State Sen. Joel Anderson announced to a local political action committee Friday that he’s dropping his bid against County Supervisor Dianne Jacob. He’ll wait until 2020, when she terms out and it’s an open seat.
But his aborted run wasn’t for naught. Intentionally or not, Anderson figured out a way around campaign finance restriction passed by the County Board of Supervisors last year.
The restriction bans political parties from contributing more than $25,000 to supervisor races. But a day before the limit went into effect, Anderson got $200,000 from San Diego’s Republican Party for his 2016 run. And since campaign finance restrictions allow candidates to transfer money between accounts in their name, there’s nothing to keep him from transferring that $200,000 into his 2020 race for supervisor.
He has, in essence, figured out how to make the restriction disappear for him, even while it’ll still be in place for anyone he runs against in four years.
Lincoln High Might Open Its Doors to a Charter
Years of declining enrollment has turned swaths of Lincoln High’s campus in a ghost town. Hallways are quiet and classrooms sit vacant. Capacity at Lincoln is 2,700 students – almost twice the number who are currently enrolled.
Owing to state law that requires school districts to provide charter schools with space, Lincoln High may have open up some of its classrooms for one charter school – Arroyo Paseo – next year. Last month, the school board offered district-owned facilities to eight charter schools. Charter school leaders have until next month to take or leave the offers, so Lincoln’s campus isn’t yet a definite destination for Arroyo Paseo.
Still, parents in the community would like hear about stuff like this. Until now, Lincoln parents haven’t known that Arroyo Paseo could land on campus. And that was the rub for LaShae Collins, who is running for the school board spot that would represent this area.
The biggest concern, Collins said, was transparency, and “making sure the community knows about what’s going on, what’s been discussed and what’s been voted on.”
VOSD Podcast: Vlad Kogan Pokes at Dems
Former VOSD reporter Vlad Kogan returned to San Diego with a vengeance this week – or at least his voice did. Kogan, now a political science professor at The Ohio State University, joined this week’s podcast to break down his analysis of the city’s redistricting process and its effects on winning vacant political seats.
“We have a city in which Democrats have a huge redistricting advantage, but those Democratic voters are allocated in a very inefficient way,” Kogan said. That wasn’t information local Democrats were thrilled to hear.
Things Are Still Awkward Between Atkins and Coastal Commissioners
On the heels of last week’s Coastal Commission intrigue, Assembly Speaker Toni Akins introduced legislation that would require the same kind of lobbying disclosures for the commission that the state Legislature and other government bodies currently require.
Atkins thinks the controversy that ensued after the firing of Coastal Commission executive director Charles Lester should help pass the bill. A similar 2005 bill died in the Senate.
“I really think (the issue) caught fire with the public, so I am optimistic,” Atkins told Anita Chabria in this week’s Sacramento Report. “The Coastal Commission is probably one of the most important agencies in the state of California … To see not only the public respond but the media say, ‘Wait a minute, what’s underneath all this?’ and to start to unveil issues, that’s just going to erode public trust further.”
In other Sac-news, Sen. Ben Hueso jumped into the Uber debate this week. He continued his opposition to the expanding market for taxi-alternative services like Uber and Lyft. Hueso, whose brother owns San Diego’s USA Cab, said the tech-centric services are hurting workers.
• Also, Hueso is being sued along with campaign treasurer Nancy Haley for allegedly failing to properly disclose campaign expenditures. (East County Magazine)
Southern California Cops Cleared on All (2,000) Counts
Police in six Southern California counties have shot more than 2,000 suspects since 2004. Only one officer was prosecuted – and he was acquitted.
The numbers alone are jarring. But the L.A. Times does a great job of sussing out the circumstances of some extreme cases and explaining why it’s so uncommon for law enforcement officers to be prosecuted. Essentially, the criminal justice system is very deferential toward police officers, considering they must make life-and-death decisions at any moment.
But there are also reforms that could potentially mitigate the conflict of interests that exist between cops and prosecutors. In 2014, Wisconsin became the first state to require that police shooting investigations be done by outside agencies. Attorney General Kamala Harris opposed a bill last year that would have done something similar in California.
This week, VOSD shone light on overreach by a different kind of authority: the Metropolitan Transit System. After we published our story, readers took to Facebook and our comment section to share MTS horror stories.
2015 A Deadly Year for Trans Youth in San Diego
A tightly knit LGBT community in San Diego witnessed a string of suicides by transgender youth in last year, and experts are weighing in about why that’s the case, reports the Advocate.
One theory that’s emerged describes San Diego as a progressive area where small, tight-knit LGBT groups flourish. Yet teens and adults outside of those circles are far less accepting.
Max Disposti, executive director at North County LGBTQ Resource Center in Oceanside, told the magazine, “I think there’s merit in the theory transgender teens in the region feel supported by friends, family, counselors and many parts of the community, including the LGBTQ Center, so they feel comfortable being who they are as trans people. But then when they experience bullying in the community, they can feel devastated by it.”
Most-Read Stories of the Week
Our list of the 10 most-read VOSD stories of the week is here. Below are the Top 5:
1. Officers Violently Arrested a Man for Trespassing at MTS — Except He Worked There
MTS officers arrested Allen Koka in a violent encounter even after a supervisor confirmed he worked there. (Andrew Keatts and Ry Rivard)
2. The Downtown Stadium Plan the Mayor Hates
If the Chargers want a stadium downtown, they may have to pursue it over the mayor’s opposition. That might happen. (Liam Dillon )
3. The Challenges of Taking Horton Plaza from Fortress to Forum
Through a public-private partnership, the city and Westfield plan to open the new Horton Plaza Park and want to eventually hold over 200 events a year there. (Kinsee Morlan)
4. Opinion: Republicans Will Win Council Majority – and Redistricting Is Why
The outcome of this year’s San Diego City Council elections was largely predetermined five years ago. (Vladimir Kogan)
5. Dueling SANDAG Proposals Pit Transit Against Local Infrastructure
SANDAG released two proposals for how it might spend $18 billion. One favors fixing local infrastructure; the other has more transit projects. (Andrew Keatts)