Our Nadia Lathan visited the California Republican Party’s convention in San Diego Friday and Saturday and got a feel for how conservatives and their cautious optimism.
“Liquor in hand, they rubbed shoulders alongside a small crowd of strategists, advocates and podcasters who were in a bit of a glow,” Lathan wrote after attending the Republican Party’s annual convention.
Mostly they were just stoked to be watching a longtime antagonist, U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, fall apart.
Forty-five percent of voters are registered as Democrat in the state and President Donald Trump’s unpopular choices are likely to lead to a blue wave.
So, how do they feel? They are hopeful.
GOP leaders insist that what’s happening nationally has nothing to do with how Californians feel about how Dems are running the show. They are also aware there are a few key races and areas they need to focus on. Read more in the Sacramento Report.
And the San Francisco Chronicle, followed by CNN, rocked the race for governor by publishing allegations that Swalwell, a Democrat running for governor, had sexually assaulted a former staffer and had sent unwanted photos and much more to several other women. The fallout and cancelling happened at lightning fast speed.
Our editor Scott Lewis has more on the Politics Report. Read it here.
About that: Swalwell suspended his gubernatorial campaign Sunday. However, his name will still be on the ballot.
More: The Republicans were not able to make an endorsement in the race for governor. Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County, had slightly more support at the convention in San Diego than Steve Hilton, the former Fox News host. And Bianco may have been able to take it had President Trump not endorsed Hilton last week.
Ironically, the Republicans’ reluctance to coalesce around one candidate means they are in a better position to deliver the Democrats’ nightmare: two Republicans making it through to the runoff election in November.
We Helped Defuse SeaWorld’s Fireworks
Two years after bird bodies washed up on Mission Bay shores following a barrage of fireworks shows, SeaWorld San Diego says it will switch to using mostly drones instead.
Voice of San Diego first reported that elegant tern adults, chicks and damaged eggs had washed ashore Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve days after SeaWorld and Discover Mission Bay set off over 500 pounds of explosives on July 4, 2024. Upon taking over as San Diego City Council president, Joe LaCava declared war on pyrotechnics.
“When I became council president I realized I had a louder voice to make that change,” LaCava told Environment Reporter MacKenzie Elmer during a Friday interview. “You were really the first one to hear me say this and made a big deal about it.”
On Thursday, SeaWorld and LaCava announced that the marine life entertainment business filed a permit application with the California Coastal Commission to launch large-scale drone shows for two years. The commission votes on the application April 15.
VOSD Podcast: So Not Transparent
San Diego County Supervisors are making big moves to bolster transparency…or are they?
Board Chair Terra Lawson Remer rolled out a much-awaited slate of proposals pitched at increasing government accountability. They include extending term limits, giving supervisors the ability to confirm and fire department heads and establishing an ethics commission.
But if they are really concerned about, and committed to, transparency, there’s one thing they could do without a ballot measure: stop fighting our legitimate public records requests and forcing us to take them to court.
Plus: Catch up on the messy saga of Liberty Station and all the chisme in Chula Vista’s newly competitive mayoral race.
Listen to the whole episode here.
In Other News
- Everyone needed some good news and the astronauts of Artemis II delivered. (Union-Tribune)
- A judge has put a date on the books for the trial over the future of San Diego’s trash fee. (ABC 10)
The Morning Report was written by Andea Sanchez-Villafana and Jakob McWhinney. It was edited by Scott Lewis.