San Diego Elections - Blog and News Round Up

Dave Maass at Last Blog on Earth asks whether Howard Wayne's pension will be five digits or six when he retires from state government. He also asks the question of whether the city council members and others offering to not take salaries or pensions aren't really offering us a bribe? Is it a gimmick. Check out Dave's blog and you decide. (My position is that the personal salaries are usually chump change compared to the total budget, so I just ignore this stuff.) Dave is an occasional commenter and a great news source for local politics.

Temple of Mut's compares city governance to flatulence and describes a taxpayer funded public employee union rally in support of Proposition J. I haven't devoted much space to Prop J, other than recommend a vote against, because I don't think it stands a snowball's chance of passing. So why are the unions pushing this? Temple of Mut's husband Horemheb had this observation:

To make the evening even more special, Horemheb even overheard a comment from one of the panelists that the Teacher Union Elite Leaders were itching to strike should we rubes not roll over in support of this golden contract. It seems that the Elite Union Leaders anticipate more press, power, and influence in the wake of a strike.

Even if Prop J loses, the unions get a propaganda tool if it gets more than 50%, so make sure you vote against this flatulence.

I saw both Lorie Zapf and Howard Wayne in front of the Clairemont Library today with cameras rolling. I will update this post when I find out where you can watch.

Proposition D opponents have pointed out that under a 2008 contract negotiation, firefighters receive more pay for sitting at a desk. Much of the argument in favor of high firefighter pay and pensions accrues to the purported dangers and shorter life spans of their occupation. This is just one of many areas the city politicians need to reform before they ask us for more of our money.

If you live in San Diego, you may not have taken note of the school district elections. The U-T has a decent run down on the two races, including the positions of the candidates on Proposition J, which I oppose. In my district, I am having a tough time deciding. The incumbent, Katherine Nakamura has to conduct a write-in campaign because she came in third, partly due to loss of teacher's union backing. I like her already. However, as Temple of Mut, points out, she has been speaking out in favor of Proposition J as has "Teacher of the Year" Kevin Beiser. I don't know much about Steve Rosen, but I will probably vote for him as the only candidate opposing Prop J.

Primary Election Night - How the Unions Did UPDATE

Just saw Richard Rider on TV talking about unions lack of success tonight. Oceanside and Chula Vista look set to ban project labor agreements as part of Propositions K and G respectively. Project Labor Agreements which require city projects to hire a certain number of union workers. Additionally, the unions were against the strong mayor ballot measure, proposition D which will likely be defeated.

Lorie Zapf is on TV, talking about being a businesswoman and there is talk of California Republicans nominating many businesswomen, like Whitman and Fiorina. We could do worse, I suppose. Kevin Faulconer and Carl DeMaio both seemed to endorse Lorie Zapf tonight on separate KUSI interviews. Lorie is clearly not a favorite of the unions either, as the current top vote getter, she looks to be the front runner in the November run off in SD City Council District 6.

I am also struck by the seeming low turnout in SD City Council District 8. With about 35% of precincts reporting, it looked like just over 3000 votes (final tally) would put you in the run off for this seat.

UPDATE

HotAir has insight on how unions blew through $10 million to punish Blanche Lincoln for opposing card check, to no avail. Surveying the landscape yesterday, it was really a bad day for the unions. From the article:

The unions will have money in November, but they lost more than just $10 million in Arkansas. They lost a sense of power, especially in organizing, and any claim to rational and expert leadership on the Left. Lincoln was, after all, the incumbent in an anti-incumbent year. If the unions couldn’t knock her out of the race with $10 million and a credible candidate — in two tries — then obviously union leadership has a competence issue.