The local Republican Party’s job in an election is to boost local Republican candidates, but that’s never stopped party leaders from talking up the top of the ticket. Until now.
Tony Krvaric, a fierce party loyalist and the head of the Republican Party of San Diego County, is just one of the local GOP officials who has declined to publicly support Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee for president. Krvaric wouldn’t respond directly to questions about whether he personally supports Trump, Andrew Keatts reports, but many other local Republicans are quite vocal about why they don’t want Trump.
They offered Keatts some interesting quotes. Few of them, though, are clear about what they’ll do instead.
A handful of lawmakers — Encinitas Mayor Kristin Gaspar, Reps. Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa, and state Sen. Joel Anderson — have publicly backed Trump.
So. Many. Decisions.
Voters in California will have an absurd number of decisions to make beyond just Trump vs. Clinton.
In fact, if you drop a printout of the state Voter Information Guide against a desk, it lands with a massive thud. The document – still in draft form at this point – is bigger than some cities’ phone books.
In the latest San Diego Decides podcast, Ry Rivard and I offer our first impressions of the state voter guide – how it’s laid out, which parts are actually useful, what surprised us the most and more.
Keep in mind: Not only could the state guide get even longer, but it does not include the many, many county and citywide issues and races that San Diego voters will also be asked to weigh in on.
Our recommendation: Treat it as a book club entry, and get to studying now.
• I make a cameo in this NBC San Diego segment about the insanely long ballot.
The Housing Crunch Keeps Crunching
The Sierra Club is threatening to sue over a handful of development projects in rural San Diego County, including Lilac Hills Ranch and several others, reports the Union-Tribune.
The environmental group argues that the environmental effects of those projects could undermine state and regional goals to combat climate change.
“San Diego County’s courtroom battles concerning climate change are widely seen as the first of their kind in California, setting off a series of other legal challenges against cities and counties,” according to the U-T.
Part of the dispute centers on the fact that the county has not yet adopted its own climate action plan, which it said it would do when it updated its general plan in 2011. The Sierra Club argues the county can’t make exceptions to its general plan to allow for new development – which projects like Lilac Hills have sought – without a new climate plan that spells out how the environmental effects of those projects will factor into emissions reduction goals.
Meanwhile, over at KPBS, Alison St. John examined how the housing crunch is impacting middle-class folks in the county.
A big part of the problem is the disconnect between what community plans say can be built in an area, and what actually gets built. SANDAG says that plans on the books can indeed accommodate San Diego’s growing population.
“But in practice, the gap is widening between what is needed and what is actually built,” KPBS writes.
• As for statewide solutions, Liam Dillon reports that Gov. Jerry Brown’s big housing plan could be in trouble.
• Portland, Ore., is starting to experience its own housing pains. Part of the reason, says CityLab, is that Californians keep moving there.
Quick News Hits
• The Chargers are doing that thing where you break up with your girlfriend or boyfriend before they break up with you. That is, the team refused to meet with the San Diego County Taxpayers Association about their ballot proposal for a new stadium. The team says it doesn’t think the group would give them a fair review. (KPBS)
• California’s underground market for stolen guns is thriving. (NBC San Diego)
• Mizzou poached SDSU’s athletic director. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)