Judge Jan Goldsmith, candidate for City Attorney, delivered a nonpartisan message to a small crowd of San Diego Log Cabin Republicans on Saturday.

“I had no interest whatsoever [in running for City Attorney] … finally, I said, ‘If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it my way, and I’m going to operate based on the law – not politics and not partisanship,’” said Goldsmith, who is locked in a runoff election with incumbent Michael Aguirre.

Goldsmith’s message was warmly received at the gathering.

“The very fact that Judge Goldsmith will approach this job from the standpoint of the law is greatly comforting to me,” said Chad Michael Terry, president of the San Diego Log Cabin Republicans. “We have someone [Aguirre] currently in office who seemingly is using it as a springboard to something else.”

Goldsmith told the group he has no interest in a political career, and is not interested in seeking higher office. He also thanked the group for its endorsement – but cautioned members against believing he will take Republican or Democratic ideals into the nonpartisan office.

“I will not take a public position on Proposition 8,” Goldsmith said, referring to the November initiative which, if passed, would ban same-sex marriage. “I will not take a position on abortion. As a judge, it makes no difference what my opinion is, and I ought not express my opinion. I will not become a policy person. … I can’t change minds about lifestyles, but I can enforce the law and bring professionalism back to the office.”

Goldsmith was the first elected mayor of Poway and was a member of the State Assembly from 1988 to 1998. In 1998 he launched a failed campaign to become the California State Treasurer, and he’s spent the last nine years as a Superior Court Judge. After his 1998 campaign, he says “politics were out of [his system],” but, he says, Aguirre’s actions, failed lawsuits, political crusades and mismanagement of the office prompted him to run against the incumbent.

“You have mayors who think they’re governors, governors who think they’re presidents and city attorneys who think they’re God,” Goldsmith said. “I don’t understand it. You do the job you were hired to do.”

Carrying endorsements from District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Sheriff Bill Kolender in the June primary, Goldsmith earned 39 percent of the vote to Aguirre’s 29 to force the November runoff.

During Saturday’s sit-down with the gay Republican club, Goldsmith played up his experience on the bench, and criticized Aguirre’s pension lawsuit, which seeks to overturn $900 million in employee retirement benefit he says were granted illegally.

The Superior Court threw out the lawsuit last year. Aguirre appealed in April.

“When the pension appeal is lost, it’s going to bust our budget,” Goldsmith said.

Goldsmith has earned a number of other endorsements, though members of the gay community have criticized his legislative record and his record as mayor of Poway.

Goldsmith supported Proposition 22, which banned same-sex marriage in California until the state Supreme Court struck it down in May. As mayor of Poway, he argued against a resolution endorsing anti-discrimination laws based on sexual orientation in 1991, when it was presented by then-San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor.

Despite Goldsmith’s record in politics, Terry defended the candidate’s approach to the job of City Attorney.

“Whatever his personal beliefs are on Proposition 8 or on any other issue are most certainly, I believe, his personal beliefs and should not affect the way he does his job,” said Terry, who is also organizing a group of Republicans against the November ballot initiative.

Goldsmith’s conservative politics aren’t a concern for some Democrats who have endorsed him. A group dubbed “Democrats for Goldsmith” rallied outside the City Attorney’s office in early September; among them was City Council President Scott Peters, who also ran for City Attorney and failed to qualify for the runoff; Council member Ben Hueso; and former State Sen. Dede Alpert, who served with Goldsmith in the Legislature in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, Aguirre announced endorsements from The Planned Parenthood Action Fund of San Diego and Riverside Counties, The United Association of Plumbers and Steam Fitters, Local 230, and the Del Mar/Carmel Mountain Democratic Club, which is in Council President Peters’ district.

In a release issued this week, Aguirre was unfazed by Goldsmith’s Democratic endorsements.

“The Democratic Party clubs through out [Peters’] district have given me their endorsements with almost unanimous votes,” Aguirre said. “It is critical to my re-election that Scott Peters’ voters come home to the only Democrat left in the City Attorney’s race. The Del Mar/Carmel Valley Club and the other Democratic clubs [in Peters’ district] are leading the way for other Democrats to join my campaign – a development that promises victory in November.”

The Log Cabin Republicans of San Diego will host a Republicans Against Proposition 8 reception with Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon on Monday from 6:30-8 p.m. To RVSP or for more information, call 859-338-8945 or e-mail clokspring@aol.com.