During the current presidential campaign, we have seen and heard some of the lowest levels of decorum and professionalism ever before in politics, with candidates like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz trading low blows previously unseen on the national stage.
In recent weeks, we heard about the size of Donald Trump’s hands compared to his private parts, and inexcusable comments about Ted Cruz’s wife’s looks. Campaign time is always called the “silly season”, but in 2016 we seem to have found a new low when it comes to campaigning.
San Diego voters should not allow our local campaigns to sink to the lows of the reality show being played out on the national campaign trail. Our region’s electorate should expect and demand that candidates debate the real issues facing our communities and offer their visions for making San Diego worthy of being called America’s Finest City.
This week we covered a press conference held by Independent mayoral candidate Lori Saldaña, where she claims a Republican political consulting group is digging into her personnel file and emails from her employer, the San Diego Community College District. Saldaña, the only Hispanic candidate running for Mayor, is a former three-term State Assemblywoman and has been an educator in San Diego for over 30 years.
Saldaña claims that Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s campaign is behind the opposition research. Saldaña points to the fact that both she and the third candidate in the race for Mayor, Democrat Ed Harris, have signed a pledge to run clean campaigns, but Kevin Faulconer refuses to do the same. The pledge commits candidates to keep from using “defamation, slander, or rumors against any candidate, their personal life, or their family.”
The company requesting the documents is Directive Research, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm specializing in political opposition research for Republican candidates and conservative groups. Whether they are working directly for Faulconer or a political group supporting him, the smell of dirty politics is starting to ferment.
Saldaña has a voting record in Sacramento. She has made countless public comments and she is available to debate the other candidates and answer questions in public. That is all fair game to use in political combat.
But deploying Washington-style negative campaign tactics is not what San Diegans want or deserve at this critical time in our history.
We have important issues to address locally. Do we build a new stadium and, if so, who pays for it? How do we address homelessness in a comprehensive but compassionate way? How do we pay for overdue infrastructure repairs of roads, sewers, and water pipes throughout the City? Do we invest in expanding our convention center for tourism, or should we focus on growing the business base of high-tech and high-paying local jobs? How does the region work better on both sides of the border to increase trade and jobs? That’s just to name a few of the vexing issues in desperate need of attention.
Just two years ago, San Diego experienced the painful sexual harassment scandal of then-Mayor Bob Filner. That situation is still affecting the City in that this week another female victim won her civil case proving harassment, and the City has already paid out over $1 million to other victims.
But how far we have come. We now have three strong candidates running for Mayor. Incumbent Kevin Faulconer served seven years on the City Council before becoming Mayor after Filner’s resignation. Lori Saldaña is a former Assemblywoman and educator. And Ed Harris, a former Marine and career life guard, was appointed to the City Council to serve the last year of Faulconer’s term when we became Mayor.
Three candidate from different political perspectives, with varied life experiences. With this caliber of candidates, we should be having a healthy, vigorous debate about the important issues we face.
What we do not need is to mimic the presidential candidates in their low road tactics. No hearings about emails. No personal attacks. No distractions. No games.
San Diego deserves to hear from the candidates, hear their visions for the future, and decide which one will lead us in these exciting times of change. We call on all three candidates to take a pledge to run clean campaigns, to call on their supporters to do the same, and to denounce any groups that engage in dirty tricks.
San Diego is America’s Finest City, and we will hold the person running to lead us to a higher standard.