Taste of Little Italy
Bob Filner We’ll say one positive thing for U-T San Diego: It provides us with endless editorial fodder.
In its Sunday editorial, the U-T dredged up the old story of mayoral candidate Bob Filner using campaign funds to pay his then-wife more than a half a million dollars for consulting work that she allegedly did for Filner during his numerous reelection runs for Congress in the 1990s and 2000s. The editorial was essentially saying that Filner’s too unethical to be mayor.
By that logic, the U-T must acknowledge that two of its favorite Republicans—Carl DeMaio and Brian Bilbray—are also unfit for public office.
In 2009, we reported that Bilbray had been paying his daughter and his wife’s accounting business for campaign work. It’s true that those payments were small compared with Filner’s, but it’s also true that Bilbray is still paying his wife for campaign work, five years after being among 64 House members criticized for the practice in a report by a watchdog organization.
In 2010, we reported that campaign committees created by DeMaio had given $16,000 to Hale Media Inc.—owned by DeMaio’s boyfriend, Johnathan Hale—for work on a ballot measure aimed at outsourcing public services to the private sector.
As usual, we’re not getting the full picture from the U-T’s editorial board.
What do you think? Write to editor@sdcitybeat.com.
