We are just over a week away from this election mercifully coming to a conclusion. I don’t know if I can make it. I have tried to organize my stacks of mailers into something I can navigate.
I do have good news though. Rather than the normal election contest I run each cycle, this year, we will do it in survey form so it’s easier to fill out. Get ready to pick your over/unders starting next Saturday.
OK, here’s what’s going on:
Attorney Drops Another $450K into Mayor’s Race
Steven Richter has burst onto the political scene with his now total of $1.45 million in donations this cycle. He had sent the first $1 million to the Lincoln Club, which used $900,000 of it to fund a committee that has been running ads for mayoral candidate Larry Turner relentlessly on streaming services and social media.
This week, Richter gave $450,000 directly to that committee – avoiding the Lincoln Club first. That means his name will have to go on the new ads.
I called Richter to understand what’s motivating his spending but he was not interested in talking with me.
He did tell La Prensa he dropped the latest stack of cash into the race to balance it after he heard of the mayor’s supporters collecting $800,000 to counteract Richter’s spending. The mayor’s supporters have gone up to $900,000 now.
Lincoln Club, out: Why did Richter go direct this time? Lincoln Club Chairman Dan Hom told me the money had caused some consternation within the club.
“Sometimes having more money is harder in politics,” he said.
He said that Mayor Todd Gloria could have avoided all of this had he simply agreed to meet with the club and make his case for re-election. He did not. Just meeting with them may have been enough to avoid the club endorsing Turner and spending.
“Larry Turner did come and the board voted to support him. It was as simple as that,” Hom said.
What’s it matter? I’ve seen lots of money in a San Diego mayor’s race before. Real heads will remember the $5 million in 2008 Steve Francis put into his losing effort to oust incumbent Mayor Jerry Sanders. He never made a coherent case about why Sanders needed to lose his job.
It is really hard to oust an incumbent. And you have to go really negative to do it. The public has to know that re-electing the mayor is a detestable outcome. The first $900,000 from Richter, however, had not supported a negative message at all.
The newest ad looks like it did put a dark perspective on Gloria. But is more coming?
I assume the people taking Richter’s money showed him a path to victory. The Lincoln Club’s committee reported spending $30,000 on a poll. I called around trying to get a copy but couldn’t get anything. But La Prensa posted results of a poll that showed Mayor Todd Gloria in the lead but not that dominant. La Prensa did not identify who did the poll.
The U-T’s SurveyUSA poll recently showed Gloria’s lead widening. But political professionals often mock SurveyUSA. Either way, voting has already been happening for weeks. This surge of resources for Turner’s supporters is less impactful with each hour that passes at this point.
“Mr. Richter is going to learn a very painful and expensive lesson about what happens when you trust the Lincoln Club with your money,” said Ryan Clumpner, a political consultant who used to be the executive director of the Lincoln Club.
Related: We recycled a fact check on Mayor Gloria and his supporters’ ongoing claims that he increased shelters for homeless residents by 70 percent. It wasn’t true when we checked it last year and still isn’t.
Related II: Turner is facing some of the same pressures Kevin Faulconer, running to oust an incumbent, is facing in a coastal district: The city is going to vote overwhelmingly for Kamala Harris for president. But neither of them has been willing to say what they think about Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Until this week. Turner issued a statement: “I did not vote for Donald Trump and am not voting for Donald Trump. I have been explicitly clear that I do not endorse nor criticize any candidate for President.”
Here’s what he told me about Trump and Harris in August: “I don’t talk about the race at all. I can just tell you that I’m not super happy almost at any level with any politician … Is it kind of cool as a father of a daughter to think about first female president? Yeah”
Kevin Faulconer, Lib
We’ve talked a lot about the District 3 supervisors race and how Kevin Faulconer, the Republican running to unseat Terra Lawson-Remer will have to convince liberals to vote for him.
So far, independent groups have been making that case. Millions have been spent in the race and more is coming and the vast majority of that is going to support Faulconer.
We wrote about the “remember, after you vote for Kamala, vote for Kevin” ads and related mailers, but those came from independent groups. Now Faulconer’s own campaign is hitting the note.
He mentions “climate action” and he was the one who first got the city to do a binding climate action plan. But there’s only so much a city or region can do on climate action and one of the big ones is try to limit how much people drive. It’s the central feature of the plan he helped usher through the city — to concentrate growth in urban areas.
The hard part, though, is making those actual decisions when housing is proposed. He’s not showing he’s into that at all.
Though he did make a point to support battery facilities.
Then came the most lib of the Kevin-Faulconer-is-lib mailers yet. This time from the Building Industry Association, which does not like the climate action plans for the county.
As for guns: That “pro-gun control” point has been used a lot. The San Diego County Gun Owners PAC supports Faulconer. They do not give out those endorsements lightly.
Related: Our Lisa Halverstadt did a good story about Lawson-Remer’s use of campaign funds to pay for her child’s preschool. Reminder that campaign finance laws are put in place to keep donor money out of the pockets of politicians. Halverstadt’s story revealed just how much gray area there is in new rules allowing candidates to use the funds for child care.
DeMaio Dispute
I had a little scoop this week about a family in Rancho Bernardo seeking a restraining order against Assembly candidate Carl DeMaio over a neighborly spat about their shared property line, views and other offenses that make homeowners associations so fun.
I wouldn’t care at all about it except that DeMaio is representing himself as living in the Rancho Bernardo house and that would mean he’s not living in the Fallbrook/Escondido apartment where he registered to vote last year making him eligible to run in the 75th Assembly District.
He signed an email, a few weeks ago, to the neighbor with whom he’s feuding, with his address in Rancho Bernardo at the bottom imploring him to protect DeMaio’s view.
But there were a couple other points: A deputy sheriff served DeMaio with the restraining order action at his Rancho Bernardo house on Oct. 10.
A judge denied the restraining order but granted a hearing. DeMaio and his husband Johnathan Hale requested that the cases against them both be consolidated. In the request, they indicated “the restrained parties reside together” as a reason for consolidation of their cases.
So does DeMaio live in his nice house with his husband in Rancho Bernardo where he’s fighting for the view with neighbors and spending a lot of time or a small apartment much further away? It’s pretty obvious but as KPBS explained, proving his ineligible to run in another district is not easy at all.
Tough Month for Padres Continues with Tailgate Ruling
Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal issued a tentative ruling late Thursday that the city’s sale of Tailgate Park land to a team of partners led by the Padres and the project they propose required a specific environmental review of its own.
It’s only tentative but the ruling could completely unwind the massive development the Padres are leading that would transform more than 5 acres of land near Petco Park into 1,710 homes, a park and office and retail space.
Midway all over again: The ruling gives off the same vibes as the one that upended the initial plan to redevelop the city’s land in Midway. First, the city was found to have improperly ignored the state’s rules about how it can sell or lease out property.
Then, attorneys argued the first ballot initiative to remove the building height limit in the Midway neighborhood and facilitate the big visions developers had for the Sports Arena land was illegal. It needed its own environmental review.
That’s where we are again: Now, regarding Tailgate Park, on the one side, a plaintiff, represented by longtime public interest lawyer Cory Briggs, is arguing that the project needed its own environmental impact report. Just like before, on the other side, the city says the existing environmental impact studies for downtown already include the project and didn’t need to be done again.
That was exactly how it played out in Midway and the city eventually had to redo the ballot initiative (which it did, successfully, in 2022).
“Adding these residential units would appear to cause a direct physical change in the environment, on a property that previously was identified for mixed commercial zoning that did not contemplate at least 1,710 residential units,” wrote Judge Bacal Thursday.
Briggs said his goal is to force the city to start over. If it did, the Padres would have to guarantee that more of those homes were restricted for people with lower incomes. The city and Padres made a deal on the sale of the land before the enforcement of new provisions of the Surplus Lands Act started. They required cities that want to sell land to first find development partners who promise to protect at least 25 percent of the homes they build for low-income families. (The U-T’s Jeff McDonald did a good story about the deal in 2022.)
“The real story here is they rushed to get this done before a new requirement for more affordable housing in deals like this hit and now the city has a chance to do it right and house more people,” Briggs said.
City officials are optimistic the ruling won’t stick after a hearing Friday.
“While we disagree with the tentative decision, we are hopeful that following this afternoon’s argument, the judge will find the decision to approve the [Disposition and Development Agreement] did not violate [the California Environmental Quality Act],” said Paola Avila, the mayor’s chief of staff.
McGrory Wants You to Vote No on Prop. 2
Jack McGrory, the former city manager turned developer and Trustee for California State University, has a bone to pick with Proposition 2.
The ballot measure authorizes the state to borrow $10 billion to help school districts and community colleges across the state repair and replace facilities. It is not a tax increase, it just allows the state to borrow the money.
It came out of legislation in Sacramento. There had been another bill that would have included the CSU system and UC systems in the bond. But the Legislature and governor decided CSU and UC just made it less popular.
“Our buildings are falling apart. Every time we try to do something about it, we get shafted,” McGrory said.
If you have any feedback or ideas for the Politics Report, send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.