San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
I have a vision. I see a press conference. It's a little bit hazy. City Councilmember Carl DeMaio is there, surrounded by smiling supporters. He asks San Diego to become his bride.
Hold on. OK, it's coming into focus. "Partner," not bride. He's asking San Diego to become his partner. That's sweet.
Oh! Wait. It's all clear now:
As soon as he's legally allowed to collect donations, Carl DeMaio is going to officially announce his candidacy for mayor. He wants you to be a "partner" in his campaign, and not in the romantic sense. He's willing to match you dollar-for-dollar for any donation you make to his campaign by the end of the month. And the day that he makes that announcement, at least 1,027 San Diegans will join him as a partner.
The peyote I gargled was pretty good, but that's not how I know the future. Opposition research beats a Ouija board every time. Over the weekend, DeMaio, seemingly by accident, briefly went live with his campaign website. It was immediately captured by his opponents and later provided to us. (And we provide it you, here.)
On Wednesday, voiceofsandiego.org reported that DeMaio has "yet to fully commit." Well, this pre-written June 5 announcement kinda undermines that last held-breath of suspense:
But here's what we could not have a predicted:
DeMaio has pretty much given us the cold shoulder ever since we started looking into his claims critically. This is sad for us, since we really did enjoy engaging with him, especially when he joined us at our Election Central table last June. I told him at the time that when he sat down at my laptop and conversed with readers on our live blog, he made my election night.
Lo and behold! In another post set to publish on June 5, DeMaio uses a photo of him sitting at my laptop right next to CityBeat editor Dave Rolland:
Yeah, that's DeMaio using CityBeat's set-up as an example of his social-media prowess. He says, "Expect to see even more interaction and accessibility during this campaign."
I'm going to have to read the Tarot cards a few more times before I believe it.
Hold on. OK, it's coming into focus. "Partner," not bride. He's asking San Diego to become his partner. That's sweet.
Oh! Wait. It's all clear now:
As soon as he's legally allowed to collect donations, Carl DeMaio is going to officially announce his candidacy for mayor. He wants you to be a "partner" in his campaign, and not in the romantic sense. He's willing to match you dollar-for-dollar for any donation you make to his campaign by the end of the month. And the day that he makes that announcement, at least 1,027 San Diegans will join him as a partner.
The peyote I gargled was pretty good, but that's not how I know the future. Opposition research beats a Ouija board every time. Over the weekend, DeMaio, seemingly by accident, briefly went live with his campaign website. It was immediately captured by his opponents and later provided to us. (And we provide it you, here.)
On Wednesday, voiceofsandiego.org reported that DeMaio has "yet to fully commit." Well, this pre-written June 5 announcement kinda undermines that last held-breath of suspense:
Today I am announcing my decision to run for Mayor. And I am asking you to be a partner in my campaign -- and I use that word "partner" deliberately.He adds:
I want to see our city get past its financial crisis and back on track. While I am confident the city’s problems can be solved, implementing the changes I propose will take an active partnership with residents in every neighborhood.
Here’s what I am committing to this partnership: I have put forward a comprehensive, 90-page Roadmap to Recovery Plan that shows in detail how to fundamentally rethink and restructure city government to balance the budget, reform city pensions, and restore services to the levels taxpayers deserve. To implement the plan I bring my experience as a businessman – and my record of getting reforms done in government.
Moreover, to ensure the campaign has the resources we need to get our message out, I pledge a dollar-for-dollar match for any donation you make to the campaign between now and June 30, 2011
Our campaign has huge momentum – with more than 1027 San Diegans already signed up on day one as our partners in reform. I hope you will join them, and be part of the solution to our city’s challenges.Hmmmm... If this means he already has 1,027 contributors lined up, well, that's a little awkward since he's not actually allowed to solicit donors until June 5.
But here's what we could not have a predicted:
DeMaio has pretty much given us the cold shoulder ever since we started looking into his claims critically. This is sad for us, since we really did enjoy engaging with him, especially when he joined us at our Election Central table last June. I told him at the time that when he sat down at my laptop and conversed with readers on our live blog, he made my election night.
Lo and behold! In another post set to publish on June 5, DeMaio uses a photo of him sitting at my laptop right next to CityBeat editor Dave Rolland:
Yeah, that's DeMaio using CityBeat's set-up as an example of his social-media prowess. He says, "Expect to see even more interaction and accessibility during this campaign."
I'm going to have to read the Tarot cards a few more times before I believe it.
