Judging solely by campaign spending, the story of this year’s election in south San Diego County can be told in one simple phrase: Organized labor versus the real estate industry.
Statewide real estate interests and two coalitions of union laborers, builders, firefighters and other workers are pouring thousands of dollars into key campaigns around the region, including a high-profile race for city council and contests over multi-million-dollar tax increases and bond measures.
The money has paid for a blizzard of high-gloss mailers, social media messages, attack websites and even a recall campaign against one city council candidate who also serves on a local school board.
“It’s organized labor versus the realtors,” said Chula Vista City Council candidate Cesar Fernandez, who has been targeted by tens of thousands of dollars in independent expenditures from an enigmatic, real estate-funded political action committee called Protect Our Quality of Life. “I can’t let it rattle me. That’s what [the expenditures are] there for: Make me feel bad and afraid and not go out. It does the opposite, to be honest.”
As of Oct. 19, the latest date for which figures are available, Protect Our Quality of Life has raised more than $341,000, most of it from statewide real estate interests. The PAC has spent that money on races around San Diego County, including major expenditures attacking Fernandez and backing his rival, former Chula Vista City Councilmember Rudy Ramirez.
In response, two influential organized labor groups — the San Diego Labor Council and the San Diego Labor Coalition — together have raised and spent close to $2 million of their own, directing a chunk of that money toward contests for city council in Chula Vista, a council race in Imperial Beach and several tax and bond measures in Chula Vista and National City.
Kelvin Barrios, political director for the San Diego Labor Coalition, said his group has been keeping its eye on real estate industry spending. “If you look countywide, they have become a lot more active,” he said. “We’re tracking that and we’re aware of it.”
Barrios said his group seeks to aid candidates and ballot measures that “represent working class people the best.”
Protect Our Quality of Life, the real estate PAC, has drawn especially sharp scrutiny in South County in part because no one seems to know — or at least is willing to say on the record — who directs the group’s political spending. The PAC was the principal funder of an attack website against Fernandez called dumpcesar.com, which links to a lawsuit, DUI records and school board expense reports to show that Fernandez is “not a good representation of the city of Chula Vista.”
The PAC spent roughly $7,000 on the website and accompanying text messages, plus another $31,000 on mailers supporting Ramirez, according to campaign filings. The PAC also spent nearly $1,400 to help a group of local parents and political activists launch a recall campaign against Fernandez, who currently sits on the Chula Vista Elementary School District school board.
The PAC’s spending — close to $40,000 — dwarfs the $26,000 Fernandez has raised from his own supporters this year (as well as the $28,000 raised by Ramirez). But the spending is more than matched by big-dollar expenditures from organized labor groups backing Fernandez.
The Labor Council and the Labor Coalition have spent a combined total of at least $40,000 supporting Fernandez with mail ads touting his local endorsements and slamming Ramirez.
One of those ads drew a rebuke from Ramirez earlier this week for falsely claiming that the San Diego County Democratic Party had rated him “unacceptable.” In fact, a local Democratic caucus that endorsed Fernandez had recommended that the county party give the “unacceptable” rating to Ramirez, but the party never acted on the recommendation.
Party Chair Kyle Krahel-Frolander called the mailer “an unauthorized use of our logo,” and the Labor Coalition later sent supporters a text message correcting the mailer (and adding an additional dig seeking to link Ramirez to supporters of former President Donald Trump).
Both Fernandez and Ramirez denied any connection to the big-money backers spending on their behalf. State law prohibits candidates from coordinating campaign efforts with independent expenditure groups.
“I don’t shy away from or deny that I’m a full supporter of unions,” Fernandez said. But “I had nothing to do with” the labor-funded attack mailer against Ramirez.
“I’ve made hit pieces of my own,” Fernadez added. “My pieces, they don’t stretch the facts at all.”
Ramirez likewise said he had no idea who was behind the real estate-funded attacks against Fernandez. “I haven’t spent one minute or one penny doing opposition research or any kind of attack on him at all,” he said. “I don’t know anything about that money.”
Campaign filings for Protect Our Quality of Life give only the address of the PAC’s accountant, Briana Bilbray, daughter of former Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray. In response to an email asking about the group’s leadership, Bilbray said she had forwarded questions to “the campaign,” which did not follow up with a response. A recent visit to the address on the PAC’s campaign filings found a small apartment adjacent to the Imperial Beach Pier with a rusted screen door and a sign reading “Bilbray Tax Service” in the window. A knock on the door went unanswered.
The PAC lists a $1,000 contribution on Aug. 28 from former Chula Vista City Councilmember Mitchell Thompson, who also donated $820 to Ramirez’s campaign. Thompson said he supports Ramirez because “I served with him for a year [on the city council and] he just doesn’t put his personal agenda above the city.”
“I know who did the website [attacking Fernandez] and I don’t want to say who it is,” Thompson said. “I want a city council where there’s not as much special interest that kind of drives everything.”
The real estate PAC also lists roughly $30,000 in payments to a firm run by veteran political consultant John Wainio, including $948 for “yard signs in support of the recall of C[hula] V[ista] school board member Cesar Fernandez.”
Reached by phone, Wainio denied being closely involved in the campaign against Fernandez. “I don’t know who made the website” attacking Fernandez, he said. “I’m aware that [Fernandez’s] campaign has tried to say, ‘We’re under siege with $40,000 of real estate money.’ There’s no evidence of that.”
John Richeson, a local good government advocate and Ramirez supporter who said he supplied much of the online research featured in the attack website against Fernandez, identified Wainio as the political consultant who helped parents launch their recall effort against Fernandez.
“I asked him specifically if he would support the recall and he said he would help the group get off the ground,” Richeson said. “He is active in a variety of campaigns and may be running a PAC somewhere.”
Wainio denied being closely involved with the recall effort, which he called “absolutely a grass roots effort.” He said the principal funders of Protect Our Quality of Life were focused on other San Diego-area races, not races in Chula Vista.
“Your question is a good one,” he said. “Why would a Sacramento real estate entity care about Chula Vista?.The city council race is small potatoes.”
Richard D’Ascoli, CEO of the Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors, which endorsed one candidate in a Chula Vista City Council race but did not weigh in on the contest between Fernandez and Ramirez, said he could not comment on spending by Protect Our Quality of Life or other real estate interest groups. “PSAR believes that homeownership is the foundation for strong communities, and we’re committed to supporting leaders who understand this,” he said.
D’Ascoli’s organization did weigh in against a parcel tax ballot measure in National City, which aims to raise millions for street and park improvements by adding an additional tax to privately owned properties in the city. That measure also has become a battleground between the real estate industry and labor groups.
As of Oct. 19, real estate interests had raised and spent more than $80,000 attacking the measure, which opposition mailers call a “regressive tax…that hits working families the hardest.” One mailer features an image of a piggy bank beneath a warning that “Measure R is guaranteed to further increase your cost of living.”
The campaign in favor of Measure R lists as its only direct source of funding three loans totaling $20,500 from National City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez, who sponsored the measure and worked to place it on the ballot.
But the measure also has drawn close to $13,000 in support from the San Diego Labor Coalition, the same labor group backing Cesar Fernandez. The spending adds to more than $90,000 the group has poured into campaigns supporting three bond measures and a sales tax measure in Chula Vista. Together, the various measures in Chula Vista and National City would enact tax increases or borrowing to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for area schools, college facilities and city services.
Both Fernandez and Ramirez said the large amounts of money pouring into their race sometimes left them feeling overshadowed by warring interest groups whose agendas extended far beyond the needs and concerns of one city council district.
“It’s an uphill battle for me going against the machine,” Ramirez said. “There have been a lot of hit pieces on me… I’m not aligned with the political elite. I’m aligned with all the people in this district.”
“My [campaign] consultant says [winning an election] is all about mail,” Fernandez said. “I prefer walking and going face to face with a voter…I just wish politics were a little nicer.”
