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At the heart of the fight over a new taxpayer-subsidized stadium and convention center are concerns that city services could be cut if something goes wrong with the Chargers’ preferred plan, which is on the ballot as Measure C.
Today, our Lisa Halverstadt explores two competing arguments:
Chargers officials and the mayor say their plan is designed so that only new city hotel taxes are needed to pay for the facility — we won’t end up sacrificing police and fire protection for football.
But City Council members and opponents of Measure C don’t believe the Chargers’ promises. They believe, under some scenarios, the city’s general operating budget could forced to pick up the tab.
To get to the truth, Halverstadt broke down the big questions: How much will the convadium project cost and how much could that cost grow? How much money will a hotel-tax hike meant to cover the city’s share of the project bring in? Will the city be a backstop if the whatever entity is formed to pay off the loans can’t come up with payments?
Ultimately, much of it comes down to whether you trust the Chargers and mayor.
Anti-Trump Voters May Be Good for the Chargers
Consultants working on local measures or who are familiar with polling on them are split on how an anti-Trump wave – or more generally, higher Democratic turnout – would affect their prospects, according to a round up of election news by Andrew Keatts.
David Carney, a New Hampshire-based consultant handling voter targeting for the Chargers, said any turnout that’s above normal expectations is good for the Chargers’ Measure C.
“If 100 percent of San Diego votes, we get our two-thirds,” he said. “Our base of support, beyond the fan base, is mostly low-propensity voters. The anti-Trump phenomenon would be good for San Diego getting a stadium. Any effort to turn out low-propensity voters, the better for us.”
John Nienstedt, a local pollster said he wasn’t so sure about Measure C but believed anti-Trump voters could help pass Measure A, which would raise sales taxes countywide to pay for transportation and infrastructure projects.
“If higher-than-usual Democratic turnout materializes, there will be a positive effect on Measure A and no substantial effect on Measure C. Measure C is not a partisan issue,” Nienstedt said.
San Diego Decides Podcast: Debates
Unlike presidential debates that are watched by millions, local political debates are rarely televised, yet they offer some of the only chances for voters to hear city and county candidates who will have direct say over so much of their lives.
On this week’s election-focused podcast Sara Libby, Andrew and I talk about those debates.
In Other News
• Donald Trump once flirted with buying the Padres. That’s one of several tidbits in this Los Angeles Times on how Trump was “outbid, outhustled, outmuscled” in his attempts to conquer Southern California.
• An Oceanside city official is facing a child molestation charge and has resigned his post as manager of the city’s Neighborhood Services Division. (Union-Tribune)
• In the city scandal that never ends, a deputy city attorney claims in a new lawsuit that a supervisor has been sexually harassing for three years and told her to keep quiet about being previously harassed by former Mayor Bob Filner. (Union-Tribune)
• A look at the new Navy destroyer heading to port in San Diego. (Union-Tribune)
• During a meeting of law enforcement officers in San Diego, the head of a police chiefs’ association apologized for “society’s historical mistreatment of communities of color.” (NBC San Diego)
• A story on political donations by people in the media mentions Les Waldron, an assignment editor at CBS 8, for $28 donation to the Trump campaign. Most media donors gave money to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, though many of the people named in the story are not straight news reporters or do not cover the presidential race. (Center for Public Integrity)
• Print circulation at the Union-Tribune continues to decline, mirroring larger trends facing the newspaper industry. The circulation figures are important not just because they gauge how many people are paying attention to news but because they effect how much businesses are willing to pay for advertisements that support the paper’s operations. (San Diego Reader)