The focus in the March 2 mayoral election is overwhelmingly on San Diego’s financial crisis, while echoes of last October’s San Diego wildfires can also be heard in the four candidates’ emphasis on improved police and fire services for the county. Environmental and public housing improvements, and increased funding for education and public services also rank high on the list of goals.

“The absolute number one goal – and I think it has become apparent to everyone – is to restore fiscal stability and fiscal opportunities for the City of San Diego,” said County Supervisor and mayoral candidate Ron Roberts. “Everything else is dependent on this.”

However, none of the mayoral choices in the March 2 election – Roberts, incumbent Mayor Dick Murphy, San Diego Board of Port Commissioners chairman Peter Q. Davis or ecological designer Jim Bell – are an ideal balance between political savvy and support for GLBT issues.

Murphy’s track record with the GBLT community during his first term can be summed up in four bullet points: He established the Mayor’s LGBT Advisory Board to provide outreach to the GLBT community, appointed 23 gay and lesbian individuals to various City boards and commissions, appointed Councilmember Toni Atkins as Deputy Mayor and has attended the Stonewall Rally in Balboa Park every year since his election.

Murphy has never ridden in the LGBT Pride parade – though it was incorrectly reported in issue 842 of the Gay & Lesbian Times that he had – and has no future intentions to do so. “I attended the Stonewall Rally in 2001, 2002, and 2003, but have not ridden in any Pride parades. I expect to continue my past practices,” he said.

When it came to the Boy Scouts lease in Balboa Park – an issue that drew national attention – Murphy’s politics navigated away from the GLBT community, as he first voted to renew the Boy Scouts’ lease in Balboa Park in 2001, then voted to continue the City’s lawsuit against the ACLU earlier this year.

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom’s decision to begin issuing marriage licenses to couples regardless of gender, days after being sworn in, has provided a good reason to explore these candidates’ positions on the issue of marriage for gays and lesbians, on the eve of Election Day.

When asked what his reaction was to Newsom’s recent actions, Murphy responded, “I oppose violating state law.” When asked if any activists had approached his offices asking him to duplicate Newsom’s interpretation of the state constitution, he replied, “The County, not the City, issues marriage licenses.”

Murphy has received the endorsement of Deputy Mayor Atkins as well as GLBT Vote 2004.

“Mayor Murphy has worked with me on a number of issues affecting my district,” Atkins said. “There have been issues important to me, including medical marijuana, the clean syringe exchange program and the Boy Scout lease, that Mayor Murphy hasn’t supported me or the community on .… but no other candidate, including Supervisor Roberts, would have supported any of those issues either. … I like, respect and enjoy working with Supervisor Roberts but I believe Mayor Murphy has worked hard to garner our support since he was first elected.”

“I’m not endorsing Dick Murphy because he hasn’t been right on any of the issues for the LGBT community,” said Bill Beck, a member of the Mayor’s LGBT Advisory Board. “Even though I’ve found him to be a very pleasant gentleman, very courtly, that is not my criteria for endorsements. He has not been right on needle exchange, on the Boy Scouts issue or on medical marijuana. Unfortunately, he has this belief that he should vote the way that the people who put him in office would like to see him vote… those kinds of right-wing or conservative people have not been in step with what we need as a minority. He continues to not help us in any regard on any of our issues for our community. I feel bad about this because he has appointed a number of people in our community to boards and commissions. I think that’s admirable, but that’s not about our issues… Finally, I find him distasteful because he is too scared, too timid, to ride in our parade. No mayor should feel that way.”

Davis has not responded to repeated requests for an interview with the Gay & Lesbian Times over the last several weeks.

Bell is outspoken in his support for the GLBT community. “I am one hundred percent for every person’s right,” he said. “With regard to gay marriages, I’m one hundred percent for it. If we have more stable relationships in our society, whether it’s heterosexual or homosexual, the better off we’re going to be in terms of controlling AIDS and other sexually transmittable diseases. … I have an utter abhorrence of any kind of prejudice.”

However, Bell is not favored to win by a long shot, and Roberts – who ran a close race against Murphy in 2000 – has a good chance of winning the election.

Of Murphy’s three competitors, Roberts is the only one who has the extensive political background necessary to track his voting record on matters concerning the GLBT community. So far, his track record is solid: He voted in favor of domestic-partner benefits while serving on both the City Council and the County Board of Supervisors, has ridden in the Pride parade for years and supported the City’s challenge to the Boy Scouts’ lease in Balboa Park. According to Beck, Roberts was the first public official to endorse Christine Kehoe in her earliest campaign, helped raise money for the AIDS Foundation, is recognized at the County as a leader on AIDS issues, and has given money to Stepping Stone and to The Center.

Roberts said that he does not support marriage for gays and lesbians, preferring instead, that the GLBT community receive the full rights and benefits of marriage, but without the title. “I’ve long been a supporter of trying to get those rights,” he said. “I stop short of saying we have to call this marriage, but I’d like to see all those rights that are there for any couple to be a part of a domestic union. I’ll continue to support that.”

When asked about his reaction to Newsom’s decision, Roberts said he had mixed feelings. “Basically, there has been a decision made to ignore California law… and I’m not sure that that is the way to change the world in the long run,” he said. “I think we’re making incredible progress right now. … I guess I don’t want to get hung up right now in whether we call it marriage or whatever we call it, but all of those rights that accrue, I want to see that happen, and I hope we don’t see a backlash set off by what is happening in San Francisco.”