Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins recently announced she’d be challenging Marty Block for his seat in the Senate, partly because of a meeting that she says happened years ago in which Block said he’d only serve one term.

Block joined the podcast this week and addressed the awkward drama behind two Democrats running against each other. He said he never made a promise to Atkins, and that throwing in the towel after one term was always “merely a possibility.”

Like any good politician, Block quickly pivoted and talked about how his background in leadership and education set him apart from Atkins. Implicit in that is the idea that the two Dems’ votes would be the same. But Block says there is a policy issue on which they differ: a new Chargers stadium. Block called putting taxpayer money toward one would be “corporate welfare.”

Also on the podcast, Councilman Scott Sherman called in to discuss a recent city audit of San Diego’s Code Enforcement Division, which echoed many issues with how code complaints are handled that we surfaced in this investigation.

Hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts also debated the outcome of County Supervisor Bill Horn’s conflict of interest in the Lilac Hills saga, dove neck-deep into the ban on orca breeding at SeaWorld and more.

Listen to the podcast here, on Stitcher or on iTunes.

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Amanda Rhoades is a reporting intern for Voice of San Diego. You can get in contact with her by phone or email at 619-550-5672 or amanda@voiceofsandiego.org

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