Monday, June 16, 2008 | Re: Where Are the Democrats?
The answer to this question is easy. They are taking the money from and following the same orders as the Republicans.
Take Toni Atkins and Jim Madaffer. Atkins represents arguably the most liberal district and Madaffer one of the most conservative. Yet, outside of labor and some social issues, their votes are identical. Their support for the pension mess, public land giveaways and redevelopment abuse — all of which plunder our public assets — are the same.
In District 1, there was huge furor over NTC when it was Michael Zucchet and Kevin Falcouner. Falcouner took money from McMillin, Zucchet said it was a bad deal. This helped sway the vote for a Zucchet victory. After Zucchet’s election, campaign records show that Zucchet took money from McMillin’s lawyer and indicate that this law firm raised the money to pay off his campaign debt. Then Zucchet pushed through every deal change, with the help of every other Democrat on council save for Frye.
Lorena Gonzalez was no better. She may be bright, but she showed no compassion for the issues of the little people who fight day in and day out against government corruption in her district. And she supported the NTC giveaway while working for Cruz Bustamante.
Denise Ducheny? Always fighting for loosening public lands protection so developers can steal these assets. Dede Alpert? No different than Susan Davis. Both have shown distance from the grassroots and willingness to push the downtown agenda. Juan Vargas? Never showed any passion for the people.
San Diego Democrats cater to limousine liberals and the unions. The bread-and-butter issue of good government is nowhere on the table. And when a public champion like Aguirre comes along, the party controllers run and hide while supporting the giveaway artist Scott Peters.
Unlike the national revitalization, the local Democratic Party is very sick and in need of rediscovering the value of the common good. Until then, moderate Republicans and Independents have no reason to support this tarnished local brand.