GOP elephant logo with scribble over it

It was a big week for things that used to be things.

First up: the Republican Party of San Diego County. The one-time juggernaut lost its chairwoman after an internal battle over Carl DeMaio, who is running for state Assembly against fellow Republican Andrew Hayes.

DeMaio served one term on the San Diego City Council in 2008. He’s since run for many seats unsuccessfully and has grown his brand as a polarizing conservative activist and radio talk show host.

His opponent who carried the GOP endorsement during the Primary, Hayes, is a school board member in Lakeside and an aide to state Sen. Brian Jones.

Now, despite DeMaio’s efforts to drag a Democrat to the runoff, it will be Republican vs. Republican.

This week on the VOSD Podcast, hosts Scott Lewis, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Jakob McWhinney discuss the endorsement battle that threatened to splinter an already weak political faction — and ultimately led to the emergence of a new party leader.

Next up in things that used to be a big: Virtual schools. Online learning was a painful staple of the pandemic for many. Schools had to transform fast and it hurt. Now, as many families remain in “cloud school” mode, our data shows those students are performing way worse than kids learning in-person.

McWhinney crunched the numbers and shares the full story this week.

And finally in things that used to be a thing: Lewis got the latest on an arena that will not be built on SDSU’s land in Mission Valley.

Listen Now

Listen: Apple | Spotify | Google | PodLink

Nate John is the digital manager at Voice of San Diego. He oversees Voice's website, newsletters, podcasts and product team. You can reach him at nate@vosd.org.

Join the Conversation

1 Comment

Leave a comment
We expect all commenters to be constructive and civil. We reserve the right to delete comments without explanation. You are welcome to flag comments to us. You are welcome to submit an opinion piece for our editors to review.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.