san diego politics

Duncan Hunter is about to meet his match

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-50th Congressional District) has been a walking horror show for years, and generations if one harkens back to his dad from whom he “inherited” the once-safe Republican congressional seat. Hunter and his mentor, President Trump, actually have a lot in common. They’re blowhards. They’re caught somewhere between ineffective and impotent. They shill. They lie. They’re under federal investigation and probable indictment. Every…


Scenes from a Democratic Convention

There were no fireworks at the seventh biennial San Diego County Democratic Convention on Saturday, Oct. 21 at Escondido’s California Center for the Arts. The old cliché of organizing Democrats being akin to herding cats did not apply to this particular gathering. Some people–gasp!–were even having fun. The trauma of Trump has eased, and what I saw were a bunch of folks bound and determined…


Issa lies about eugenics event attendance

eu·gen·ics yo͞oˈjeniks/ noun: Science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, it fell into disfavor only after the perversion of its doctrines by the Nazis. Last week, as President Trump and many congressional Republicans prevaricated on the events in Charlottesville and sought to justify the…


Ousting Hunter: Dem challengers debate

One way or another, to paraphrase Blondie, we’re gonna to find ya’, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-50th District), and we’re gonna get ya’, get ya’, get ya’, get ya’… Either you’re going to prison for campaign finance and bank fraud, or going to go, end of political story, period, courtesy of one of these Democratic challengers at the ballot box. Indivisible North County hosted a Democratic…


Issa schedules 1-hour sham town hall

This round-up written by Doug Porter, Ocean Beach alternative press legend, and first appeared May 24 at San Diego Free Press. For more, visit http://sandiegofreepress.org/2017/05/darrell-issas-exclusive-town-hall-set-for-june-3. UPDATED: A fun trip through the mind of Issa’s press flack… By Doug Porter Nobody has ever accused Darrell Issa of being stupid. After initially promising a town hall for constituents on May 31st, the 49th District Congressman has announced a one-hour…


Hunter under fire from House Ethics panel

The House Ethics Committee said Thursday it is continuing an investigation into possible ethics violations by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., following an inquiry launched by the independent Office of Congressional Ethics. The ethics panel did not disclose the nature of the investigation, but a Washington-based watchdog group filed a complaint last spring alleging that Hunter improperly used campaign funds to pay for tens of thousands…


Supe race limbo: How low can it go?

How desperate are Republicans to regain the District 3 Supervisor’s seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors? VERY DESPERATE.  But the hand it has been dealt with Kristin Gaspar as its standard bearer is really pretty poor. Gaspar’s performance as Encinitas mayor has been undistinguished. The only issues she personally has initiated have gone pretty badly. Gaspar proposed to address homelessness by sending…


Scott Peters — “Noteworthy Martian?” 52nd Congressional District turns extraterrestrial

The 52nd Congressional District race got curiouser and curiouser this week, what with candidates “passing” as Hispanic and allegations of “hypersexual noteworthy Martians.” Firstly, one of incumbent Democrat Scott Peters’ possible Republican opponents came out with a kind of Rebecca Dolezal scenario. You remember Dolezal, the NAACP official who turned out to be passing as an African-American, even though she turned out to be extremely…


There’s a new city manager in town (Breaking News)

As expected, Escondido assistant city manager Graham Mitchell was elevated in rank Wednesday,  following last week’s resignation of long-time city manager Clay Phillips. Phillips, 58, suddenly announced his retirement last week, effective Dec. 18. His $200,000-plus city pension begins at age 60. Mitchell, 46, was hired this summer as assistant city manager following the retirement of another longtime official, assistant city manager Charles Grimm. Mitchell…


State Sen. Joel Anderson (R-38th District) comes home to ALEC

Earlier this year, following his sub rosa Washington D.C. meetings with the chief Geico lobbyist, we asked the question: Where in the world is state Sen. Joel Anderson, R-38th District? He’s your state senator in case  you didn’t know, and he was about as far from Sacramento as possible. Answering that question is easy this week. Anderson is at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San…