San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
The latest installment of CityBeat's election column, Turds & Blossoms, wherein we rate campaigns and candidates and award them turds or blossoms for their latest foibles and triumphs.
Debating debates
Rep. Brian Bilbray beat his challengers to the punch last week by being the first to throw down the debate gauntlet. Four roses go to the Republican incumbent Congress member for suggesting four debates across multiple media, but six roses go to Lori Saldaña, one of his Democratic opponents, for her six-debate counter-proposal.
NBC 7/39’s debate proposal has won Bilbray’s approval, while 10News is currently talking to Port Commissioner and Democratic candidate Scott Peters. CityBeat emailed four candidates to voice our preliminary interest in co-hosting one; Republican John Stahl gets a daisy for responding first (“Count me in,” he said), followed by a less enthusiastic response (but not a rejection) from Duane Dichiara of Revolvis Consulting on Bilbray’s behalf. Peters’ campaign also said it would “be happy” to have us on board—and that, too, is worth a flower.
On the conservative blog SDRostra.com, political smear artist Jim Sills accused Saldaña of fearfully rejecting all broadcast debates with Bilbray. What Saldaña actually said—on Facebook—is that she’s fine with broadcasting the debates, but she “insists” that they take place in the community, with live audiences. We’ll issue Sills a crap for every $1,000 he’s been paid by the San Diego County Republican Party this year and failed to disclose in his blog posts. As of June, the tally was $3,000. We’d update the number but:
Sending out an SOS
Sometime on Friday, the California Secretary of State’s campaign-finance and lobbying disclosure database, Cal-Access, crashed. A message on the site said it would be fixed by Sunday evening. On Tuesday, it was still down, and a spokesperson said she didn’t know when it would be back up. For each day the site’s been down—and our ability to rake muck and track influence impeded—we add a turd to Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s stocking.
Candidate cocktail
It’s crazy-simple to get on the Arizona Republican presidential primary ballot—all you have to do is turn in a notarized statement. To make it all that much easier, CityBeat has talked Sara Honadle, notary public with Coast Law Group, into certifying candidate applications for free. If you’re at least 35 years old (or will be by January 2013), a natural-bocitizen and nursing presidential ambitions, stop by El Take It Easy (3926 30th St. in North Park) at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20, to fill out your form. Owner Jay Porter, who says he’ll run, will try to woo voters with a special cocktail, the Powdered Wig, a blend of rye whiskey, scotch and fernet Branca.
Click here for the Facebook event page.
Send Turds & Blossoms nominations to davem@sdcitybeat.com
