OK Doug, You Got This One

I am not going to blog any more about Filner's scandals because Doug Manchester, owner of the U-T, is ensuring that they are exhaustively covered.  He has made it his mission to drive Filner from office, as evidenced by the comprehensive coverage of all the scandals in his paper. That it sells more papers is mere frosting on the cake. Holman Jenkins correctly identified Manchester's economic interest as other than ad revenue in his analysis in the WSJ, specifically noting that the paper makes a great platform to advance Manchester's economic interests, including getting a new stadium built.  While I agree with the result, we shouldn't forget that the business interests of hoteliers and developers don't always coincide with those of the taxpayer.  In my opinion, Filner is living proof that not all change is good, even when things are bad.  Filner has cast a pall over development projects in San Diego, so Manchester is understandably exorcised over the mayor's actions.

Blogger North Pole, writing in sdrostra, gives us fair warning that Filner's exit will come because his continued presence as an outsider is distrusted by those wedded to the status quo.  Some of the status quo includes deals and quid-pro-quos between the unions and the big business interests, in all likelihood.  In the comments section of that article, Pat Flannery calls out Todd Gloria as the ringmaster of the "10th Floor business-union-political Influence Exchange known as the City Council" and opines that this cabal is determined not to let the mayor's office be occupied by an outsider.

These signs point to an eventual Filner ouster. But in a light turnout election, who will carry the standard of taxpayers in general, and not skew city policy to benefit downtown business interests?  In all likelihood, no one.  The only potential candidate that would get my whole-hearted endorsement would be Carl DeMaio, but I don't want him to jump into the mayor's race.  That would look too opportunistic; scraping back House seats from the Democratic party is important to slowing down Obama's tyrannical overreach. I happen to like a little gridlock in Washington and the IRS, Benghazi and EPA overreach all need investigation by a Republican congress.

Right now, I am more worried about the choke-hold the public employee unions have on state and local government. Gloria Romero, former Majority leader in the CA state senate, writes about the power of the unions in today's U-T (H/T @CarlDeMaio).  She details the deleterious effects that accrues to the power of the teachers' and prison guard unions to name two.  If compelled to choose between government friendly to big business or big unions, the risks and costs are weighted against the unions.  But I don't have to like my choices.

We will see how this recall election shapes up, but Republicans would do well to rally behind a candidate that at least makes some effort to put taxpayers first.

Who really calls the shots in Sacramento and City Halls around the state? A Democrat reveals the iron grip labor... http://t.co/Yd49VLxQsu
— Carl DeMaio (@carldemaio) August 11, 2013