our way to restoring the city’s credit rating and reentering the bond market. If we maintain this discipline over the next few critical years our city will be back on track.

I ask for your support to finish the job and give you a city government to be proud of.

And the 30-second spot:

AUDIO: Sanders’ 30-Second Spot

(Same upbeat music as the first ad)

NARRATOR: Just over two years ago we elected Mayor Jerry Sanders to get San Diego back on track.

SANDERS: We’ve increased funding for deferred maintenance and infrastructure by over 4,000 percent. We put in place tough fiscal controls, cut over $50 million and 670 positions and completed long-delayed audits. We’re on the way to restoring our city’s credit rating. I ask for your support to finish the job and give you a city government to be proud of.

The ads are short on panache and big on the gritty details of municipal life. (I never thought I’d see a campaign sign with the words “Deferred Maintenance!” scrawled across it.)

But the ads pick up on what is sure to be a main theme of Sanders’ campaign: I’m making progress, and I need four more years to get it done.

As I wrote in my story today, so far in this young campaign, money has been a big issue, with Francis set to spend several million dollars. He kicked it off with an unprecedented television ad buy 15 weeks away from the election. Today’s ads underscore the cash disparity, as Sanders likely won’t hit television until the closing weeks of the primary campaign.

But Sanders does get a lot of free press. As I noted in the story today, he called one press conference a day last week. So far, he’s on pace to break that record this week. He’s held two today.

— ANDREW DONOHUE