This post originally appeared in the Oct. 13 Politics Report. Get the Politics Report delivered every Saturday.
On Friday, we woke up to several text messages wondering if something was up. Apparently everyone who was following Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s official Facebook page got a notification that it had changed its name from Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher to Lorena Gonzalez.
No, there wasn’t news. “Absolutely nothing is wrong (as I’ve been asked this morning!) we just know a lot of constituents were confused and we want them to be able to find this page! I am still happily married and madly in love with Nathan Fletcher,” she wrote.
Recently, Gonzalez had announced that she was going to go back to being referred to professionally with the surname “Gonzalez” only.
No endorsement? We also were struck by Gonzalez’s voter guide. Much of it was to be expected. But two points caught our eye.
The first was her mild endorsement of Proposition 5 — the initiative that would allow seniors to take their low property tax rates to new homes. She said she thinks she’s voting no, but that she thinks “it may actually help with seniors downsizing,” she wrote.
And about District 4: She endorsed in every City Council race in the city of San Diego. That is, except for one. In District 4, she wrote, she had no recommendation. That’s the race between Council President Myrtle Cole and ACLU organizer (and former Cole staffer) Monica Montgomery.
When we pointed that out on Twitter, she responded:
“I have a long relationship with Myrtle, I don’t oppose her. We have worked on a few things together. I just really love Monica and our community is very split. There are (a few) times when you just don’t get involved & let the voters decide,” she wrote.
It can’t have been welcome news to the Cole camp. The U-T endorsed Montgomery last week — making Cole the only incumbent on the City Council not to get the paper’s nod.
It’s very hard to picture a City Council incumbent losing but it’s even harder to picture the City Council president losing.
Another blow: It seems some right-of-center folks also see an opportunity. Community Voices SD, a group associated with the Lincoln Club, has begun promoting news stories on Facebook seen as favorable to Montgomery. Another one, highlighting Cole’s endorsement by the Democratic Party, is being promoted to Republicans on Facebook.
There remains a fair bit of animus between Cole and some Republicans. She had aligned with Faulconer and more conservative City Council members to win her first term as Council president. But when things got tight last year, she booted Republican Councilman Scott Sherman from his beloved post on the city’s Land Use and Housing Committee and installed Democrat Georgette Gomez instead.
Labor leaders have now pledged to support for her and she’s relying on them to help her win. But we’ve been wondering if the right would try to score a blow against her. Seems like they may be seeing a chance.
You can check all the political ads running on Facebook with this handy link.