All the major candidates for governor appeared at a debate hosted by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and NBC Bay Area Tuesday. San Diego didn’t come up much, except after a question to the candidates about the #MeToo movement and sexual harassment.
John Cox, a Rancho Santa Fe businessman, made quite a claim.
“I don’t take a back seat to anyone on this. I led the recall of Bob Filner and got rid of him as the San Diego mayor,” he said.
This took a lot of us by surprise (City Councilman David Alvarez’s response is pretty funny). Liam Dillon was the first to fact check it.
Cox engaged Dillon in an email exchange about the whole deal, which Dillon posted here.
“People in San Diego know what I did and I am comfortable with that,” Cox wrote to Dillon.
A lot of people were responsible for the pressure that led to Filner resigning. First, the whistleblowers and women who came forward and kept the story alive. Second, the media, who told those stories, led by KPBS. Third, the politicians who called for him to step down and the legal pressure that they arranged to finally trap him into a situation with few options.
Finally, there was the recall movement, which was an important pressure point. It had many volunteers. Cox donated $10,000 to it, and considers himself a partner in its leadership.
But he didn’t get rid of Filner.