By Alexandra Mendoza
Mayoral candidate Lori Saldaña has accused her opponent, incumbent Kevin Faulconer, of purportedly trying to obtain her personal information, and is once again asking for him to commit to a race free of personal attacks.
The document the Independent candidate is invoking is the Code of Fair Campaign Practices, which is routinely adopted by candidates in order to “preserve the dignity of the electoral process,” by refraining from the use of “defamation, slander, or rumors against any candidate, their personal life, or their family”.
So far, only Saldaña and Democratic candidate Ed Harris have signed the pledge, and she is asking the incumbent to do the same.
Saldaña, a former 3-term State Assemblywoman, states that the Washington D.C.-based firm Directive Research sent an inquiry to the San Diego Community College District seeking copies of her personnel records and e-mail communications. Saldaña has taught in the Community College District for 30 years, and feels that Faulconer is looking to attack one of her greatest strengths.
“People feel respect toward teachers and toward education, so the millions of dollars that Faulconer is spending are to attack my strengths as a technology professor here in San Diego,” she said during a press conference.
The independent candidate also feels that this “harassment” stems from the fact that the current Mayor is getting worried about his political future.
“Over the previous 12 years, I have received more votes than he has from the people in San Diego, I have been re-elected with large majorities in San Diego, and I have won in tough general elections with large turnouts,” Saldaña added.
In 2013, Kevin Faulconer received 101,953 votes for Mayor; by contrast, Lori Saldaña received 113,754 votes in her last re-election to the State Assembly in 2008.
San Diego Adjunct Faculty Association (SDAFA) Chair David Milroy expressed his discontent with what Faulconer’s campaign is doing, saying that the Mayor “owes an apology to every teacher in the City of San Diego.”
“If the Mayor wants to turn this into a Donald Trump-Ted Cruz-style attack fest, that is not what San Diego needs or deserves. We deserve a fair and honest discussion of the issues by the candidates,” added Milroy, who is also a member of the board of the California Part-Time Faculty Association.
In a statement published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, a spokesperson for Mayor Faulconer denied the campaign’s knowledge of this public records inquiry.
Furthermore, the campaign’s political consultant, Jason Roe, told the same newspaper that they are not planning on investigating their opponents, and also pointed out that the Mayor as a rule does not sign pledges, and has never done so in his previous campaigns – including his campaign for City Council.